Mille Feuille (VIDEO)

5 from 6 votes

Mille Feuille is a classic dessert defined by its alternating flaky puff pastry layers and smooth vailla cream filling. This recipe makes the French treat easy to follow, breaking it down step by step so that you can recreate the beautiful bakery treat right in your own kitchen.

Prep Time1

Cook Time40

Waiting Time1

Total Time2 40

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: French

Servings:

Calories: 323kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

Puff pastry

1 package Puff pastry sheets or make my rough puff pastry or traditional puff pastry from scratch

Cream filling

500 g Whole milk
100 g Granulated sugar
80 g Egg yolk approx. yolk of 4-5 eggs
25 g Corn starch
25 g All-purpose flour
1 Teaspoon Vanilla bean paste
50 g Unsalted butter soft - will be mixed into pastry cream straight after it is cooked
150 g Unsalted butter soft - will be whipped into the pastry cream to make the mousseline cream

Decoration

150 g Heavy cream 36% fat, use it ver cold
35 g Powdered sugar

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Start with the pastry cream

In a large enough bowl with the help of a Hand whisk, whisk together sugar and egg yolk until slightly fluffy for about 1-2 minutes
Mix in corn starch, flour, and vanilla until throughly incorporated and have a smooth paste
Bring milk to simmer in a saucepan on medium heat then remove it from the stove.
Pour the warm milk over the egg yolk mixture slowly while whisking vigorously with a Hand whisk.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat for a few minutes until it thickens. Concretely it is approximately 1 min after the first boil. It might get lumpy first, don't worry just keep whisking and the cream will get smooth and glossy
If in doubt, strain the pastry cream for a lump free, creamy end result.
Add in room temperature soft butter and mix with a rubber spatula until completely incorporated. It is worth to add the butter in 3 stages and mix well after each addition.
Place the cream into a shallow bowl and cover the entire surface with plastic wrap to avoid skin forming on top. Let it come to room temperature

Make the mousseline cream

Crème mousseline can be made with room temp pastry cream and room temp butter. Make sure everything is at room temp otherwise the mixture might curdle
Once pastry cream cooled to room temp, prepare the mousseline cream by whipping room temp butter first for 1-2 minutes. Start adding in the room temp pastry cream in 4 stages until cream reaches a stable yet fluffy texture.
Do not over whip the mixture as it can become runny or can curdle. The cream mgiht be on the soft side at this point due to the room temp butter used so place it back into the fridge for an hour to chill before using it.

Bake the puff pastry sheets

Pre-heat oven to 190C / 374F (no fan)
If using my homemade puff pastry recipe, prepare the pastry according to the instructions, then roll the pastry into a large rectangle.
The pastry will be baked in between two large (18 x 12 inches) so it will puff up more evenly. Cover a large tray with parchment paper, place the puff pastry sheet on top then poke small holes with a fork all around the surface of the pastry. Cover the dough with another layer of parchment paper and place another large tray on top.
Bake the pastry at 190C / 374F for 30 min in between the two trays, then remove the top tray, lightly dust the pastry with powdered sugar and bake / caramelize the pastry for a further 10 minutes at 220C / 428F
Once the puff pastry sheets are golden brown, remove it from the oven and let it come to room temperature

Assemble

Trim the side of the pastry sheet using a serrated knife then cut about 24 10x4cm / 4x1.5 inches rectangles. The pastry will be a bit crumbly, but don´t worry, do your best to group the rectangles into groups of 3 and pair the similar ones next to each other.
Pipe the cream filling onto one piece of puff pastry. Place another piece of pastry on top then pipe more cream on top and then place another piece of puff pastry on it. Repeat the process 8 more times, overall you will get 8 pieces of Mille Feuille
Refrigerate before decorating

Decoration

Whip up the cream and powdered sugar just until the mixture thickens, do not overwhip
Turn the Mille Feuille on the side and pipe the decoration on top. Optionally, decorate with vanilla bean
Serve the same day. Any leftovers can be stored refrigerated for 2-3 days

Video

Notes

INGREDIENT NOTES:

Measure your ingredients with a Digital scale for accuracy
Good quality butter and pure vanilla are the heart of making the cream. Use high-quality 82% fat content European butter and the best quality vanilla you can access. Whole milk is recommended to make the pastry cream as opposed to skinny milk.
Fresh, farm eggs will provide bright yellow color cream, while cheaper supermarket eggs will result in a pale cream
For the best result, make homemade puff pastry, either the traditional way or in a quicker way using my rough puff pastry recipe

TECHNIQUE NOTES:

Make sure you read my Expert tips section above to maximize your success. A short recipe alone is not able to cover all the necessary details, and science behind baking.
Use a good quality milk pan to cook pastry cream so the milk won´t burn in it
While making Creme mousseline, it is crucial that both the pastry cream as well as the butter is at room temperature. If the mixture curdles while whipping, most probably the two were NOT at the same temperature. You can fix it by gently warming up the bowl with a hair dryer while the mixer is on at low speed.
Do not walk away while whipping this cream, it will be ready in 1-2 minutes (depending on the power of your mixer) and can be easily overwhipped
German buttercream is beautifully pipeable either straight after whipping it up or after one hour of chilling time. If kept longer in the fridge, the butter will fully solidify just like any other buttercream and you won´t be able to pipe it until bringing it back to somewhat room temperature
If making puff pastry from scratch, make sure to check my tips and trick at the respective recipes rough puff pastry or traditional puff pastry
When assembling the Mille Feuille, make sure that the cream is stiff enough

Nutrition