Mille-Feuille with Summer Berries (Sarabeth's Bakery)

When Lena from Frozen wings suggested mille-feuille for our bake-along with Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, I scratched my head and asked what is this...

Accordingly to Wikipedia, mille-feuille means a thousand leaves in French. It is like a vanilla or custard slice which is also known as the Napoleon. Traditionally, a mille-feuille is made up of three layers of puff pastry, alternating with two layers of pastry cream (or crème pâtissière in French).

For our bake-along, I'm making three mille-feuille with summer fruits to serve my family of three...

Mille-feuille with summer berries

My mille-feuille are very simple to make and contain these berries.

Originally, I want to use our home grown blueberries to serve with my mille-feuille but see here!!! Our berries were eaten by a boy and some random birds too quickly before I can harvest them!!!

Now, back to baking ...

First, I have to make my puff pastry just like the one that I had made for my apple turnovers.

The pastry is weighted with a second pan to create not too puffy bakes.

These smell very buttery and yummy!

Making the pastry cream.

Cover with plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the cream. Chill.

Before assembling, stir whipped cream into the chilled pastry cream.

Cut and combine the berries

Trim the pastry to expose the flaky layers

Stack them accordingly!

Voilà!

Bon appétit

Merci to our bake-along and Lena's suggestion.

I'm glad that I have learned well to make this beautiful French dessert. Plus, my 5 year old boy has also learned well to say "bon appétit", "Je te aime" and "ooh la la" because these are all that we said when we had our dessert.

Here's the recipe that is mostly adapted from the book, Sarabeth's Bakery: From My Hands to Yours.

Please note that the original recipe makes 6 but I have made 3 here.

Serve 3

all-purpose flour, for rolling the dough

250g puff pastry, please here to make your own puff pastry

About 250g summer fruits, like fresh blueberries and diced strawberries.

You can also use fresh raspberries, blackberries, diced kiwi or anything seasonal fruits if you wish.
pastry cream (please see below)
1/2 cup whipped cream (You can use the fat reduced one like the one I used)
Icing sugar to dust

Preheat oven to 400°F or 180°C fan forced. Line one large baking tray with baking paper.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll the puff pastry into a large rectangle with 5mm thickness. Using a knife and a ruler, cut the pastry into 9 rectangles in equal size. Arrange the pastry rectangles very closely on the prepared tray. Pierce them well with a fork. Top the pastries with another piece of baking paper and a second baking tray to weigh the pastries down. Bake for 15 mins.

Remove the second baking tray and the top layer of baking paper. Continue baking until the rectangles are crisp and golden brown, about 15 mins more. Cool completely. Using a knife, trim the edges of the baked pastries to expose the flaky layers.

Combine the fruits in a bowl. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

To make the pastry cream:
3/4 cup milk
1/4 vanilla bean or 1/4 tsp vanilla paste
2 large egg yolks
40g caster sugar
10g corn flour
Please note that this amount can be slightly excessive to serve 3 but personally, I think it is ok to make this extra amount as the leftover can be consumed with fresh fruit as a dessert on its own. Yum!

Pour the milk into a small saucepan. Split the bean lengthwise and add it to the saucepan. Squeeze the vanilla seeds from the vanilla bean or simply add vanilla paste into the milk. Bring the milk mixture to a simmer over medium heat.

Meanwhile, whisk the yolks and sugar together in another heatproof bowl until the mixture is pale yellow. Whisk in the corn flour. Gradually whisk in the hot milk mixture. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

Whisk constantly over medium heat, being sure to reach into the corners of the saucepan, until the pastry cream comes to a full boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 min. Continue whisking until the cream begins to thicken, about 1 min more. Discard the vanilla bean if required. Cover the pastry cream with plastic wrap pressed directly onto the surface of the cream. Cool completely.

To assemble the mille-feuille, whip the heavy cream in a chilled medium bowl with an electric mixer on high speed. Alternatively, you can use the ready-to-use whipped cream like the one that I used. Fold in the whipped cream into the pastry cream gently with small batches to lighten it.

Place a puff pastry strip on a dessert plate. Top with a dollop of the pastry cream and a spoonful of fruit. Top with a second pastry strip, more pastry cream, and more fruit. Finish with a third pastry strip. Sift icing sugar over the top and serve immediately.

Happy Baking
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Please note that the linky tool for bake-along is no longer available.