Mille-feuille
A French dessert consisting of stacked layers of puff pastry and cream filling, with a crisp texture.
Ingredients
cake flour
150 g
bread flour (Ingredient A)
50 g
salt
1/2 tsp
cold water
110 ml
unsalted butter
150 g
pastry cream (for sandwiching; refer to P30 fruit tart)
160 g
heavy cream
80 ml
powdered sugar
to taste
strawberries (hulled and sliced thinly)
to taste
blueberries
to taste
mint leaves
to taste
Instructions
1
Preliminary Preparation
Refer to steps 1–7 on P34–P35 to make the pastry cream. Place the butter in the refrigerator. Sift ingredient A together and place it in the refrigerator. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 200°C before baking. Hull the strawberries and slice them thinly.
2
Kneading the Dough
Place ingredient A from P106 and the salt in a bowl, make a well in the center, and pour in the cold water. Mix together, then knead by hand until there are no lumps.
3
Shaping and Resting
Shape the dough from step 1 into a ball, cut a deep cross on top, wrap with plastic wrap, and rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
4
Preparing the Butter
Place the chilled butter in a plastic bag and pound it with a rolling pin. Pound it into a square (15 cm or less on each side) so it is as pliable as the dough from step 2.
5
Rolling the Dough
Remove the plastic wrap from the dough in step 2, place it on a work surface dusted with bread flour (extra, not in the ingredient list), and pull apart along the cross with your fingers. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough from step 4 into a square slightly larger than the butter.
6
Wrapping the Butter
Place the butter from step 3 in the center of the dough from step 5, with edges and corners aligned. Fold the four corners of the dough over and pinch the seams closed.
7
Folding the Dough
Dust some flour (extra, not in the ingredient list) on step 6, and use a rolling pin to roll it out to 3 times its original size. Fold the top 1/3 of the dough from step 7 down, and fold the bottom 1/3 up. Then rotate the dough 90° and repeat steps 7–8 twice.
8
Resting
After repeating twice, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Especially in summer, the dough can easily become soft at room temperature, so chill it longer.
9
Shaping
Remove the plastic wrap from the dough in step 9, place it on a work surface dusted with bread flour (extra, not in the ingredient list), and roll with a rolling pin to a size of 24 cm x 36 cm, 3 mm thick. Then cut into 6 squares of 12 cm each.
10
Baking
Place the dough from step 10 on a baking sheet, prick some holes with a fork, and bake in the preheated 200°C oven for 15–18 minutes. During baking, place a wire on the dough to prevent it from puffing up.
11
Assembly
Place the heavy cream in a bowl, whip until it reaches soft peaks, then fold together with the pastry cream. Layer the cream, fruit, and pastry sheets in that order on the baked pastry, repeat the same layering, dust with powdered sugar, and garnish with a few mint leaves.
