Plan of Conquest: Mille-Feuille a.k.a. Napoleon
If you ask yourself what you would want for a dessert, what will occur to you in the first place? A cake, obviously! Even those who do not think of themselves as of adherents of farinaceous or sweet dishes at least once tasted different cakes. One of the most famous of them in terms of lightness and delicateness of taste is mille-feuille, which is known as napoleon in post-Soviet countries. There must be a rationale behind the fact that it was named in the honor of the great general, a conqueror of millions. Classical mille-feuille have also conquered millions of sweet tooths, and it is a perfectly well-deserved victory.
Nowadays there are numerous variations of cooking of this cake. Moreover, sales availability of prepared dough makes this process even quicker and more pleasant, but there are still adherents of fully domestic cooking. It should be noted that a peculiarity of this cake is thin and delicate layers which can be easily soaked with filling. That is why mille-feuille recipe often implies baking of flaky pastry. Its structure being thinner and airier, such pastry is easily soaked with filling and allows reaching the desired result.
Ingredients for cooking:
- 1.8 kg of wheat flour
- 600 g of butter
- 200 ml of water
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- 3 l of milk
- 500 g of sugar
- 5 eggs
- 10 g of vanillin
Method:
As any other cake, mille-feuille begins from dough. In order to cook the crusts properly, special sequence should be followed. Pour 1.5 kg of flour at kneading surface and put 500 g of chopped butter over the top. In such a way, butter will begin mixing with flour creating the basis of dough. Form a pile from the mixture.
Mix room temperature water with salt until the crystals fully dissolve and then gradually and slowly pour the salted water over the middle of flour and butter pile. After that thoroughly mix and knead the dough until smooth avoiding lump formation.
Divide the dough into nine pieces, which will become cake layers. Sieve dough with flour, roll out the cakes and put them into the oven heated to 180C. Baking should take between 15 and 20 minutes, but not more than that.
Next step is preparing the filling. Pour 2.5 of milk in a pot to boil. Before it starts to bubble, thoroughly froth eggs and sugar. Put the rest of flour into whipped eggs and gradually pour the mixture into milk, then add the rest of milk and mix it all together. It is this sequence that will help you make the mixture fully smooth and, as a result, cook a proper filling. Boil the mixture and turn it off after first bubbles appear. Add 100 g of butter and vanillin into the hot sauce.
When the hard sauce is ready, put the first cake layer on a separate plate and generously smear it with filling. Put a new layer over the top and smear it with filling. Repeat the procedure until the cake is fully “assembled”. Do not spare the filling, its dosage is calculated to cover all the layers. Smear not only the layers, but also the sides of the cake, because the main aim is for crusts to soak up with sauce. Decorate the top of the cake with crumbs of one of the crusts, cookies, fruit or berries.
See also
