Napoleon - A Creamy Puff Pastry Cake

Photo: Cooking Rookie

Ingredients

For the dough:

2 10’’x10’’ (25cm x 25cm) puff pastry sheets

For the cream:

1 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1/4 gallon milk

3 large eggs

Preparation

First prepare the dough. Depending on the manufacturer of the puff pastry, you might need to defrost the dough, and either roll out or cut the sheets to the desired size.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Bake each puff pastry sheet for 20 minutes on the middle rack. After 10 minutes you might want to rotate the cookie sheet 180 degrees to ensure equal baking. When the pastry is puffed and light golden brown it is ready.

Let the puff pastry cool, and then cut each sheet horizontally into 2 layers, basically making 4 thin sheets. You will need 3 of them for the actual sheets and 1 for decorative crumbs, which you can easily make with your fingers.

Now for the cream: Beat the eggs with the sugar and flour. Boil the milk. While the milk is warming, pour about 1/2 cup into the egg mix and stir well to gradually increase its temperature. This way the eggs won’t curdle when you add them to boiling milk. Repeat this step 2-3 more times as the milk approaches boiling temperature.

Once the milk boils, pour the warm egg mix into the boiling milk, constantly stirring, to prevent lumps from forming. Keep on the stove for several 3 more minutes, continue stirring. It’s best to use hand held mixer in this stage.

Remove the cream from heat, let cool, and spread on the puff pastry sheets, creating alternating layers of puff pastry and cream (3 layers of each type, 6 total).

Spread the pastry puff crumbs on top of the upper cream layer.

Refrigerate for 2-3 hours or overnight before serving.