With the berry season set in, I've been pulling out all my berry dessert "to -try" recipes. Not that this recipe really calls for berries but the combination of cream-berries with puff pastry is to die for. They just strike the right notes with soft berries, silky cream and a crispy puff finish.
Mille Feuille means "A thousand leaf" in french and is also known as Napoleon. It is a French pastry made up of three layers of puff pastry sandwiched between layers of whipped cream and pastry cream, with the top layer dusted with confectioners sugar, or cocoa or icing with brown chocolate stripes combed into a pattern.. This recipe however got its icing top from the left over yummmy orange glaze from the Coconut -Orange Butter cookies I had made earlier, which after trying on an assembled Mille Feuille... I decided not to make the glaze which the original recipe called for altogether. This recipe is adapted from Ricardo's Cuisine Check it out for more exciting stuff.
As I am a complete novice to making Puff pastry, I opted the frozen puff pastry squares and postponed my feared encounter with puff pastry making further.
Thaw the frozen puff pastry.
Preheat oven to 200 deg C. On a floured work surface, roll out the pastry squares to flatten them and stretch it (just enough to cut a square puff into three equal sized rectangles) , sprinkle the dough with little sugar and lightly roll with rolling pin to press in the sugar. Place the square pastries on a baking sheet. Place a baking sheet over it to avoid the pastry from curling and blistering.
Bake for about 20 mins or until the pastry is golden brown. Allow to cool completely on wire rack.
Cut each pastry square into 3 equal sized rectangles.(you can use one slice as stencil size and cut others through.)
Assemble by Piping the pastry cream on first layer lined with blue berries, followed by second pastry layer piped with whipped cream and more blue berries.......
...followed by third pastry layer topped with orange glaze with chocolate stripes combed into pattern.
Voila!! French pastry ready!!!
Ingredients
- White Chocolate Pastry cream:
- Chopped white chocolate- 85 gms
- Sugar- 1 cup
- All purpose flour- 3 tbsp
- Corn starch- 3 tbsp
- Egg yolks-3
- Warm milk- 2 cups(500 ml)
- Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
- Puff Pastry
- Frozen square Puff Pastry- 400 gms(10 squares) thawed.
- Sugar- 1 tbs
- Blue berries- 1 cup
- Whipped cream:
- Whipping cream: 1 1/4 cups (310 ml)
- Sugar- 1 1/4 cups
- Vanilla essence- 1/2 tsp
- Orange icing glaze:
- Cream cheese- 1 tbsp, at room temperature
- Fresh orange juice- 2 tbsp
- confectioners sugar- 1 cup approx
- Orange zest- a pinch
- Molten Milk Chocolate bar (for stripes)
Directions
- To make the white chocolate pastry cream:
- 1In a saucepan, combine the sugar, flour, and cornstarch. Add the eggs and whisk until smooth. Gradually stir in the milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly and making sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan. Simmer gently for about 1 minute. Pour over the chocolate and add the vanilla. Combine with a whisk until the chocolate has melted. Place plastic wrap directly on the hot pastry cream. Let cool and refrigerate until the cream is completely chilled.
- For the puff pastry:
- 1Preheat oven to 200 deg C. On a floured work surface, roll out the pastry squares to flatten them and stretch it (just enough to cut a square puff into three equal sized rectangles) , sprinkle the dough with little sugar and lightly roll with rolling pin to press in the sugar. Place the square pastries on a baking sheet. Place a baking sheet over it to avoid the pastry from curling and blistering.
Bake for about 20 mins or until the pastry is golden brown. Allow to cool completely on wire rack. - 2Cut each pastry square into 3 equal sized rectangles.(you can use one slice as stencil size and cut others through.)
- To make glaze:
- 1Combine together and whip. the cream cheese, orange juice, zest and confectioners sugar until a glue like consistency achieved.
- To make Whipped cream:
- 1In a bowl, whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Refrigerate.
Icing - Assembling:
- 1Assemble by Piping the pastry cream on first layer lined with blue berries, followed by second pastry layer piped with whipped cream and more blue berries, followed by third pastry layer topped with orange glaze. Pipe the melted milk chocolate as stripes over the top layer. Take a toothpick and run a line across the chocolate stripes to form a pattern.
- Tips:
- 1You can make plain Icing glaze by omitting the orange zest.
- 2You can omit the icing glaze and just dust the top layer with icing sugar or cocoa powder.
- 3You can use berries or fruits of your choice to line up in between layers. Sky is the limit! try your favourite flavor combination...
