Mille-feuille or Napolean....Yup! I m a Daring Baker!!

Our October 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full. Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it step further and create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it!

Mille Feuille...Meel Foy...Meel Fwey?? I was so distressed! I thought, Oh my God! I can't even pronounce it, how the @#$% I'll make it!!

But then one Sunday afternoon, googling around the net, this happened and I was so taken by this girl's enthusiasm that I decided to tackle this Puffed-up issue right away. Oh and BTW it's pronounced millFUHya!

Traditionally, a mille-feuille (it's french for "thousand leaves" or layers) is made up of three layers of puff pastry (pâte feuilletée), alternating with two layers of pastry cream (crème pâtissière), but sometimes whipped cream, or jam are substituted. The top pastry layer is dusted with confectioner's sugar, and sometimes cocoa, or pulverized seeds (e.g. roasted almonds). Alternatively the top is glazed with icing or fondant in alternating white (icing) and brown (chocolate) stripes, and combed.


I opted for rough puff pastry instead of the classic puff pastry, as it saves incredible amount of time and well, it also rises well (almost 75% as much as the classic). Also, I chose the whipped cream as filling as against the more classic pastry cream..just because I wanted a lighter version of this sinful dessert.

Mille-Feuille

Rough Puff Pastry
Adapted from Pastry, Savoury and Sweet by Michel Roux

Ingredients:
250 grams all purpose flour
250 grams chilled butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
125 ml (approximately) ice cold water

Method:
Put the flour in a mound on the work surface and make a well. Put in the butter and salt and work them together with the fingertips of one hand, gradually drawing the flour into the centre with the other hand.

When the cubes of the butter have become small pieces and the dough is grainy, gradually add the iced water and mix until it is all incorporated, but don't overwork the dough.

Okay, I got a little extra help from my almost-2-year-old super cute sous chef !

Roll it into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Flour the work surface and roll out the pastry into a 20x10 rectangle. Fold it into three and give it a quarter turn.

My apologies for the clumsy edges... as you can see I m really not good at it

Roll the block of pastry into 20x10 cm rectangle as before, and fold it into three again. These are the first two turns. Wrap the block in the cling film and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.

Give the chilled pastry another two turns, rolling and turning and folding as before. This makes a total of 4 turns, and the pastry is now ready. Wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for atleast 30 minutes before using.

Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper. Dust the work surface with lots of icing sugar and roll out the pastry to a rectangle just larger than 27 x 30cm/10½ x 12in, trimming the edges straight. It should be super thin, as thin as you can get it, without stretching the pastry.

Cut out 18 rectangles about 9cm/3½in long and 5cm/2in wide and place them on the prepared baking tray. Sprinkle with lots of icing sugar and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Remove the pastry from the fridge and bake in the oven for five minutes, then remove from the oven and sprinkle the pastry with more icing sugar. Return to the oven and bake for a further five minutes, or until the pastry turns golden-brown. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Whipped Cream
Ingredients:
165 ml whipping cream or double cream
25 grams icing sugar
2-3 drops of vanilla extract

Method:
Put the cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a large bowl and whip until medium-stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed from the bowl. Scoop the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm/½in straight nozzle.

Assembling the Mille-Feuille:

Place one of the pastry thins on a serving plate. Pipe blobs of cream over the pastry and put another pastry thin on top and repeat with one more layer. Sprinkle the top layer with more icing sugar and repeat until all the pastry and cream is used up.

Thank you Suz for a wonderful challenge and thank you  Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice for hosting this fab kitchen!! Do stop by here to see the awesome pastries made by the other Daring Bakers.