Kremšnita Torta, Croatian cake

Instructions

FIRST DAY

Prepare puff pastry.

1. If you opt for a simple puff pastry that is called blitz puff pastry. You can watch how to make it in the video recipe Carbayones from Oviedo. If you want to make a traditional puff pastry, you can watch how to do it in the video recipe of palmiers.
2. Once we have made the last fold, we can keep the puff pastry refrigerated until the next day or let it rest in the refrigerator for 45 minutes before proceeding to make the cake.
3. In case of making it with store-bought puff pastry, we will omit this step.
4. NOTE: If you decide to make it with store-bought puff pastry, you will need about 450 g (2 packages).

Stretch and cut puff pastry.

1. With the help of a rolling pin, stretch puff pastry to a thickness of about 0.3 mm. You may have to divide the dough into two pieces to work with it more comfortably.
2. With the help of a round cutter or a 20 cm diameter dessert plate, cut 4 circles. Place the plate on the puff pastry and, with the help of a knife, cut the circles. Try to make a clean cut, whenever possible. Puff pastry, after baking, shrinks a little. For this reason we must cut circles with a slightly larger diameter.
3. Place 3 circles of puff pastry on a perforated tray lined with baking paper.
4. Prick the surface with a fork to prevent overgrowth.
5. Keep the excess puff pastry wrapped in plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out and refrigerate so it does not lose temperature or freeze for another occasion. The excess can be used for pie bases or other recipes made with puff pastry. Here you can see several options.

Bake puff pastry.

1. Preheat oven to 390ºF/200ºC, heat up and down.
2. Place the tray in the oven at medium height and bake for 18 minutes.
3. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.
4. To bake the upper disc, we will carry out another process.
5. Before baking, cut the puff pastry circle into 8 equal portions. Follow the process I show you in the video to do it in a simple way.
6. Place on a perforated tray lined with baking paper. Prick the surface and place a sheet of baking paper over the puff pastry. Next, place another tray on top of the puff pastry. This step will help the puff pastry to rise evenly and be perfect for decoration.
7. Bake for 17 minutes. By having a tray placed on it, we will reduce one minute to avoid over roasting.
8. Remove from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack.
   

Prepare pastry cream.

1. Hydrate the gelatine 20 minutes before use. Place in a bowl and cover with very cold water, from the refrigerator. Set aside.
2. Pour the milk and vanilla in a medium saucepan. Place over medium heat and let it reach a soft boil.
3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat egg yolks with the sugar (70 g) and cornstarch, previously sifted, until completely homogenized.
4. Once the milk has come to the boil, pour a little of it over the yolk mixture.
5. Whisk quickly with the whisks to temper the yolks and prevent the yolks from curdling into lumps.
6. Add the rest of the milk little by little and mixing very well each time.
7. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and place over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. You will notice that the texture will become thicker, but it will take a while. Patience.
8. Once the cream has a creamy texture, as shown in the video, remove from the heat.
9. Incorporate the butter and mix until homogeneized.
10. Then, add gelatin, previously drained, and stir with the whisk until completely integrated.
11. Pour into a tray/tupper/bowl (the larger the better because it will cool faster).
12. Cover with cling film to prevent it from drying out, and let it cool completely at room temperature.

Whip egg whites.

1. Once pastry cream has cooled completely, whip the egg whites to make a French meringue.
2. Start beating at medium speed, once they start to foam, add 1/3 of the sugar (total 70 g).
3. Wait a few seconds and add another part. Repeat the same process until all the sugar is added.
4. Whip at medium-high speed until the meringue is firm, but not extremely whipped. This would leave a very dry meringue and, therefore, porous.

Integrate meringue with pastry cream.

1. With the help of a whisk, beat the pastry cream to soften the texture.
2. Pour into a large bowl and begin to integrate the French meringue. We will do it little by little, mixing with the whisk with enveloping movements to integrate both elements. We will obtain a pastry cream mousse.

Prepare the mold to assemble the cake.

1. Place on the base of the mold baking paper or a non-slip with a disc for cakes, thus facilitating the process of unmolding.
2. Cover the sides with acetate. If we do not have it, we can use baking paper or Teflon instead. Lightly grease the inside of the acetate with a little olive oil. This step will prevent the cream mousse from sticking and, therefore, from breaking when unmolding. Set aside.

