Napoleons or Vanilla Slice Pastry or Cake

Napoleon is a sweet taste of childhood for many of us. This is one of the most loved desserts for many people around the holidays and if you will go through the recipes you will find out that there is a lot of versions of Napoleon.  If you try a few you will find many that you like.

Anna from LovelyBijou is kindly sharing her recipe with us.

Ingredients:
300 gram frozen margarine
6 cups (1 kilo) flour
1 egg
1 tbsp white vinegar

Filling:
3 eggs
1 cup of flour (160 gram)
1 cup of sugar (200 gram)
0.5 liter milk
200 ml cold water
300 gram butter

Making the dough:

  Grate margarine (still frozen) and mix with flour. Mix the egg with water and vinegar. Pour the liquids into the mixture and mix. You might need to add a bit more flour. Leave the dough int he fridge for 2 hours or longer (up to a day).

Baking:

Flour the table well and roll out pieces of dough 3-5mm thick, thinner dough will produce more delicate pastry. Cut into the desired shape. I like mine as cake so I trace the frying pan and get circles.
Flour your cookie sheet and move your shape over. Slice through in a few places or poke with a fork. Bake in heated oven 5-7 min a piece.

Filling:
Mix eggs, sugar, milk and flour well, cook over law heat or in double boiler till thickened (just like you would custard). When slightly cool beat with mixer adding cold water. When cool add softened butter and whip. If filling is still too think you might need to add another 50 ml of water to it and whip again.

Now let’s assemble! The very top layer can be decorated with crumbled baked leftover dough or even cookie crumbs. Leave to sit for at least 6 hours for filling to soak through.

This recipe makes 3 kilo of pastries, one large cake or two smaller.

This recipe is very convenient as you needn’t make it all at once, but can break it up by days.
Day one – mix the dough,
Day two- bake
Day three – make filling and assemble. Third day could come even a month later as baked dough keeps very well!

Enjoy!

Recipe by Anna LovelyBijou

Translated by Nadiia crafts2love