Mille-feuille (translated to mean a thousand layers) is a classic French pastry that can be simple to build as long as all the components are readily available. It consists of baked puff pastry or laminated dough (made up of layers) sandwiched with a cream of choice and topped with icing sugar. Some recipe variations have fruit layered in as well.

Since its components can be bought from a store, this pastry can be made in a few minutes. Thus, today's recipe is for those willing to forego the process of making every component to save time when making their very own Mille-feuille.

The recipe

Pastry ingredients:

  • 250 grams of puff pastry
  • Three tbsp icing sugar as needed

Cream Chantilly ingredients:

  • Two cups heavy cream, cold
  • Two tbsp icing sugar
  • Half tsp vanilla extract

Icing ingredients:

  • One cup icing sugar
  • One to two tbsp milk
  • Half tsp vanilla extract
  • A few drops of coloring of your choice

Pastry directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C. Dust a surface with flour and place the pastry flat on top. Roll the pastry out into a 16 by eight-inch rectangle.
  2. Put the pastry onto a non-stick baking sheet and dust with the icing sugar. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until it turns crisp and golden.
  3. Remove the pastry from the oven and set to cool.

Cream Chantilly directions:

  1. Chill a bowl and whisk over an ice bath for the cream. Whisk together the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract until it forms soft peaks.
  2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the whipped cream in the refrigerator until it's ready to be used for the Mille-feuille.

Icing directions:

  1. Combine the icing sugar, one tablespoon of the milk, and vanilla extract in a bowl using a wooden spoon. Add another tablespoon of milk if needed to reach the desired consistency.
  2. Gradually stir in enough drops of the food coloring to reach the desired tint for the icing. Keep stirring until fully mixed.

Assembly directions:

  1. When the pastry has cooled, place it onto a cutting board and cut into three long, equal strips using a bread knife.
  2. Transfer the whipped cream to a piping bag and pipe a line around the surface of one of the pastry strips and into the middle. Turn the next strip upside down and place it on top of the cream-layered one. Pipe a similar lining on top of the next strip and place the third on top. Do not flip upside down.
  3. Serve immediately, glazed with the colored icing

Serves 6.

Variations

  • Raspberry Mille-feuille: Add a border of raspberries around the edges of each cream layer before stacking the pastry.
  • Chocolate Mille-feuille: Add shavings of bittersweet chocolate on top of the cream and icing.
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