Mille Feuille is a dessert made of 3 layers of puff pastry, filled with a rich Crème Patissiere and decorated with a glaze that is feathered. My version of this dessert uses a Crème Diplomat filling which is a little bit lighter. Also in the recipe, I made a Cheats Puff Pastry which saves a lot of time! I decided to stick to the classic design of this dessert but I made a little change which I think makes the Mille Feuille taste a lot better.
Ingredients:
Cheats Puff Pastry:
450g Plain Flour
70g Butter (Cold and cut into cubes)
180g Frozen Grated Butter
85g Cold Water
Pinch of salt
Crème Diplomat Filling:
250g Full Fat Milk
1 x Vanilla Pod
3 x Egg Yolks
50g Caster Sugar
10g Cornflour
10g Plain Flour
250ml Double Cream
Decoration:
300g Icing Sugar
30g Cocoa Powder
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
60ml Milk
1. To make the cheats puff pastry add the flour, cubed butter and salt into a large mixing bowl (make sure all the ingredients are cold). Rub the butter into the flour until you get a breadcrumb-like consistency.
2. Slowly add the cold water until a dough forms (you may not need to use all of the water). Lightly knead to smoothen the dough.
3. Roll the dough into a rough large rectangle around 60cm x 30cm. Place half of the frozen grated butter onto the bottom 2/3 of the dough and then fold down the top 1/3 (to create a letter looked effect).
4. Turn the folded dough 90 degrees and roll into a rough large rectangle around 60cm x 30cm. Repeat step 3 again and then chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.
5. To make the Crème Diplomat, we need to make a crème patisserie. Place the milk and the seeds of the vanilla pod (and also place the vanilla pod) into a pan and heat until the milk starts to simmer. Then remove from the heat and leave to cool.
6. While the vanilla milk infusing is cooling, in a large mixing bowl add the egg yolks, caster sugar, plain flour and cornflour. Mix the ingredients until they are evenly incorporated and are lighter in colour.
7. Once the vanilla milk infusion has cool to the point where you can place your little finger in it, slowly pour the milk over the egg yolk mixture (take your time while you are doing this as you do not want to scramble the egg yolks). Mix until the ingredients are evenly mixed in.
8. Pour the mixture back into the pan. Heat and constantly mix until the mixture starts to boil and thicken. Then remove from the heat and place into another bowl.
9. Add the butter and mix until the crème patisserie becomes glossy. Cover the mixture with cling film (make sure the cling film touches the surface as this helps to prevent a skin from forming). Chill then crème patisserie in the fridge.
10. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 5. Once the cheats puff pastry has cooled, remove the pastry from the fridge and place it on a floured work surface. Next, divide the dough into two pieces. You should be able to see clear alternating layers of pastry butter, pastry (this is a good sign!).
11. Roll out the pastry into a large rectangle which is around 3mm in thickness. Then cut 2x4 inch rectangles out of the pastry and place them onto a tray lined with parchment paper. Repeat this process with the other half of the cheats puff pastry.
12. Cover the cut of cheats puff pastry rectangles with a sheet of parchment paper and place a baking tray on top. This will prevent the pastry from rising too much.
13. Bake the cheats puff pastry rectangles for 12-15 minutes, they should be a nice golden brown colour once baked. Leave the pastry rectangles to cool on a wire rack.
14. While the pastry rectangles are cool, place the double cream in a large bowl and whisk until you get soft peaks (you can use a stand mixer to do this).
15. Remove the crème patisserie from the fridge and then fold in the double cream into the crème patisserie until all the ingredients have been evenly mixed in together. Put the Crème Diplomat into a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 2A Round Tip and leave it in the fridge for later.
16. To make the glaze, add the icing sugar and vanilla extract into a large mixing bowl and slowly add the milk until you get a spreadable icing.
17. Remove a quarter of icing from the main bowl and place it into a smaller bowl. Next, add the cocoa powder and mix. You may need to add some milk to make the icing spreadable again. Place the chocolate icing into a piping bag fitted with a Wilton No 1 Round Piping Tip or you can cut a small hole out of your piping bag.
18. Spread the white icing over 10 of the pastry rectangles with an offset spatula, make sure you have a light touch when doing this otherwise the brittle pastry may break.
19. Next, pipe lines of the chocolate icing over the rectangles and then with a cocktail stick drag it through the cholate icing to create the feathering effect. Leave to set.
20. To assemble the Mille Feuille, pipe the Crème Diplomat onto the pastry rectangle. Then place another pastry rectangle on top.
21. Finally pipe another lay of Crème Diplomat onto the pastry rectangle and then add a layer of pastry with the glaze on top to create a 3 layered stack.
