Krempita — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

A towering dessert of flaky puff pastry layered with thick vanilla custard cream and whipped cream, dusted with powdered sugar. Croatia's answer to the French mille-feuille.

Ingredients

2 sheets puff pastry
6 egg yolks
200g sugar
80g cornstarch
1 litre milk
1 vanilla bean or 2 tsp vanilla extract
500ml heavy cream
2 tbsp powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

1 Bake two sheets of puff pastry at 200C for 12-15 minutes until golden and puffed. Let cool. Trim to fit your baking dish.
2 Heat milk with the vanilla bean (scraped) until just simmering.
3 Whisk egg yolks with sugar and cornstarch until pale. Slowly pour in hot milk while whisking constantly.
4 Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the custard is very thick. Remove from heat and let cool with plastic wrap on the surface.
5 Whip heavy cream to stiff peaks. Fold gently into the cooled custard.
6 Place one pastry sheet in the dish. Pour in the cream filling. Top with the second pastry sheet. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Dust with powdered sugar and cut into squares.

Did You Know?

The town of Samobor near Zagreb is famous for its krempita — visitors make special pilgrimages just to eat a slice at the historic cafes in the town square.