NY Food Muse: February 2014

In Italian, this dessert is called Millefoglie. In French, Mille Feuille. It means "thousand leaves" for the fact that the puff pastry when cut looks like thousands of leaves have been stacked in between a custard. This cake is traditional for all big events, especially as wedding cakes, anniversaries and birthdays. I don't like cake, so this is what my mom made sure I had for every birthday cake!

There are two parts to this dessert: the puff pastry and the filling. The pastry you should make the night before, and the custard filling the day of and assemble the millefoglie shortly before serving.

The pastry: I hear you can use a store bought pastry and it comes out just as good. These days I am sure it is! ....But that is not how we do things here.

2 cups flour

1 cup cold water

Pinch of salt

1 tsp of vanilla powder

2 cups of flour

2 sticks of butter, 1 tsp butter

For the dough there are two steps. No matter how much you make, always have equal amounts of flour divided between the two doughs. The first dough that you make is just water and flour.

1. In a large bowl, measure out two cups of flour, mix in your salt and vanilla. Slowly add in your water a few milliliters at a time. Knead it and form it into a ball. Score the top and wrap in in Saran Wrap and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

The second dough contains the butter.

2. In a large bowl measure out two cups of flour. Take your butter and cut it into squares. It should be extremely soft. Mix with your hands until you see little pea sized beads begin to form. Then knead it the best you can. It will barely stick together because of all the butter. Form it into a square and wrap it in Saran Wrap. Put it in the refrigerator as well.

3. Putting them together.

Roll out the first flour water dough into a cross shape and place the butter dough in the middle.

4. Wrap the square. Fold each corner over the butter.

5. Roll it out. When rolling, always roll from the center out. Never go in opposing ways. Roll the dough out to a long vertical strip.

6. Folding. The folds help you get the layers within the single layer of pastry. That is why you shouldn't press too hard or roll it out in different ways that won't allow it to remain seperate.

This is the basic fold. Then turn it vertically in front of you, and roll it out again. Repeat the folding a total of three times. And then put it in the fridge, in Saran Wrap for 39 minutes. Repeat 3-4 times. Then let sit overnight, about 12 hours.

Side note*

There are more kinds of folds you can do. You can incorporate it after each of the above more simple folds, or one time each time before you Saran Wrap it.

7. Roll out the dough and cut out what size layers you want. Many italians do circle shaped cakes, and french do rectangle. Poke a few holes with your fork, not too many to help air travel through the dough. Leave a quarter inch around, so you account for shrinkage and cutting later on. Brush parchment paper with oil and place your dough into the paper. Brush dough with water and sprinkle with sugar. Cover with another peice of parchment and use another metal cookie sheet to place on top. This will help it to puff evenly.

8. Bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Take out and turn over. Brush lightly with water and sprinkle with sugar. Return to oven ten more minutes and then let cool.

With the scraps, make decorations to put around the cake later on.

Custard filling:

2 egg yolks

1 1/2 cups of milk

1/2 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of flour

2 tsp of vanilla

1 lemon slice

Fresh whip cream.

1. Heat milk.

2. Combine the eggs, flour, sugar and vanilla. Wisk together.

3. Ladle in the hot milk a little bit at a time mixing thoroughly. When all the milk has been added clean the pot and return the mixture to the stove.