Carpathian Custard Cake (Karpatka)
Do you love éclairs? Then this recipe is for you! It's a vanilla éclair-style cake from a Polish recipe. Making it took me right back to last year, when we learned to make choux pastry at pastry school. 1. Bake the pastry using bottom heat only. It's best not to turn on the top element, or the pastry will scorch on top. If your oven has convection, use it. 2. Never open the oven while it bakes. Otherwise the pastry will deflate and collapse on itself very quickly, and you'll have to start all over.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
The dough.
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Step 2:
Pour the water into a saucepan, add the chopped butter, and bring the mixture to a boil.
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Step 3:
Take the saucepan off the heat, add the flour, and stir well. Return it to the heat and cook, stirring, for about 2 minutes. The dough should pull away cleanly from the sides of the pan.
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Step 4:
Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let it cool.
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Step 5:
Beating constantly, add the eggs one at a time.
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Step 6:
At the end, add the baking powder and stir.
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Step 7:
Spread the dough into a parchment-lined baking pan and smooth it out. Put it in an oven preheated to 450°F (230°C) for 10 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 400°F (200°C) and bake for another 20 minutes. Do not, under any circumstances, open the oven door, or the pastry will deflate and you'll have to start over. Leave the baked pastry in the cooling oven for half an hour so it doesn't sink.
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Step 8:
Cut the baked pastry horizontally into two layers.
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Step 9:
The cream filling.
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Step 10:
Heat most of the milk in a saucepan.
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Step 11:
Add the flour, starch, and egg yolk to the remaining milk.
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Step 12:
Stir until smooth.
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Step 13:
Pour the starch mixture into the hot milk in a thin stream, stirring well.
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Step 14:
Return the custard to low heat and, stirring constantly, bring it to a boil and let it thicken.
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Step 15:
Take the custard off the heat. Stir in the vanilla.
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Step 16:
Cool the custard, covering it with plastic wrap pressed directly onto the surface.
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Step 17:
Beat the softened butter with a mixer until light and fluffy.
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Step 18:
Gradually beat the butter into the custard.
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Step 19:
Place the bottom pastry layer into a baking dish.
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Step 20:
Spread the custard cream over it and smooth it out.
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Step 21:
Top with the second pastry layer and press lightly. Chill the cake well, dust with powdered sugar, and cut into pieces.
- Choux pastry is fairly temperamental, though very quick to make. The key is to measure the ingredients precisely and not open the oven until a firm crust has formed. The pastry puffs up dramatically as it bakes — that's exactly what should happen. Properly baked pastry should be hollow inside.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Whole cow's milk - 68 kcal/100g
- Milk 3.5% fat content - 64 kcal/100g
- Milk 3.2% fat content - 60 kcal/100g
- Milk 1.5% fat content - 47 kcal/100g
- Concentrated milk 7.5% fat content - 140 kcal/100g
- Milk 2.5% fat content - 54 kcal/100g
- Chicken egg - 157 kcal/100g
- Egg white - 45 kcal/100g
- Egg powder - 542 kcal/100g
- Egg yolk - 352 kcal/100g
- Ostrich egg - 118 kcal/100g
- Whole durum wheat flour fortified - 333 kcal/100g
- Whole durum wheat flour, universal - 364 kcal/100g
- Flour krupchatka - 348 kcal/100g
- Flour - 325 kcal/100g
- Granulated sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Starch - 320 kcal/100g
- Butter 82% - 734 kcal/100g
- Amateur unsalted butter - 709 kcal/100g
- Unsalted peasant butter - 661 kcal/100g
- Peasant salted butter - 652 kcal/100g
- Melted butter - 869 kcal/100g
- Water - 0 kcal/100g
- Wheat flour - 325 kcal/100g
- Vanillin - 288 kcal/100g
- Baking powder dough - 79 kcal/100g
- Egg yolks - 352 kcal/100g
