French cuisine · Desserts & Sweets

Millefeuille

Three layers of caramelized puff pastry with vanilla cream, topped with marbled white icing.

Ingredients · for 6 servings

• 2 rolls of puff pastry (275g each)
• 200g powdered sugar
• 500ml milk
• 1 vanilla pod
• 5 egg yolks
• 120g sugar
• 45g cornstarch
• 60g butter
• 50g dark chocolate

Instructions

1. Roll out the puff pastry, place each sheet on a baking tray, weigh down with baking paper and a second tray, and bake at 200°C (400°F) conventional heat for 20 min. so it stays flat.
2. Remove the weight, dust the pastry with 40g of the powdered sugar and bake for another 6–8 min. until the sugar caramelizes to a glossy finish; let cool completely.
3. Bring the milk to the boil with the scraped-out vanilla seeds; whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch, stir in the hot milk and let everything thicken at a bubbling boil for 2 min.
4. Stir the butter into the hot cream, cover with cling film, chill for 2 hours, then whisk smooth and fill into a piping bag.
5. Cut the puff pastry with a serrated knife into 18 rectangles of about 10 × 5 cm and pipe two layers of cream between three sheets each – this makes six pastries.
6. Mix the remaining powdered sugar with 2–3 tbsp water into a thick icing, spread over the top layer, pipe lines of melted chocolate across it and marble with a toothpick.