Millefenilles
Writing a book about French pastry without mentioning millefeuille would be like eating a great cheese without red wine. So my duty is to show you how to create the real millefeuille, dusted with icing sugar, in the old French tradition. Millefeuille with fondant icing became popular relatively recently.
650 g puff pastry, prepared a day
ahead or frozen (see recipe page 21)
egg wash (1 egg and 1 egg yolk
beaten with 50 ml milk)
caster sugar
600 g pastry cream, prepared a
day ahead (see recipe page 17), cold
200 ml Chantilly cream (see recipe page 15), cold
Grand Marnier, if desired
icing sugar, sifted
Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Roll the puff pastry out until it is 2 mm thick and as big as the baking tray. Brush some egg wash over the top and sprinkle with caster sugar. Cover with a sheet of greaseproof paper and another baking tray to prevent the pastry rising too much.
Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the top tray and greaseproof paper and bake, uncovered, for a further 5 minutes. The pastry is cooked when it is golden brown. Leave to cool completely.
Whisk the pastry cream in a bowl until soft, then gently incorporate the Chantilly cream. Add a few drops of Grand Marnier, if desired.
Lay the pastry on a work surface and cut it lengthwise into three identical rectangles. 1 Trim the edges 2 then set them side by side with the caramelised side up.
Serves 8.
Recipe by Emmanuel Mollois from Chous cafe.
Photographs by Karin Calvert-Borshoff from Et Voila! French pastries from Choux Cafe published by Fremantle Press.
Download the pages mentioned in this recipe. Page 15 Page 17 Page 21
