Anyone can easily make this fancy French dessert and feel like a professional pastry chef. Mille feuille is one of those desserts that looks decadent and difficult to make. However, we have a secret. Mille feuille is actually quite easy! You can make this perfect French dessert in just minutes and with very few ingredients. Give this recipe a try and it may become your favorite go-to party dessert.
What is Mille Feuille?
Mille Feuille dessert is a traditional French pastry made up of thin layers of puff pastry and a cream filling, it is one of my favorite puff pastry desserts. It traditionally consists of three layers of puff pastry with pastry cream filling in the alternate two layers. It is the French cousin of the vanilla slice or custard slice dessert. The top pastry layer is decorated in various ways, sometimes it is topped with whipped cream like this recipe, and sometimes it may be dusted with icing sugar. Or, it might be glazed with icing.
Napoleon vs Mille Feuille
You might have heard that in the United States, Mille Feuille is also known as Napoleon. Although the two recipes are very similar, there is one significant distinction: mille feuille is made with vanilla pastry cream, while a Napoleon is made with almond cream. To add to the confusion, there is also a cake called Napoleon Cake which is the layered cake version of puff pastry sheets and vanilla cream.
Find the Napoleon cake recipe here: Napoleon Cake
Ingredients
Puff pastry
1 package Puff pastry sheets or make this rough puff pastry or traditional puff pastry from scratch
Cream filling
- 2 cups Whole milk
- ½ cup Granulated sugar
- 80 g Egg yolk approx. yolk of 4-5 eggs
- ⅕ cup Cornstarch
- ⅕ cup All-purpose flour
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla bean paste
- ¼ cup Unsalted butter soft - will be mixed into pastry cream straight after it is cooked
- ¾ cup Unsalted butter soft - will be whipped into the pastry cream to make the mousseline cream
Decoration
- ⅔ cup Heavy cream 36% fat, use it very cold
- ⅓ cup Powdered sugar
Optionally make the puff pastry from scratch
If you're making the puff pastry from scratch (which I recommend for the most authentic experience), be sure to visit either this rough puff pastry dough or this traditional puff pastry recipe. Once your dough has rested in the fridge, you can move on to baking as per the next slide. Alternatively, use a pack of store-bought puff pastry.
Then bake the pastry
- Preheat oven to 374F (no fan).
- To bake the puff pastry sheet, use two large trays. I am using two 18x12 inches.
- Remove your dough from the fridge and roll it out into a large rectangle, the size of your baking trays. Cover a large tray with parchment paper, and place the puff pastry sheet on top.
- Then, use a fork to poke small holes all around the surface of the pastry. Cover the dough with another layer of parchment paper and place another large tray on top.
- Bake for 30 min in between the two trays, then remove the top tray, lightly dust the pastry with powdered sugar, and caramelize the pastry at 428F for an additional 10 minutes.
- Once the large rectangle of puff pastry is golden brown, remove it from the oven and let it come to room temperature.
Make a pastry cream
Also read: How to make pastry cream
- In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg yolks until slightly fluffy. Whisk in the cornstarch, flour, and vanilla extract until smooth.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the milk to a simmer, then remove it from the stove and slowly pour the warm milk over the egg yolk mixture, whisking vigorously with a hand whisk.
- Pour the hot milk mixture back into the saucepan to cook over medium heat until thick, smooth, and glossy.
- Keep whisking until the cream is smooth and glossy. You can pour it through a strainer to get rid of any stubborn lumps.
- Fold in the room temperature butter in three stages, fully incorporating the butter at each addition.
- Pour the pastry cream into a shallow dish and cover it with plastic wrap while it cools to room temperature.
Then prepare the mousseline cream filling
Also read: How to make mousseline cream
Prepare the mousseline cream by whipping room temperature butter for 1-2 minutes. Whip the pastry cream to the butter in 4 stages until the cream reaches a stable yet fluffy texture. Place the cream back into the fridge for an hour so you'll be working with a chilled pastry cream.
Assemble
- While still on the baking sheet, using a serrated sharp knife trim the pastry sheet and cut it into 4x1.5 inches rectangles. Do your best to group the rectangles into groups of 3 and pair the most similar pastry rectangles next to each other.
- Using a round tip, pipe the pastry cream onto one piece of puff pastry. Place another one of your puff pastry layers on top, then pipe more cream. Then, place another piece of puff pastry on it. Repeat the process 8 more times. In the end, you will have 8 individual pastries.
- Refrigerate your mille feuille before decorating to help retain firmness.
Decorate
Mille feuille is traditionally decorated with icing and feathered into a chevron pattern. However, I decorated mine with chantilly cream. This modern interpretation was inspired by the pastry chefs I observed in Paris. It adds a delicate touch to the final dessert and tastes lovely too.
- Pour the heavy cream and powdered sugar into a bowl
- Whip the heavy cream and powdered sugar just until the mixture thickens, do not overwhip.
- Rather than decorating the top layer, turn the mille feuille on its side and pipe the decoration on top.
- Serve the same day. Any leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Expert tips
- Pay attention to the required ingredient temperatures. For example, while the butter needs to be very cold in order to craft the perfect puff pastry, the butter needs to be at room temperature in order to whip up the perfect mousseline cream.
- Stop whipping your pastry cream with butter as soon as it gets fluffy. It will only take about 1-2 minutes to reach the perfect consistency. Letting it continue to whip can break the cream, making it runny and unstable.
For more expert tips visit the original Mille Feuille recipe at Spatula Desserts.
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This article was originally published as Mille Feuille recipe at Spatula Desserts.
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