Napoleon cake in a frying pan: incredibly tasty and fast

How to cook a delicious Napoleon cake in a frying pan

This cake is homemade, but very solemn, it seems to me, because it’s all white and festive. I like that it is not greasy and not cloyingly sweet, everything in moderation, very pleasant and delicate in taste and different from ordinary puff napoleons baked in the oven.

And I learned about the method of preparing it from my aunt; this is a classic recipe from Soviet times, according to which our grandmothers also baked.

If other recipes usually include margarine in the dough, in this case the dough is kneaded with sour cream, and I make the cream for it into custard.

Required Products:

for test

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 egg
• ½ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups of flour

for cream

• 750 ml cream or full fat milk
• 3 eggs
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 teaspoons starch
• 1 cup of sugar
• 250 grams of butter.

In short, the recipe looks like this: the dough is mixed from the indicated products, divided into several parts, each of which must be rolled out thinly and baked in a frying pan.

Prepare the custard, cool it and when all the cakes are baked, place them on a dish, coating each with cream.

The top and sides can be sprinkled with crumbs from the trimmings.

Before serving, you need to let the cake sit so that it is well soaked and the cakes soften.

Well, now, in more detail, step by step.

Napoleon in a frying pan with custard

Kitchen utensils: whisk; shoulder blade; metal bowl; mixer; rolling pin; spoon; Bowl; pan; a plate or pan lid of the required diameter; fork; saucepan or stewpan; sieve.

Ingredients

Step-by-step preparation

Making cream

Since the cakes cook very quickly, and you will need to grease them with cooled cream, we’ll start by preparing it.

1. Break 5 chicken eggs into a bowl and add 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar. Take a mixer and beat everything into a thick foam.

2. Add 3 heaping tablespoons of flour and continue beating until smooth.

3. Pour a liter of fresh milk into a saucepan or saucepan. If you are not sure of its freshness, it is better to boil it first. Pour the egg mixture into it and mix well with a whisk. Place on the stove, turn on medium heat and stir all the time so that the eggs do not curdle. When the mass heats up, add a stick of butter. Continuing to stir, bring to a boil, but do not let it boil. The cream is considered ready when it resembles thick sour cream and bubbles begin to rise.

4. Remove the pan from the stove. Transfer the cream to a bowl and cool completely, then beat with a mixer until smooth and fluffy.

Making cakes

The cream is ready. While it cools down completely, let's make the cakes.

1. Melt the remaining stick of butter in a small bowl, but try not to heat it too much. To make the butter melt faster, you can cut it into small pieces.

2. Pour the oil into a bowl. Pour a glass of milk and break two eggs. Add two tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt. We dissolve 1/2 teaspoon of soda in half a tablespoon of vinegar. You can use a teaspoon of baking powder instead. Mix everything together well.
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3. Add 520 g of sifted flour in parts. First, mix with a spoon, and when it becomes difficult to do this, put the mixture on the table and continue kneading. You don’t need to do this for a long time to prevent the dough from becoming stiff, otherwise it will tighten and it will be difficult to roll out thin cakes.

4. From this amount of dough we get 24 cakes with a diameter of 22 cm. Therefore, we divide it into equal parts of the required amount. Sprinkle the work surface with flour and roll each piece into a very thin layer, the thickness of which should be less than a millimeter. If it is thicker, the cake will not bake well, and the cake will not be tender, but rubbery.

5. Give it the desired size using a plate or pan lid. We collect the scraps, and then form another layer from them.

6. Heat a dry frying pan. There is no need to lubricate it with anything. We wind the layer onto a rolling pin, transfer it to the frying pan and unroll it. Carefully pierce with a fork in several places so that the dough does not bubble. For 60-70 seconds, fry the Napoleon cakes in a frying pan on one side and then on the other. Its degree of readiness is immediately visible. It becomes matte and evenly light with ruddy places.

7. Remove the layer from the pan and put another one in its place. Do not stack hot cakes on top of each other. This can cause them to become damp and rubbery. Everything bakes very quickly, so it’s better to make preparations in advance.

