Vanilla Millefeuille

Before starting this Vanilla Millefeuille recipe, organise all the necessary ingredients for the reverse puff pastry.

For the reverse puff pastry: In a food mixer recipient, shape the flour into a well. If you don't have a stand mixer, you can totally make puff pastry from scratch. Arrange the flour in the shape of a fountain on your workbench. Add the salt...

... and cold water.

Using the dough hook, start kneading at low speed to incorporate the flour, then increase the speed...

... until a ball forms. If you are not using a mixer, gather the flour with your fingers by drawing it into the water until all the flour is incorporated and you obtain a ball.

Remove the dough from the bowl...

... and wrap in cling film.

Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. You can prepare the dough the day before and store in the fridge overnight.

For the preparation of the butter: Shape the flour into a fountain. Place the butter in the centre. The butter should be at room temperature, cut into cubes.

With your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour...

... until homogeneous. Shape the butter into a rectangle, with a thickness of 1 cm.

Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. You can prepare the butter the day before and store in the fridge overnight.

For the turns: Place the butter on a floured surface.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the butter into a long strip.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle, to the same width and half the length of the butter strip. Place the dough rectangle in the centre of the butter strip.

Fold the top part over the dough...

... then the bottom part. The dough should be wrapped with butter.

Roll out lengthwise, to a thickness of 1 cm.

For the first double turn: Fold the top quarter of the dough over.

Remove the flour excess with a flour brush or a pastry brush. This is really important, as we don't want to add any extra flour to the dough.

Fold the bottom quarter of the dough over.

The ends should not meet in the centre. There should be a gap of approximately 2 cm.

Fold the dough in half from the gap in the centre.

This operation is called a double turn (which equals two single turns). This folding method is also called "portefeuille" ("wallet turn").

Wrap the dough block in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Place the dough on a floured surface, with the folds to the side.

For the second double turn: Roll out lengthwise, to a thickness of 1 cm. Of course, you can use a manual laminator for this recipe.

Fold the top quarter of the dough over.

Fold the bottom quarter of the dough over.

The ends should not meet in the centre. There should be a gap of approximately 2 cm.

Fold the dough in half from the gap in the centre. The second double turn is now complete. Inside-out puff pastry requires two double turns and one single turn.

Wrap the dough block in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

For the single turn: Place the dough on a floured surface, with the folds to the side.

Roll out lengthwise, to a thickness of 1 cm.

Fold the top third of the dough over...

... then fold the bottom third over. There should be three layers of pastry. Wrap the dough block in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

The reverse puff pastry is now finished. The longer you store it in the fridge, the better the results. I strongly recommend making this pastry the day before.

For the vanilla crème mousseline: Organise all the necessary ingredients.

Pour the milk in a saucepan and add half of the sugar. The sugar will prevent the milk from burning and sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Cut the vanilla pods in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds with a knife.

Add the vanilla pods and seeds to the milk. Bring to a boil.

In a mixing bowl, place the egg yolks and the remaining castor sugar.

Blanch with a whisk.

Add the cornflour. If you don't have any cornflour, you can replace it with potato starch.

Whisk well until homogeneous.

When the milk reaches 60°C, pour it over the castor sugar and egg yolks mix.

Whisk constantly while pouring the milk.

Transfer the preparation into the recipient used to boil the milk.

Cook the cream for 3-4 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly to prevent the sauce from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Cook until thick...

... and add 20 grams of butter. Combine vigorously until the butter is completely melted and incorporated.

Pour the cream into a large dish and spread to a thin layer. Cover with cling film and refrigerate.

Roll out the puff pastry to a thickness of 3 mm.

Cut a sheet of greaseproof paper to the dimensions of the puff pastry baking tray and place it inside the bottom pan. Arrange the pastry rectangle over the greaseproof paper...

... and spread over the whole surface.

Cut the pastry excess with a knife, along the edge of the baking sheet...

... so it perfectly fits inside the tray.

Place another sheet of greaseproof paper over the pastry.

Slide both parts of the tray together to enclose the dough.

Bake in a fan-assisted oven preheated at 200°C (gas 6). When the pastry starts to rise inside the tray, reduce the temperature to 180°C...

... and bake between 20 and 30 minutes. Cooking time may vary according to the type of oven.

The cooked pastry should look like this. Open the baking tray and lift the greaseproof paper to check whether the pastry needs to cook for longer.

If you want to caramelise the puff pastry, remove the greaseproof paper on top. Drizzle icing sugar over the pastry. The layer should be very thin to get a perfect caramelization of the surface of the pastry, with no sugar clusters...

... as shown in the photo.

Bake in a preheated oven at 240°C. Make sure you caramelize the pastry at a high temperature.

It will take only a few minutes in a really hot oven...

... for the pastry to become caramelised and glossy.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Cut the pastry lengthwise to create 3 identical rectangles. The rectangles should have a length of 8 or 9 cm and the same width as the baking tray.

Stack the 3 pastry rectangles on top of each other and trim the edges with a serrated knife.

Arrange the 3 pastry rectangles...

... on a baking sheet. The two rectangles on top have the caramelised side facing up while the rectangle at the bottom should have the caramelised side facing down.

For the vanilla crème mousseline (continued): Place 120 grams of soft butter in the stand mixer recipient.

Whisk for a good 5 minutes. The butter should be smooth and pale.

Take the pastry cream out of the fridge and add it the bowl.

Combine vigorously until smooth.

The cream might have a grainy consistency, which is caused by the temperature gap between the cold cream and the warm butter. Slightly heat the sides of the bowl with the blow torch while beating at high speed. Make sure the butter doesn't melt.

The crème mousseline should be perfectly smooth. Transfer the cream into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle Ø 10 mm. At this stage, you can leave the cream to set in the fridge for 30 minutes or 1 hour.

Pipe the cream on the puff pastry rectangles. Start with the rectangle with the caramelized side facing down. Pipe small drops of cream into tight rows.

Repeat the operation with the second pastry rectangle and pipe the vanilla crème mousseline on top. Reserve in the fridge for 30 minutes.

For the Chantilly cream: Organise all the necessary ingredients.

Combine the icing sugar and the whipped cream stabilizer. It is important to blend these two ingredients together beforehand to avoid lumps.

Place the cold whipping cream in the food mixer recipient. I recommend freezing the whipping cream for a little bit beforehand.

Add the icing sugar and stabilizer mix, as well as a few drops of vanilla flavouring.

Beat until you obtain a firm whipped cream. The stabilizer allows you to make whipped cream that holds its texture longer.

Fit a piping bag with a Saint-Honoré nozzle...

... and fill with the Chantilly cream. Store the piping bag in the fridge until ready to use.

Take the pastry rectangle in the middle (the one with the caramelized side facing up)...

... and place it carefully on top of the first one (with the caramelized side facing down).

Put the plain pastry rectangle on top, caramelized side facing up.

Decorate the surface with Chantilly cream. Pipe the Chantilly cream in a zigzag pattern, starting from one corner with a thin lace...

... and making a thicker lace in the centre to finish with a thin lace again at the opposite corner. Make sure you're using the nozzle correctly, with the V-shaped peak facing up.

Sprinkle a few gold flakes over the Chantilly topping with the tip of a knife. Reserve in the fridge until ready to serve.