TABELIAAUTHENTIC RECIPE
Mille-Feuille à la VanilleVanilla Mille-Feuille
- Total
- 3 hr 55 min
- Difficulty
- ★★★☆☆
- Serves
- 8 servings
- Prep 1 hr 10 min
- Cook 1 hr 45 min
- Rest 1 hr
Three thin baked puff-pastry sheets enclose pastry cream scented with vanilla and kirsch. Powdered sugar finishes this layered pastry.
AUTHENTICITY SCORE
Authenticity Score
This is the standard recipe, exactly as it’s made where it comes from — the highest Authenticity Score possible. Substituting ingredients changes this score; the app shows exactly how, ingredient by ingredient.
Ingredients (8 servings)
100Authenticity- Frozen all-butter puff pastry3 sheets450 g total; divide into three 150 g pieces and form sheets about 20.5 cm square before the final rolling. Before starting, thaw in the refrigerator according to the package directions until flexible but still cold. Allow this variable advance preparation in addition to the recipe time; keep thawed pastry refrigerated.
- Whole milk500 ml
- Vanilla bean0.5 beanSplit lengthwise and scrape out the seeds
- Egg yolks4 yolks
- Granulated sugar125 g
- Plain cake flour90 g70 g for the cream, sifted, and 20 g for dusting. Use plain soft-wheat cake flour without added starch or leavening.
- Kirsch20 ml
- Powdered sugar50 g
Method
Cook vanilla pastry cream and spread flat to chill
- 1 Put 500ml milk, the vanilla bean pod and seeds in a saucepan and heat to just below boiling.
- 2 Mix 4 yolks and 125g sugar in a bowl until pale, then sift in 70g cake flour and mix.
- 3 Gradually pour in the hot milk, mixing, then return to the saucepan over medium heat and whisk constantly from the bottom.
- 4 When boiling and thickened, cook for 2 minutes, stirring, then turn off the heat and remove the pod.
- 5 Spread the crème pâtissière, or pastry cream, flat on a tray, press plastic wrap against its surface and chill in the refrigerator.
Ready when
Continue when the cream is glossy and firm enough to retain clear whisk marks.
Caution
Stopping the stirring can scorch the bottom and create lumps.
Roll the pastry to 3mm and prick all over
- 1 Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- 2 Divide the 450 g thawed cold pastry into three 150 g pieces and form sheets about 20.5 cm square. On a floured work surface, roll each to about 23 cm square and 3 mm thick.
- 3 Place on parchment and prick all over closely with a fork. Keep the 3 rolled sheets refrigerated until baking.
Ready when
Continue when all 3 sheets are evenly thick and pricked throughout.
Caution
Soft pastry loses its layers when rolled.
Bake under a baking sheet for 20 minutes, then uncovered for 10 minutes, for all 3 sheets
- 1 Put 1 pastry sheet with its parchment on a baking sheet. Cover with 1 sheet of parchment and stack another baking sheet on top.
- 2 Bake at 180°C for 20 minutes, remove the upper baking sheet and parchment, and bake for another 10 minutes.
- 3 Transfer to a rack to cool and bake the remaining 2 sheets in the same way. Cool the final sheet for about 15 minutes too.
Ready when
Continue when all 3 sheets are flat, golden throughout, browned inside with no white patches when a little edge is broken, and cool to the touch.
Caution
Removing the upper baking sheet too early allows the pastry to rise too much rather than remaining flat.
The upper baking sheet and parchment are very hot during baking. Remove with thick oven mitts.
Trim to 20cm squares and pipe cream between 3 layers
- 1 Trim the baked pastry to 20cm squares using a back-and-forth motion with a serrated knife.
- 2 Transfer the chilled pastry cream to a bowl, whisk smooth, mix in 20 ml kirsch and divide into 2 equal portions.
- 3 Put the first portion in a piping bag with a round tip 1.5 cm across and pipe parallel lines without gaps over the first pastry sheet.
- 4 Put the 2nd sheet on top, refill the bag with the second cream portion and pipe in the same way. Add the third sheet with its flat underside facing up and press lightly with your palm.
- 5 Smooth cream protruding at the sides with an offset spatula.
Ready when
Continue when the 3 sheets are level and the cream layers are equally thick.
Caution
Kirsch is not heated, so alcohol remains. Omit it if you need to avoid alcohol.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour to firm
- 1 Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Ready when
Continue when the cream is cold and firm and does not squeeze out under a gentle press from above.
Dust with sugar and cut into 8 with a serrated knife
- 1 Sift 50g powdered sugar evenly over the top through a tea strainer.
- 2 Cut into 8 pieces with a back-and-forth motion of a serrated knife, without pressing downward.
Ready when
The pastry is ready when the cut surface clearly shows 3 pastry sheets and 2 cream layers without crushed cream.
About this dish
Parisians are said to have discovered mille-feuille at Adolphe Seugnot’s shop on Rue du Bac in 1867.
The name has not always described a single form. Around 1900, a tall pastry made from as many as 10 hollow-centered rounds, joined alternately with apricot and redcurrant jam and covered with meringue, was also called mille-feuille.
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