05.12.14

Christmas mille feuille

You might be thinking I’ve been a bit hum-buggy lately with no festive recipes of note – but ta dah – finally there is this! I have always wanted to make mille feuilles and thought in theory they sounded simple and looked complicated – and that is exactly true, they are actually dead easy to make. If you want, feel free to pipe the creme patisserie to make them more refined looking, and you can also, if you wish, sandwich them with fruit in between the layers. I did do this, but frankly thought they looked better, and more approachable shall we say, like this – a little more rustic and more inviting to dig into! I think the lemon zing from the curd gives them a nice little bit of spark, but you could also do all sorts of other things to trick up your creme patisserie – instead of lemon curd use dark chocolate like I did here, or use white chocolate, or mascarpone and espresso or even Nutella – the world is your oyster. Have fun, and in the meantime I shall be hard at work on festive recipe number two. Falalalala 🙂

Crème Patissiere
2 cups whole milk
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup caster sugar
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cornflour
1/3 cup lemon curd

450g butter puff pastry sheets rolled to 2-3mm thick (I used ahem, ready-rolled cut to size) = 2 sheets measuring 33cm x 22cm
(When cooked, these should be cut into even 24 rectangles about 5.5cm x 10cm, the dimensions don’t really matter as long as they are all the same, this allows for trimming)
1/3 cup icing sugar
1 1/2 cups fresh fruit of your choice – cherries, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries 
would all be great

Heat 1 1/2 cups of the milk, lemon zest and sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat, whisk to dissolve sugar and bring toa simmer. While the milk is warming, whisk together the remaining milk with the egg yolks, vanilla extract, flour and cornflour until the mixture is a thick smooth paste. Add a third of the milk to the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the milk and egg mixture back into the remaining hot milk and continue whisking really hard over the heat until the custard is really thick and smooth. Remove from the heat, pour into a container, stir through lemon curd, cover the surface with plastic wrap and chill. (It needs to be super thick to start with as you are going to be adding the lemon curd).

Preheat oven to 200ËšC (400ËšF) and line a baking tray with baking paper, lay half of the puff pastry on top, prick all over with a fork (this is crucial!!!) and top with more baking paper and another baking tray. Cook 9 minutes, flip trays over and cook a further 9 minutes. Repeat with remaining pastry. Once the pastry has cooled, trim into rectangles – so much easier than you might imagine! Trim the outside edges evenly with a serrated knife, then confirm (using a ruler) how many you can cut, use the ruler for each slice so that they are all the same size.To construct, just pop bottom layers onto serving plates. Spoon creme patisserie on top and smooth evenly, but don’t squash – and don’t go right to the edges of the pastry. Top with another layer and repeat. Dust with icing sugar and serve with fresh fruit on top or alongside – ridiculously easy! Makes 8.You wouldn’t think so, but you can actually make these and refrigerate them up to a couple of hours before serving – just dust with icing sugar at the last minute 🙂 (Just make sure they are nice and even – no ‘leaners’)

6 comments

  2. I'm new to "from the kitchen," and I can't tell you how delighted I am to dig into the blog and start trying recipes out. You cook with an obvious warmth and style. I love it. w/ love from Minnesota.

    Reply

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