Napoleon Torte

PASTRY LAYERS

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup unsalted butter(soft)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 to 2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder


DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar until light. One at a time, add the eggs and beat them in. Add the milk.

In a medium bowl, combine cornstarch, baking powder and 1 cup of the flour. Now for the tricky part. Add the flour mixture, mix this in with a wooden spoon, Continue to add a bit of flour at a time until you have a soft dough, similar to sugar cookies. You should be able to put it onto a floured counter and give it a bit of a knead.

Divide dough into 6 round balls (I usually make round sheets and make my torte 6 sheets high). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out quite thin (as thin as possible). Use a luncheon plate as a template to cut them into circular shapes and put them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

When cutting the layers, take into account that the pastry swells a bit when you add the pudding layers, so your cake does end up bigger than what you've cut. Also bake up a few of the scraps so that you have pastry to make crumbs for the sides of your cake.

If you have dough left over, roll it out and cut it into circles. Stack layers on top of each other, separating with plastic wrap. Place into a tupperware container and freeze until you want to make another torte. Just thaw the layers, put on parchment-lined cookie sheets and bake up as usual.

Bake them at 350 degrees F until lightly browned. Let them cool on the sheet before trying to move them.




PUDDING

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup flour
1 package of Dr. Oetker Orginal Pudding
1/2 cup plus 4 Tbsp sugar
5 cups milk
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 eggs


DIRECTIONS

In a measuring cup, beat the 2 eggs and set aside.

Combine flour, sugar and pudding mix into a pot and slowly whisk in the milk and vanilla. Mix well so that there are no lumps in your mixture. Put on medium heat and stir the mixture until the heated mixture gets foamy or starts to stick to the edges of the pot.

First dribble a small amount of hot milk mixture in a steady stream into the eggs while quickly whisking the two together. This raises the temperature of the egg gradually (so that you don't end up with scrambled eggs). Continue to dribble in the hot milk mixture and whisk until you feel, with your hand, that the cup's side or bottom has become warm. Return the egg mixture back to the rest of the hot milk mixture. The eggs won't scramble or the milk won't curdle at this point, because they have been warmed gently. But, always keep the mixture moving - don't stop whisking.

Continue to heat till the pudding is thick. Don't boil. Pour the pudding into glass container and let cool. Put plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the pudding. Let this cool in the fridge overnight.




ASSEMBLING THE TORTE (the day before you want to serve the Napoleon Torte)

When ready to fill the torte, whip up 1 cup of whipping cream and fold it into the pudding.

When assembling the torte, start with a very thin layer of pudding directly on your cake plate - this allows the bottom layer of pastry to soften a bit and also helps keep your torte from sliding around on the cake plate. The just start alternating your layers of pastry and pudding. Once the last layer of pastry is on top add a final layer of pudding to the top and also around the sides of the torte. Take the extra bits that were baked, and crush them with a rolling pin and sprinkle them on the sides of the cake (if you didn't bake up extra bits you can used shaved chocolate).

Let the torte sit for 12 to 24 hours so that the layers soften and absorb some of the custard.


This recipe is also linked to...

Food on Friday: Desserts
Crazy Sweet Tuesday
Sweets for a Saturday