Hello,

In this Instructable I will show you how to make a fascinating French dessert, mille feuille. The word itself means a thousand leaves and the name speaks for itself. Three layers of crispy puff pastry joined together by some sort of a cream and generally accompanied by fruits.

It was not the first time I made this dessert, but the first time ever I made the puff pastry myself. I always wanted to try it but it seemed so difficult and risky, but lately I found a simplified recipe that seemed to be manageable. It was.

I know that here are still a lot of steps in this Instructable, but you might as well make this recipe using store – bought puff pastry and you may skip a lot of steps.

As it is the middle of strawberry season here and they also grow in our garden, I chose strawberries to go with the pastry, and so as to play around a little, I made a curd with whipped cream to go between the pastry layers, a strawberry cream spread on the first pastry layer and strawberry caviar … just to hear those "what’s that?, what’s that?, peeled redcurrant?" questions from the kids.

Step 1: You'll Need

For the dough:

250 g all – purpose flour
250 g butter
100 g ice cold water
a pinch of salt
approximately 2 tablespoons of melted butter
2-3 tablespoons of powdered sugar for dusting

For the strawberry puree (base of everything else bellow):

500 g strawberries
50 g sugar

For the strawberry cream:

160 g strawberry puree
juice of ½ a lemon
1 egg
1 egg yolk
40 g sugar
40 g butter
15 g corn starch
120 g double cream

For the strawberry spread:

100 g strawberry puree
4 g corn starch

For the strawberry caviar:

100 g strawberry puree
40 g lemon juice
1 g (1/2 tsp) agar - agar
250 ml very cold vegetable oil (Put it into the fridge in a jar at least 3 hours before you get to making the caviar, so that it'll have time to get really cold - I kept it in the 0 Celsius zone of the fridge.)

Tools:

stand mixer
serrated knife
parchment paper
saucepan
baking trays
cling film
rolling pin
brush
sieve (big and small)
lemon strainer
syringe
piping bag
cutting board
hand mixer
blender

Step 2: Strawberry Puree

This will be the starting point to make all other elements in the dessert except for the pastry.

Wash strawberries, remove stems (in this order otherwise water can go in through the hole and the strawberries may become soggy).

Chop them, add sugar, mix, blend. Keep in the fridge until further use.

Step 3: Puff Pastry

(if you chose to use store bought version, jump to step 7.)

The most important thing when making puff pastry is to keep it cold because we don't want the butter to melt as it will be these tiny pieces of butter that keep the layers separated and result in the flakiness we are looking for.

Cut the butter into cubes and put it into the freezer for 20 minutes.

Measure the flour into the mixing bowl, add salt and mix.

Add the butter cubes (not all in a large chunk, try to separate the cubes and when there seems to be no more empty space left in the bowl, toss them in order to have them coated with flour). Mix with the paddle attachment at low speed, when the dough starts to come together (60 – 90 seconds), add the ice – cold water in 3 batches and keep mixing for roughly another 30 seconds.

Do not overwork the dough. It is ready when you think it is not ready yet, you need to see pieces of butter in the mixture!

Step 4:

Dump it onto a lightly floured work surface, quickly bring it together, flatten it into a rectangle then wrap it tightly in a piece of cling film and place it into the fridge for an hour or for 20 minutes into the freezer.

Step 5: Creating Layers

It is the rolling and folding with the pieces of butter inside that will help create those beautiful layers.

So, take the dough out of the fridge and - on a lightly floured work surface - gently roll it into a rectangle of which one side is roughly three times as long as the other. With the short side facing you, fold the dough like an envelope that is till 1/3 from the bottom, then fold over the top (pics 3-4.).

Turn the dough 90 degrees and repeat the process (roll and fold).

When you are ready, wrap it into a cling film and put it back into the fridge / freezer for the period indicated in step 4.

Repeat the rolling – folding – cooling two more times. On the last occassion I spread some melted butter in a very thin layer on the rolled - out dough before folding, just to make sure.

Step 6: Ready to Bake (almost)

When the last rest - cool period is over after the 3rd folding, place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and divide it into two parts. Roll both parts (one after the other) to roughly 2 mm thin rectangles (I got two 25 x 25 cm rectangles). Gently roll it on the rolling pin and transfer it onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Cover with cling film and put it back into the fridge for another hour.

Step 7: Baking

When the end of the very last cooling period is approaching, preheat the oven to 200 Celsius. Take the dough out of the fridge, remove the cling film, place another piece of parchment on top then place another baking tray on top of the parchment – this helps weigh the pastry down during baking so it doesn’t puff up too much.

Bake for 20 minutes, take out of the oven, remove the parchment on top, dust with powdered sugar and put it back into the oven for another 6 - 8 minutes (until the sugar melts and caramelizes slightly). Wait till it cools completely, trim the edges straight with a serrated knife then cut it into the desired size (mine was 8x3.5 cm).

Step 8: Strawberry Curd

Put 160 g strawberry puree into a saucepan, add lemon juice and bring it to boil. In a separate bowl, whisk egg, yolk and sugar until the color of the mixture gets pale. While stirring continuously add the hot strawberry mixture to the egg mixture. Add corn starch, and bring the mixture to boil and cook it for 1-2 minutes. Set it aside, add butter, transfer into a mug and keep it in the fridge until further use.

Step 9: Strawberry Caviar

Put strawberry puree, lemon juice and agar agar into a saucepan, bring it to boil and cook it for 2 minutes. Strain using a fine – mesh sieve. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Using a syringe, drop droplets of strawberry puree into the chilled oil. It will form pearls at the bottom.

Use a strainer to remove the pearls from the oil and wash them with lukewarm water. Pat dry on kitchen towel or paper towel. Use straight away or keep in the fridge in an airtight container.

Step 10: Strawberry Spread

Put strawberry puree and cornstarch into a saucepan, cook for 2 minutes until it gets dense.

Step 11: Finish Strawberry Filling

Pour double cream into the mixing bowl, and whisk it on high speed until stiff peaks form. Add 1/3 of the curd, fold it in, then the rest of the curd in two parts and fold all in gently. Transfer it into a piping bag.

Step 12: Assembly

Take a piece of pastry, spread a thin layer of strawberry spread, pipe small piles of strawberry cream on top, and place another piece of pastry atop. Then comes another layer of strawberry cream and another pastry. Decorate with more cream on top, fresh strawberries and caviars scattered around and on top.