Lithuanian Torte (or a Napoleon Torte) 20-22 layers of flaky pastry and creamy vanilla filling!

Updated at: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 11:26:41 GMT

Step 1

To make the dough, combine the flour, butter, sour cream and water on a butcher block board and chop with a meat cleaver, turning often until it becomes a dough consistency. Chop, don't knead, as the dough will not be flaky if you knead it. I chose to use my food processor, as chopping/mixing the dough can take up to an hour or more to finish. I place the butter, flour and sour cream in the food processor with the S-blade and pulsed it to combine. Slowly adding 1 tablespoon of cold water at a time through the top feeder tube and stopping the water as soon as the dough comes together to form a ball.

Step 2

Divide the dough into 8-12 equal parts. Wrap each in plastic wrap or waxed paper and chill overnight. The next morning, roll each out to a circle the size of a standard pizza pan. I rolled on parchment paper so I could transfer easily to a baking sheet to bake. Prick the dough all over before baking each rolled layer for approximately 10 minutes at 400. Have a lot of counter space ready as you bake each one individually as you need to let them cool completely and they are delicate. I chose to make 10 layers pastry.

Step 3

To make mine all uniform, I used the bottom of a 9" springform pan round and laid it on top of the hot pastry directly out of the oven. I quickly scored and cut around it with a sharp knife while it was hot. I saved the cuttings in a bowl to crush later for the final top layer instead of making an extra disk to bake and crumble. If you can roll perfect circles in uniform shape, you won't need to do this.

Step 4

Make the filling Beat the whipping cream and sugar together and cool in the refrigerator. Mix the eggs yolks and butter together and add vanilla. Fold into the cream to keep it light and fluffy. Note I didn't have 2 cups of whipped cream so I used 1 cup cream and 1 cup half and half. Obviously this doesn't whip up stiff so I ended up making my own filling version using a frosting-type mixture similar to what I make for Red Velvet Cake. It's butter, sugar, vanilla and then mixing it with a cooked and cooled flour/water mixture. I added this to the eggs and cream to stiffen it up and it was wonderful and light and delicious. You can really use any vanilla filling you like best but the one listed is simple and perfect if you have the whipped cream on hand.

Step 5

To assemble, I chose to use a large 10" round springform pan but that is just me because I'm not making this to serve right away for an event and will be freezing it. Most people just assemble it to serve. Start with one pastry, spread a thin layer of filling and top with another pastry. Warm the apricot jam to melt smooth. Every third or fourth layer of pastry you can brush it with a thin layer of apricot glaze. Continue until all the pastry layers and fillings are used up. Top with a last layer of filling/frosting and cover in the crumbs from a crushed pastry or if you have scraps from cutting circles. Chill. This can serve about 26-30 people if you need it to as it's very tall and rich and a small piece goes a long way!

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