Mille Feuille Recipe

Directions

Rough puff pastry

1. For the rough-puff pastry, sift 125g the flour into a large bowl cut 125g very cold butter 0.5cm cubes, add them to the bowl and coat them with the flour. You need to see bits of butter.

2. Make a well in the bowl and pour in 50ml very cold water, mixing with fingertips until you have a firm rough dough adding extra water if absolutely needed.

3. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rest for 10 mins in the freezer.

Crème Pâtissière

1. Meanwhile, from the 250ml milk you will need for the crème pâtissière pour only 200ml into a saucepan.

2. Slit the vanilla pod in two and scrape out seeds with the pointy end of a knife. Put the pod and seeds into the saucepan and leave on a very low heat to infuse for 2 mins.

3. In a small bowl mix the remaining 50ml milk with the with the custard powder and 30g from the sachet(s) of sugar. until you have a smooth paste.

4. Return the paste to the saucepan making sure you get it all in. Use milk from the saucepan to rinse the mixing bowl to ensure you collect it all.

5. Now increase the heat to medium high and whisk constantly until your crème pâtissière thickens. It should be the consistency of whipped cream, thicker than a normal custard. Turn off the heat.

6. Add 25g of soft butter in small cubes to the saucepan and whisk it in until it starts to melt, and it incorporates completely into the crème. You will have a glossy finish.

7. Pour crème pâtissière into a shallow dish, press a plastic lid on top touching the crème so that a skin does not form. A takeaway box lid is ideal for this. Leave to cool on a windowsill.

Cutting pastry & glaze

1. Turn on the oven to 200°C, Gas mark 6, and prepare a baking tray with the parchment paper. Try to find another tray around the same size that could sit on top.

2. Open the smaller

   flour sachet. You will use this for dusting so your pastry doesn't stick to the board when rolling.

3. Draw a rectangle of 22cm x 32cm on the second piece of parchment paper. This is to be placed this underneath the pastry, so you have a guide.

4. Place the parchment on a large surface such as a chopping board, lightly flour. The drawn side should face down, so it does not touch the pastry. Take your rough-puff pastry from the freezer and turn out onto parchment forming a smooth rectangle.

5. Roll dough, keeping edges straight and even as pos- sible. Push in the sides with your palms occasionally. Roll the pastry to the same size as your guide, you can trim if necessary.

6. Do not overwork the butter streaks; you should have a marbled effect. Keep flouring through rolling as the butter streaks especially will stick otherwise.

7. Fold the top third down to the centre, then the bottom third up and over that. Give the dough a quarter turn (to the left or right) and roll out again in one direction to 22 x 32cm.

8. Repeat one more time. Your pastry should be approximately 2mm thick. Cover the rolled pastry with a tea towel and chill in freezer for 10 mins. You could lay it on the baking tray for convenience. If fridge/freezer space is an issue, the rolled pastry can be cut half, creating two even sized rectangles.

9. Take the pastry out of the freezer and using your ruler and pizza cutter cut two columns of 6 rectangles, 10 cm x 5 cm each. Place these evenly spaced with a 2cm gap on the prepared baking tray. You may need to do this in two batches if the tray is not big enough.

   

10. Place your second parchment (the one you have drawn on) paper on top followed by the second baking tray and put into the oven for 10 mins.

    

11. After 10 mins cooking, carefully lift off the second baking tray and parchment paper and leave in the oven for a further 3-5 mins until the pastry is golden. Watch it does not burn, but remember you are looking for a crisp finish once cooled. Once baked, place pastry rectangles on a rack to cool.

12. For the glaze, sift the icing sugar into a large bowl. Add 22ml of water and whisk together. It should be smooth, but not too liquid, for an icing which will spread easily and not run.

13. Transfer 2 tablespoons (30ml) of this glaze to a diffe-rent bowl and sift in the only half (10g) of the cocoa powder plus another 10ml of water. Whisk together until smooth, ensuring there are no lumps or it could block the piping nozzle.

14. Assembly and decoration

15. Take out the crème pâtissière from the fridge remove the pod and whisk it vigorously to loosen it up, it will become smooth again.

16. Use a tall glass to prop the piping bag open and pour in the creme. Make sure you turn up the pointed end, so the crème does not spill out. You will not need a nozzle for this. Twist the top of the bag.

    

17. Lay out the pastry rectangles in 4 columns and 3 rows. Each mille feuille slice has 3 layers of pastry so you are just lining this up to be ready. Select the most even and neat ones to remain untouched, for icing later.

18. Pipe the crème to create two rows of 4 dots (8 dots in total) onto 8 of the pastry rectangles. The dots will be on show from the sides and are part of the finished look.

    

19. Wash and dry the silicone piping bag.

20. Dip and evenly spread white icing onto the 4 remai- ning rectangles – leave on a plate.

21. Take the piping bag and fit with connector and 1mm tip nozzle.

22. Fill the bag with chocolate icing and carefully pipe short stripes approximately 1cm apart onto the white iced rectangles. You should get 8 stripes.

23. Take the toothpick and create a chevron pattern by dragging down through the chocolate stripes in alterna- ting directions, you will have room for three long lines. We urge you to watch video for this.

    

24. Layer the pastry slices with crème pâtissière on top of each other and finish off with the iced layer. Repeat until you have 4 mille feuille slices.

25. Eat immediately, or place in the fridge to set a little more. Can be stored chilled for up to 3 days.