Millefeuille, milhojas, Cremeschnitte - name it as you like, but this glorious dessert is known throughout the world. Everywhere it is prepared slightly different, my family in Chile uses Crème Chantilly and Manjar (a type of dulce de leche) as a filling, in Austria the traditional "Cremeschnitte" is prepared with vanilla-pudding-cream and in France you normally find crème diplomate between the puff pastry layers.
Here I will share with you the easy way to prepare a French Millefeuille and the way "Le Cordon Bleu London" taught me how to do a classic pastry cream.
For 4 Millefeuille cakes you will need:
For the puff pastry:
1 pack of puff pastry
icing or caster sugar
For the pastry cream:
300 ml of whole milk
4 egg yolks
50g caster sugar
20g plain flour
20g cornflour
1 vanilla pod or a splash of vanilla essence
For the crème diplomate:
the same amount of double or whipping cream as finished pastry cream (ca. around 400ml)
First take the puff pastry, spread it on a baking tray and dust the icing or caster sugar over it. Bake it for 5 minutes at 180°C at the preheated oven. Take the puff pastry out and place another heavy tray on it, put it back in the oven and continue baking it for another 15 minutes until it is golden brown and nicely caramelized.
In the meantime you can start with the pastry cream. Start by heating up the milk in a small saucepan. At the same time separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and mix the yolks in a bowl with the caster sugar, plain and corn flour together. Scrape the seeds off the vanilla pod and add it to the yolk mixture. When the milk is boiling, take it off the heat and start to temper the egg yolk mixture with it by pouring it slowly into the bowl while whisking at the same time. When everything is well combined pour everything back into the sauce pan, bring it to medium heat and continue stirring. It is very important to keep whisking while bringing the mixture to a boil, so it does not stick to the pan and it does not form lumps. You will see after a few minutes, the mixture will start to thicken up, keep on whisking until all the flour is cooked out. The pastry cream is finished, when you taste it and there is no more flavour of flour. Take it off the heat, spread it on a plate, cover it with clingfilm so it is touching the pastry cream and put it into the fridge to cool down.
At this time the puff pastry should be finished with its baking. Take the puff pastry and cut it with a bread knife very gently into squares of 5cm x 10cm. Once you got your cut squares, place them again on a baking tray and bake them for another 5 minutes at 180°C in the oven until they are golden brown and perfectly crunchy.
For your crème diplomate take the pastry cream out of the fridge and whip it up in a bowl with a whisk, so it becomes a smooth texture. In another bowl, whip up the double or whipping cream until soft peak to create a crème chantilly. When it is done, carefully fold the pastry cream into the crème chantilly until everything is well combined.
Now it comes to the assembling:
Take one square of the puff pastry, either spread or pipe with a piping bag the crème diplomate on top, then take a second square of puff pastry and spread or pipe again crème diplomate on it. Finish the Millefeuille with a third and last square of puff pastry. Finally dust the Millefeuille with icing sugar and eat it as soon as possible, so you can still enjoy the crunchiness of the puff pastry.
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