I have been on a vintage recipe kick, but not just for
fun. Old recipes mean traditions that
must be preserved and I have a responsibility to carry them to future
generations. Just this month we
celebrated birthdays for ladies who’s legacy I must preserve. My husband’s grandmother ( Baba) turned 92
and my great-aunt (Lubochka) turned 85.
And these two amazing ladies are still baking …( I am knocking on
everything in sight, spitting over both shoulders, may they be here with us
forever). They both have the same
specialty cake, the great Napoleon. Both
delicious and widely different… but later about that.
Napoleon is a French Pastry ( in France known as mille-feuille or “thousand leafs”) which
basically stacks layers of flaky pastry with some kind of layers in the
middle. Traditionally it is a vanilla
custard cream but anything stacked is really passing for Napoleon’s these
days. If you are from Russia, it was a
staple of every festive table and every family had one member (usually
grandmother or aunt) who baked it. It
was a perfected specialty deserving much admiration. It is a taste of grandmother’s Napoleon that
almost every Russian child holds in their memory and the generation who baked
them is nearing sunset.
There are probably a thousand ways to make a Napoleon, but
in my family, there are only two. My
husband grew up with Baba’s napoleon and will not accept anything else; I grew
up with Lubochka’s and to this day, consider it the true thing. And as I sat drinking to their health this
month, I realized that they will not be here forever, that the perfection of
both their Napoleons must be carried forward.
That I am the only one who has any interest in continuing the tradition
and that I must learn how to bake them now, while they can still walk me through
their recipes.
You got to give it to the 92 year old Baba, when I called
her for a recipe, she told me “Why you going to bother, I can make it for you
if you want..” (I want to be just like
her when I grow old.) . As I talk to
them and wrote down the recipes, I laughed… these two ladies are so protective
of their own Napoleon’s, each has tremendous respect for another, but when the
cake is concerned - it’s a cat fight. Each
insists that hers is the “true” recipe and must be made exactly her way and “god
forbid” not the way the other one makes it.
I smirked and went on writing.
Also, between the both of them, they break about a dozen
pastry rules, but I decided to keep my opinions to myself this time and both
cakes were made exactly how they are making them…sacrilegious pastry doing and
all. After all they have been doing it for 50+ years…if Escoffier
didn’t strike them down with lightning yet, I doubt he will bother now.
Another problem I ran into, is the unit of measure. They use kitchen cups and soup spoons and god
knows what else…so I had to guess at approximate size of their coffee cups,
trying desperately to remember what I saw in their cupboards. The question “how big is the cup you use?”
was met with a shrug and “a regular cup not too big, not to small” for an
answer… I had my work cut out for me.
One swears by butter for pastry, the other sent me on a wild
goose chase for Israeli margarine. Widely
different proportions of all ingredients for the dough. Baba makes a classic pastry custard cream,
but she uses flour to thicken it (major no-no, but it works), Lubochka uses
whole eggs for her pastry cream (I almost cried it is so wrong) and mixes it
with whipped buttercream. Even the
shapes are different, Baba makes her Napoleon round where Lubochka’s is a
classic square shape. The only thing
they agree on is the addition of vinegar to the dough which is a very old
fashioned technique of producing a flakier dough. In all my reading and studying I never came across
this trick, but guess what, these old timers still have tricks up their sleeves
that I don’t know… I am impressed.
I obeyed both recipes to a “t”, I doubt I will again, I will
probably make small modifications to each when I bake them again and tonight I
have two beautiful Napoleons for my friends to enjoy. But I will not accept votes for one or the
other, both are equally precious to me and will be carried forward in their
widely different ways.
Baba’s Napoleon:
For the Dough:
Makes about 9-10 layers
200 grams butter – ice cold and cubed
2 – 2 ½ cups of flour
A pinch of salt
¾ cup of ice water
¼ cup of white vinegar
Extra flour for rolling
For the cream
5 cups of milk
5 egg yolk
1 cup sugar
4 tbs of flour
In a food processor or with a pastry cutter, cut the butter
into the flour until it resembles coarse cornmeal. Add salt.
Mix water and vinegar together and add to the dough until just combined
into a ball. The dough will be very
sticky. Shape into a log, wrap in
plastic and refrigerate overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the dough into 9 or 10 equal
portions. Roll each portion using lots
of flour ( this dough sticks like crazy) and keeping the rest of the dough in
the fridge. You are looking for very
thin layers, almost paper like. Before
baking, punch with a fork so the dough does not bubble too much. Bake for 8 -12 minutes or until just starting
to brown.
If few layers don’t turn out
perfectly or rip don’t worry, bake them anyway, you will need a few extras for
the crunchy toping.
The layers can be made a few days ahead of assembling the
cake.
Make the cream. Heat
4 cups of milk until hot but not boiling.
Whisk the egg yolk with sugar until sugar dissolves and yolks a light
and fluffy, add the remaining cup of cold milk and flour, whisk to combine.
Add the hot milk a tiny bit at a time while
whisking the egg mixture vigorously, you do not want to make scrambled eggs. When most of the hot milk has been
incorporated put the mixture back into the pot and cook on medium heat stirring
constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens. Do not let it boil. Transfer to a fridge safe container, press
plastic directly on to so no “skin” develops
and let cool overnight.
When ready to assemble, alternate each pastry layer with
cream.
The last ( top) layer should be
covered with cream as well as the sides.
Crumble remaining layers over the top and sides. Refrigerate for at least 24 hrs before
serving.
Lubochka’s Napoleon
Makes about 8 layers
500 g margarine ice cold and cubed
5 ½ cups of flour
A pinch of salt
1 ¼ cup of ice water + one egg beaten + 3 tbs white vinegar
More flour for rolling
For the cream
5 whole eggs
1 2/3 cups of sugar divided
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cognac
450 g of butter at room temperature
2 cups milk
The technique for making the dough and baking the layers is
exactly the same, except I found they bake better at higher temperature - 415 – 420F.
To make the cream, whisk the eggs with half the sugar, add
vanilla and cognac. Heat the milk, but don’t
boil it. Temper the egg mixture by
slowly whisking in the hot milk, transfer back to the pot and cook on medium
heat stirring constantly until thickens.
Cool fully.
Whisk the butter and remaining sugar until pale yellow and
fluffy. Add the custard mixture to the butter cream one spoonful at a time until fully incorporated.
Assemble the Napoleon the same way as above, alternate the
layers with cream, top with crumbled up remaining layers, refrigerate overnight
before serving.
And may the one that reminds you most of your childhood win!
