Napoleon cake: a recipe with a taste of childhood

Nowadays, Napoleon is not a cake, it is a monument to a passing nature. My conscience does not allow me to call it an Odesa dish, but we had it, just like everyone else in those days. Those times when it was simply impossible to buy a delicious cake with custard in a store, and ladies willingly traded their time and energy for the opportunity to treat everyone for the holidays. Napoleon was not prepared on weekdays: the Odesa hostesses transformed the cake from the original puff into a cake of thousands of thin, fragile cakes. Thousands - I lied; for some reason, the layers were considered multiples of three. There were 6-crust Napoleons - ew, not good enough! - 12, 24... It was enough to make you wonder if you really needed it.

"I do," my grandmother used to say once a year. And I have never tasted her Napoleon better. Here is her recipe from an old notebook. You can change unfashionable ingredients, but at your own risk.

For the cakes, we need a packet of butter margarine (200 grams), a jar of sour cream (200 grams in the Soviet Union), 2.5 cups of flour (the glasses were 200 grams), and baking soda-vinegar.

For the custard, you need 3 eggs, 2 tablespoons of flour, a glass of sugar, half a liter of milk, and 50 grams of butter.

Let's get started. Sift two cups of flour onto a board. Cut the margarine at room temperature with a knife along with the flour. Spread it on a board, make a dent in the top, pour in sour cream and baking soda slaked with vinegar and knead a homogeneous dough. Divide it into 7-10 balls, depending on how many layers you plan to make the cake, and put it in the fridge for about half an hour.

At this time, make the cream. Separate the whites from the yolks. In a saucepan, grind the yolks with half the sugar and flour, add milk a little at a time to avoid lumps. You can add vanilla to your taste. Put on the fire, keep stirring, bring to a boil and thicken. Turn it off, add butter, and stir. Leave to cool. Beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar and a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form. When the cream in the pan has cooled, mix it with the whites.

The dough is ready. Using the remaining flour, roll each ball into a cake - thin, about a millimeter - and bake it at 180 degrees. This happens very quickly, so you need to keep an eye on it and have 1-2 more baking trays with rolled dough ready so as not to waste time.

We dry one broken, irregularly shaped, in general, the most unsuccessful cake a little more than the others - it will be used for powdering.

Spread the cooled cakes with the cooled cream, sprinkle the top with crumbs from the failed cake. The cakes get wet; if you cover them 2-3 hours before the meal, they will be slightly crispy, if you cover them in advance, the cake will become dense and cut very well.

In any case, this "cherry orchard" of Soviet-era home confectionery remains a taste of childhood. I love it!