Assembling the cake

1. Set aside one cake layer and spread the rest with cream, stacking them on top of each other. Coat the top and sides. This amount of cream is enough for a very delicate cake of 12 layers. If you distribute it among everyone, you will get a drier, but festively tall cake. Therefore, if necessary, prepare two portions of cream at once.

2. Mash the remaining shortbread into coarse crumbs. If desired, mix it with any nuts. We pre-dry them in a dry frying pan and cool. And then grind it with a rolling pin or in a blender, but not too finely so that you can feel the pieces.

3. Sprinkle the top and sides with crumbs. Place the cake in the refrigerator for at least two to three hours.

Video recipe

A detailed video with a cooking recipe shows how to make a delicious Napoleon using a frying pan.

Cooking options

• Juice and grated zest from half a lemon will help make a more aromatic cream and give it a slight sourness. They need to be added during the whipping process, when the cream has cooled.
• Between the layers you can place slices of peeled banana and kiwi. Fully peeled orange slices and any berries are also suitable for this.

This cake is very reminiscent of the classic Napoleon. The dough recipe is also suitable for baking in the oven. And if you don’t want to include it, then you can even make a no-bake cake from cookies.

Dough for Napoleon cake layers

1. Break the egg, sugar, and salt into a bowl and lightly beat until smooth.
2. In a separate bowl, mix flour and soda. Add sour cream and beaten egg with sugar.
3. Mix the dough. It should not stick to your hands and the bowl, otherwise it will be difficult to roll it out later. If necessary, you can add flour, but the dough should be soft.

4. Divide the dough into 6-7 parts and refrigerate for half an hour.

Cooking process:

Baking cake layers for Napoleon cake: 1. Grind cold margarine with a knife and add flour to it. Knead thoroughly; 2. Add water with egg, vanilla and soda. After mixing, place the dough in the refrigerator for half an hour; 3. After a while, take it out and divide it into 8 equal parts; 4. Roll out each piece to a thickness of 3 millimeters;

Dessert cream: 1. Beat soft butter; 2. Add condensed milk and mix with a mixer into a homogeneous mass with a light cream color.

Assembling the Napoleon cake: 1. Carefully cut the cakes into the desired shape; 2. Coat them with cream, which includes condensed milk; 3. Lay the cakes on top of each other, pressing them down well; 4. Grease the assembled cake and sprinkle with crushed crumbs from the cake scraps. 6. Place the finished dessert in a cold place to soak for 6 – 10 hours.

Important points in preparing Napoleon cake: 1. The dough must be made with very cold margarine; 2. For cream, choose high-quality natural condensed milk; 3. So that it is not very liquid, the condensed milk must first be boiled; 4. If you take condensed milk with herbal additives, the cake will have an unpleasant aftertaste; 5. To make the spread more tasty, you can add 50 grams of real creamy ice cream to it; 6. Don’t be alarmed when the cakes start to break during assembly. It should be. The cream, which includes condensed milk, will soak them well and make a truly wonderful dessert.

Napoleon with condensed milk turns out tender and very tasty. But this cake with milk custard is much tastier. Therefore, for variety, you can bake different types of dessert.

Napoleon cream recipe

Since the cakes bake quite quickly, we immediately start preparing the cream. After all, it needs to be cooked and cooled.

Custard can also be prepared in different ways. This is not important in general. For the chocolate honey cake, I cook the cream a little differently.

But here I decided not to deviate from the classic recipe.

The cooking procedure is as follows:

1. First, take the butter out of the refrigerator. We will need it melted and soft.
2. I pour milk into a glass and set it aside, it will be useful later.
3. Pour the remaining milk (500 ml) into a saucepan, pour in sugar, stir and immediately put on fire. Milk and sugar need to be brought to a boil. The main thing here is to make sure that the milk does not run away.
4. Next, beat the eggs.
5. Separately mix flour, starch, 1 glass of cold cream, pour in beaten eggs, mix thoroughly.
6. Then pour the cream and sugar in a thin stream into the flour and eggs, stirring continuously.
7. Place the cream on low heat. Cook for about 5 minutes until thickened. All this time it is necessary to interfere with it. Since my hands were full, I didn’t take a photo of this stage.
8. The finished cream must be cooled, and then the pounded butter must be beaten into it, adding in small parts.

Napoleon recipe in a frying pan with condensed milk inside the dough

It's rare, so it's definitely worth trying at least once.

