Napoleon.

Very popular and traditional Russian cake. Super YUMMY!!
A little bit of history.
The cake did originate in France. But not because of Napoleon Bonaparte. The French call the cake Mille-Fueille, which means "thousand leaf." It is also called the vanilla-slice, cream-slice, and custard-slice in the UK.
The cake originated from France in 1651, which was nearly 100 years before Bonaparte was even born. This clearly proves Napoleon had nothing to do with the naming of the cake, or even its origination (which is still unknown, save for where and when. As for who made it originally, no one knows).
I ate it once here (USA) on New Year celebration 2013, bought it in my fav Russian grocery store.  Bread loaf size was like $10.
And it looked like this.

It was so so so yummy!!!
I never tried to make it myself because look at those layers!! Time and fear that it won't turn out prevent me from trying and make it.
BUT i was craving it so much yesterday - I decided to try. I used this recipe.

Ingredients:

For Pastry:

• 1 egg
• ¾ cup water
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 18 tablespoons (1cup +2 tablespoons, or 250gr) unsalted butter, cold
• 3 cups (500gr) flour

For Filling:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Pastry:

1. Mix together the egg, water, baking soda and salt.
2. Blend cold butter cubes with flour. Add egg mixture and mix until well combined.
3. Divide the dough into 5 equal pieces.  Wrap each ball in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
5. Roll each dough ball into 10-inch circle on slightly floured surface. Transfer it onto a baking sheet and pierce it with a fork everywhere.
6. Bake each layer for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Filling:

1. Mix flour and milk and whisk until well combined. Bring it to boil on medium heat, stirring frequently. Once the milk mixture is thick, let it to cool completely.
2. Beat softened butter and sugar until sugar is mostly melted. Add vanilla extract.
3. Add cooled milk mixture and beat everything on high speed until well combined.

Assembly:

1. Once every layer is baked and cooled, trim each layer, using a 9-inch round plate.  Save the leftover crust edges.
2. Spread the filling between each layer and stack them up on top of each other.
3. Frost the entire cake with the remaining filling.
4. Crush the saved crust edges into crumbs, using rolling pin or blender.
5. Sprinkle the crust crumbs all over the cake. 

Here is some pictures from my cooking

Making pastry. I used this metal thing to cup cold  (name? if somebody know please)

Making filling

Of course my toddler helped. A lot. Mostly eating uncooked stuff LOL

And of course he got a reward for his help - lick the spoon/beater. 

Forming dough balls.

Result.

My review.

It took me at least 2 hours if not longer to make it. I didn't have enough filling so it's a little bit dry. It was hard to roll those dough balls into circles. the recipe doesn't say anything but they are supposed to be thin. I'd say 6-7 layers would be better. Other than that the cake is yummy.
Next time I will just buy ready to go dough and filling and just assemble it. Too much work especially if you have young kids and they distract you all the time. ;-)

I found a different recipe but didn't try it.

Ingredients

---

• For pastry:
• ==========
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sour cream (regular or light)
• 2 sticks unsalted butter
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• all-purpose flour enough to make soft dough
• For cream:
• ==========
• 1 1/2 quarts of whole milk
• 1 cup of milk (this is not a mistake)
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 4 very full tbsp flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1 shot of vodka, brandy, or rum
• (Amaretto or Bailey's are also good)
• 1 lemon (zest only)
• vanilla essence or vanilla powder to taste
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter

How to make it

---

• Pastry:
• -------
• Mix eggs, soft butter and sour cream together till they blend well.
• Add salt.
• In a table spoon, dissolve baking soda in vinegar - you will see "bubbles". When bubbling stops, add soda+vinegar to your mixture. Stir well.
• Start adding flour, cup-by-cup, make soft smooth dough. Don't knead it too much, just enough to make it smooth and "un-sticky".
• Split dough into 16 pieces, form little balls.
• Cover the dough with plastic, and put in the fridge to chill.
• While it's chilling, prepare cream.
• Custard Cream:
• --------------
• Pour 1 1/2 quarts of milk into thick bottom pot and bring it to boil. Don't use aluminum pots - it will burn !
• While the milk is warming up, prepare the cream mix:
• Separate egg yolks and stir them very well with sugar and a pinch of salt - until mix turns very light yellow.
• Add flour, mix well.
• Add 1 cup cold milk, mix very well. Avoid lumps.
• When your milk starts to boil, reduce the heat immediately to low.
• Pour the cream mixture into boiling milk very slowly, using a whisk to stir the cream.
• Bring the mixture to boil again, constantly stirring it. When it starts boiling, you will see it become thicker. Let it simmer for 2-3 minutes, don't forget to stir at all times.
• Remove from the stove, add lemon zest, vanilla, nutmeg, and vodka (rum, brandy, or liquor).
• When you are able to touch the pot, add butter and mix it in as it melts. Set aside.
• Now back to pastry:
• -------------------
• Preheat oven to 420 degrees F.
• Turn off the phone, so no one can distract you for 1 hour. :-)
• a. Get 1 piece of dough from the fridge, roll it into a very thin crust on well floured surface - as thin as you can, forming a round or a square crust.
• b. Roll the crust onto rolling pin, and unroll it onto UNGREASED baking sheet.
• c .Pierce crust with the fork all over.
• d. Bake in the oven for 2 minutes or until lightly golden. Don't over bake. It is better when it is not dark.
• e. Remove the crust from the oven and put aside.
• Repeat steps a-e for all the rest of the dough.
• Never leave the kitchen while the crust is in the oven - check it all the time - it bakes very quickly.
• Bake the last crust a little longer than others, letting it turn brown.
• Put one crust on the cake dish.
• Pour a ladle full of cream onto it.
• Use skimmer to spread the cream evenly on the crust. Repeat for all crusts, except for the brown one.
• Crush the brown crust on the board, using the rolling pin - just roll it over the crust several times - it will make great fine crumbs.
• Pour the crumbs over the top layer of the cake.
• Let the cake soak for 2-3 hours. Cut out the uneven edges, forming your favorite cake shape - square or round, or oval. You get to eat all of the cut-offs... mmmm...
• *Hint: making round-shaped cake produces more cut-offs, which means, more for you!