Milles Feuilles (Napoleon Pastry)
Description: The combination of snowy whipped cream, eggy custard, and crisp puff pastry is divine. An easy dessert that must be made fairly close to serving time to be enjoyed at its optimum. That is easy to do, as you can have all the different components ready and assemble shortly before eating.
- Cuisine: European
- Recipe Category: Dessert
- Keywords: European, Kid Friendly, Christmas, Weeknight, Brunch, < 4 Hours
Nutritional Information (per serving):
- Calories: 988
- Fat Content: 71.7g
- Saturated Fat Content: 32.4g
- Cholesterol Content: 246.6mg
- Sodium Content: 333.4mg
- Carbohydrate Content: 72.9g
- Fiber Content: 1.5g
- Sugar Content: 25g
- Protein Content: 13.6g
Ingredients:
| Quantity | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 1 | Frozen puff pastry |
| 3 cups | Milk |
| 1/3 cup | Sugar |
| 4 tsp | Vanilla extract |
| 1 tbsp | Cornflour |
| 1/2 cup | Butter |
| 3 1/2 tbsp | Icing sugar |
| 2 | Eggs |
Instructions:
For the Pastry Cream:
- Put 2 1/2 cups milk, sugar, vanilla, and almond extracts in a small boil to come to the boil.
- Dissolve the cornflour in the remaining milk and pour into hot milk.
- Whisk the cornflour into the milk and turn off heat.
- Beat the egg yolks in a medium-sized bowl and slowly whisk in some of the hot milk into the yolks, whisking all the while.
- Do this until you have incorporated nearly all the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly, to temper the yolks.
- Add any leftover milk mixture and place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard.
- Refrigerate and cool completely.
For the Whipped Cream:
- Place all ingredients in a mixer bowl and whip until snowy peaks form.
- Remove 1/3 of whipped cream and fold into pastry cream.
For the Pastry:
- Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C).
- Take 1 sheet of puff pastry and lay out flat, with the long side facing you.
- Cut in 1/2 lengthwise.
- Repeat with the other sheet of puff pastry, so you have 4 equal pieces.
- Butter a cookie sheet or baking pan large enough to contain the puff pastry pieces and place the pastry on the cookie sheet.
- Pierce the pastry all over with a fork.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 300°F (150°C) and bake for a further 35-40 minutes (pastry should be baked through and a deep golden-brown).
To Assemble:
- Place 1 sheet of pastry on a platter, spread with half of pastry cream, ensuring you don’t spread all the way out to the edges of the pastry.
- Place another sheet of pastry over and spread with the remainder of pastry cream.
- Place the third sheet of pastry over and spread the top and sides of the assembled pastry with whipped cream.
- Crumble up the fourth pastry sheet with your hands and sprinkle broken pieces of pastry on top of whipped cream and press some onto the sides.
- Place in the refrigerator for 1/2 hour to set.
- Just before serving, place 2 tablespoons of icing sugar into a sieve and sieve directly over the cake.
- Serve immediately.
Notes: This is a dessert that is quick to make and assemble but has to be eaten close to making, otherwise the puff pastry absorbs moisture and becomes soggy. A very nice variation is to thinly spread the first and second puff pastry sheet (the ones that you spread with the custard) with a thin scraping of seedless raspberry jam before you spread with custard. Enjoy your Milles Feuilles! 🍰