In order to prepare Napoleon with condensed milk and milk custard you need:

• Premium sifted flour – 3.5 cups;
• Condensed milk – 1 can;
• Chicken eggs – 3 pcs.;
• Granulated sugar – 2 tablespoons;
• Milk – 0.5 lira;
• Butter – 100 gr.;
• Soda quenched with lemon juice - 0.5 teaspoon.

The bulk of the products are necessary for soaking the cake, and on the dough you need to mix condensed milk with an egg and add sifted 3 cups of flour. At the last moment, add baking soda, quenched with lemon juice. Mix everything thoroughly and knead the dough with your hands. Then put the mass in a plastic bag and leave for a while.

We immediately begin preparing the impregnation for our cake.

The recipe says - beat the eggs until thick foam, add sugar to them and put on fire. Pour milk into the heated egg mass, stirring constantly. Now add flour, sifted through a strainer, into the same saucepan and mix too, breaking up all the lumps. Cook the mass until the required thickness, then add oil, stir and remove from heat.

Now the cream will rest and cool, and at this time you need to start baking the cakes.

Divide the dough into 9 parts, roll out each layer thinly and bake like pancakes in a frying pan greased with a thin layer of butter. It is better to cut the layers to the diameter of the bottom of the pan before baking. It is better to use a silicone brush for lubrication and distribute the oil well over the entire diameter of the dish. Fry the cakes on both sides and place them in a pile on a plate. We also fry the trimmings from all layers and bake them last.

We coat all layers with the prepared and cooled cream, not forgetting the sides of the cake.

How to bake cakes in a frying pan

1. We take our dough out of the refrigerator and roll out thin flat cakes to the size of the pan.
   

   To make the cake tasty, the cakes must be rolled out as thin as possible, this is its main secret to success.

2. I immediately cut out even circles using a pan lid. Or you can bake it first, and then trim the cakes while they are hot. The trimmings will then be useful for dusting the cake.
3. To prevent the cake from tearing when transferring it to the frying pan, I folded it in four and straightened it out in the frying pan.

4. You must bake in a dry frying pan, without greasing anything , on both sides, like pancakes.
5. As soon as the dough begins to change color and pimples appear, turn the cake over to the other side. The cakes should not be fried, but only slightly covered with brownish spots.

Do not pay attention that the finished cakes are not very beautiful; this will not be noticeable in the cake.

I divided the dough into 7 parts, and from the scraps of dough I made two more cakes. I baked 9 cakes in total.

I chose the worst flatbread, and after it had completely cooled, I rolled it in a meat grinder. I need these crumbs to decorate the cake.

Secrets of cooking dessert in a frying pan

The taste and aroma of a confectionery product greatly depends on correctly selected products and correctly prepared semi-finished products. To make your Napoleon cake delicious and tender, try the following tips:

• do not use margarine and cheap butter - they can ruin the taste of the dish;
• You can make the cakes more airy if you beat the eggs included in them with salt (1 pinch for 2 eggs) before adding them to the dough;
• It is better to use a frying pan with a thick bottom (ideally cast iron): it ensures uniform heating of the cake;
• do not place the cakes on an unheated frying pan, otherwise they will come out too dry;
• Before adding the crust, wipe the pan from crumbs with a napkin or a special clean rag.

The history of Napoleon cake

While you are wondering whether you have all the ingredients for a Napoleon cake in a frying pan, I want to tell you about the history of the birth of the famous pie. There are several explanations for its name.

For example, in Russia it is generally accepted that the pie was first prepared for the magnificent celebration of the 100th anniversary of the victory over Napoleon Bonaparte - it had the shape of a triangle, reminiscent of the emperor’s hat.

There is a version that the roots of the cake recipe go back to Naples. Over time, its name was distorted among the people, and from Napolitano (Neaples) it became Napoleonе.

A less real, but very beautiful legend says that the cake is an invention of the most famous commander. When Josephine caught him with a young maid of honor, he deceived his missus, finding an excuse that he was sharing the recipe for a delicious dessert privately with the young lady, which he immediately invented.

Meanwhile, I move on to a description of the preparation of “Napoleon” in a frying pan and its recipe with photos.