Hope everyone is having a nice Saturday so far! If you remember, a couple of months ago I said that I had joined the Daring Bakers club and made the cappuccino eclairs. Well, I haven't been able to do any challenges since then, so when I read what this month's challenge would be, I absolutely had to do it!! We're making mille feuille, also known as napoleons or custard slices, which are basically layers of puff pastry, custard, and an icing.
Our October 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full.
Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it step further and
create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it!
Well, since I'd never made puff pastry or anything like this before, I didn't want to stray too far from the traditional dessert, but instead of a regular vanilla creme patisserie, I decided to incorporate a local fruit that is in season right now, the delicious passionfruit! I got three of the fresh fruit, boiled them with the milk and sugar for the creme, and then strained out the seeds to make a delicious, beautiful creme patisserie! Here's my full recipe:
Passion Fruit Mille Feuille
For the pastry:
- 1 3/4 cup flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup cold butter, cubed
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons cold water
beurrage:
- 14 tablespoons room temp butter
- 3 1/4 tablespoons flour
Pastry Directions:
- Cut the 1/4 cup of butter in to the 1 3/4 cups of flour and salt until the mixture resembles dry crumbs.
- Add the water to this mixture, kneading on a lightly floured surface for about three minutes or until the dough is smooth.
- Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
- While the dough is chilling, combine the room temp butter with the small amount of flour. Place between two sheets of plastic wrap and work into a 4in square. Chill for 10-15 minutes until the butter slightly firms up.
- Roll the chilled dough into a 6 inch square, place the beurrage in the middle, with each corner of the beurrage touching the center of one of the sides of the dough. Fold the corners of the dough over the beurrage and seal the edges.
- On a well-floured surface, roll the dough until it is a rectangle with about 1/4 in in thickness. Fold the right side towards the middle, and the left side over that, so you have a thin rectangle with three layers. Repeat the folding process, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for thirty minutes.
- Do two more folds and chill for 30 minutes.
- Do the final two folds and chill until needed. (Note: If your kitchen is really warm, like mine, you might want to just do one fold at a time and refrigerate)
For the Pastry Cream:
- 2 cups milk
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 whole passionfruit
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 whole eggs
- 1/4 cup butter, cubed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pastry Cream Directions:
- Combine 1/2 cup of the milk with the cornstarch, whisk until fully incorporated.
- In a medium sized pot, combine the rest of the milk, the sugar and the pulp of the passionfruit (including the seeds!). Bring to a boil, remove from heat, pour mixture through a strainer to remove seeds and set aside.
- Add yolks and then the whole eggs to the milk/cornstarch mixture, whisk to combine. Pour in about 1/3 of the warm milk mixture, always whisking in order to prevent the eggs from cooking.
- Bring the remaining milk back to a boil, add egg mixture, whisking as you pour. Cook, whisking constantly, over medium heat until it thickens.
- Beat in the butter and vanilla until incorporated, whisk until cream is smooth.
- Pour into a bowl, place plastic wrap on the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming, and refrigerate overnight so that the cream will thicken.
For the chocolate sauce:
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup sugar
- 8 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons flour
Directions:
- Heat milk, butter and vanilla in a medium pot.
- Combine sugar, cocoa and flour, and when the butter melts, add the dry ingredients to the pot.
- Stir constantly until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes.
Making the Mille Feuille:
- 1 batch pastry dough
- 1 batch pastry cream
- 1 batch fudge sauce
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 2 egg whites
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
Directions:
- Roll the dough out into a 12x18 in rectangle and cut into 3 equal parts.
- Place one of the sections on a piece of parchment paper and refrigerate the other two, place paper on a baking sheet, top with another piece of parchment and a pyrex dish.
- Bake at 400 or about 15 minutes, remove the pyrex and top layer of parchment, bake 10 more minutes or until dough browns. Repeat for the other two sections.
- Once the pastry has cooled, place one sheet on a flat board or dish, spread with half of your chilled pastry cream, place another sheet on top of that, top with remaining cream. Place the last sheet of dough on the top of everything, place in the fridge.
- While the pastry is chilling, make the royal icing. Whisk the whites and the lemon juice until frothy, stir in the sugar. It should be thick enough to make trails across the surface. If not, whisk in a bit more sugar.
- Remove pastry from fridge, pour glaze on it. Immediately drizzle the chocolate sauce over the top and refrigerate for a couple of hours so that everything sets.
