Russian pan cake, vanilla cake

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 550 g flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 packet of baking powder
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk, 305 ml
• 500 ml milk
• 2 tbsp sugar
• e.g. vanilla sugar, approx. 1 – 2 packs or some vanilla extract
• 200 g butter
• 100 g almond flakes for garnishing
• Flour for the work surface

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Rest period approx. 1 day; Total time approx. 1 day 1 hour 30 minutes

No oven required, the bases are baked in a pan. A recipe from a Russian friend.

For the dough, mix the sweetened condensed milk, 1 egg, baking powder, and 450g of flour. Add a little more flour depending on the size of the egg. The dough shouldn’t be sticky. For the cream, mix the remaining ingredients except the butter. Stir in 2 tablespoons of flour, just be careful that the flour doesn’t clump in the milk. Heat everything on the stove and let it simmer slowly until a nice, thick cream has formed. I’m always a bit careful and let the cream simmer for a few minutes because of the raw eggs. But make sure to stir constantly, as the vanilla cream burns very quickly. Taste the cream and add more vanilla, if desired. Let it cool slightly. Stir the butter into the still lukewarm cream and then let it cool completely. It’s best to cover it with cling film to prevent a skin from forming. Now divide the dough into 10-12 portions and roll it out on a floured surface into a circle about 3-5mm thick. I always use a large dinner plate and cut the dough around the plate so that all the layers are the same size. Fry all the layers one after the other in the pan until golden brown. Optionally, add a little butter to the pan, but I usually don’t use any, as the cake already has quite a few calories. If you’re baking the layers without butter, wipe the flour from the pan with kitchen paper every now and then, as this burns very quickly and tastes bitter. When all the layers are ready, alternate layers of one layer and some of the cream on top of each other. Set aside any layer that didn’t turn out so well and crumble it into small pieces. Save a little cream and then spread it on top and around the cake. Spread the crumb topping on the cake base and optionally mix with flaked almonds. Now just let the cake sit for a few hours, ideally overnight, so that the cream can soak into the layers. This is important for the cake to develop its full flavor.