Assemble the cake.

1. Spread some cream on the tart disc and place the first puff pastry disc.
2. Pour half of the filling into the mold and smooth the surface.
3. Place another puff pastry disc and press gently.
4. Add the other half of the cream and smooth the surface as much as possible.
5. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent the surface from drying out and refrigerate for 12 hours or until the next day.

SECOND DAY

Prepare mascarpone cream.

• The cream must be at least 24 hours in the cold.
• The bowl in which we whip the cream must be cold. I recommend using an aluminum bowl and placing it in the freezer for 20 minutes before whipping the cream.

1. Pour the cream together with the mascarpone in the cold bowl and begin to whip with the whisk on speed 1.
2. Once it begins to firm up, add the sugar little by little and without stopping beating. Increase the speed gradually, but never reach the maximum speed. The ideal is a medium speed.
3. We will beat until we obtain a full-bodied cream. But be careful not to overbeat it or we will make butter.

Decorate the cake.

1. Cover the sides of the cake and the top with a thin layer of mascarpone cream. Smooth with the help of a pastry spatula or edge smoother.
2. Put in a piping bag with the chosen nozzle, in my case the BS118 nozzle, refrigerate until the time to decorate the cake.
3. Grind one of the puff pastry discs and cover the sides of the cake with these crumbs.
4. With the help of a knife, mark on the top the lines that correspond to each portion. These are the same as the size of the puff pastry triangles that we will use for the final decoration.
5. Pipe mascarpone cream on each half and part of the outer edge of each triangle.
   Sprinkle the puff pastry triangles with powdered sugar and place on the tart. Rest the triangle on one of the cut lines and let it rest on the piped cream.
6. In case you have removed some of the powdered sugar by mistake, once all the triangles are in place, sprinkle them again with powdered sugar.
7. Serve.
   

Notes

• To make quick/blitz puff pastry, ideally, all ingredients should be cold. With the mixing the temperature rises and we want to keep the dough cold, as much as possible.
• Butter brings a lot of flavor, I recommend you to use a good one quality.
• Do not overmix the ingredients more than I detail in the process and show you in the video.
• Respect all the rest times to achieve a good result.
• In case you do not want to make the puff pastry, you can buy it ready-made and speed up the process. In this case, you will need two packages or 450 g approximately.
• If you buy puff pastry, I advise you to stretch it a little with the help of a rolling pin to refine it and have enough puff pastry to obtain 4 discs.
• The puff pastry shrinks after baking, so we must cut circles of 20 cm instead of 18 cm, which is the size of the mold.
• Placing a puff pastry disc in the central part is optional. It can be omitted if you wish. As a fact tell you that until this is not well moistened, the step of cutting the cake is not easy .... It is a little difficult to do. If you do not want to complicate it, do not use it.
• Do not forget to temper the yolks to prevent them from curdling and forming lumps.
  
• Be patient when you are making pastry cream, it takes a little while to set and gain consistency. Do not be tempted to increase the heat because you run the risk of burning some part of the base and passing the flavor to the cream.
• When we have to integrate meringue with cream, I advise you to do it with a manual whisk. The result is exceptional, as long as it is done with smooth and enveloping movements. Much better than working it with a silicone spatula.
• Many recipes on internet uses store-bought custard instead of making a homemade pastry cream. For that reason I add gelatin, to achieve the final consistency that the filling should have.
• In my case I used a mascarpone cream, but you can use whipped cream or Chantilly (whipped cream with vanilla). I don't like to use cream hardeners, I don't like the final texture.
• Cutting the top puff pastry before baking, favors that the cuts are clean and the pieces are perfect. In addition, by placing a tray over it before baking, it leaves a uniform and impeccable growth.
• The decoration of the sides of the cake is optional, but in this way we achieve a more elegant appearance.
• It can be kept for 3-4 days refrigerated and in an airtight container. It does not keep longer because of the addition of uncooked egg white. If you wish, you can make an Italian meringue instead of French meringue, which could extend the shelf life even more. Although in this case, it would not be that way either since the pastry cream should be consumed in 2-4 days maximum.
  

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• Breakfast
• Pastry cream
• Puff pastry
• Whipped Cream