Mille Feuille!

Mille-feuille Napoleon

 

Ingredients:

Pate feuilletee (Folded pie crust):
Flour (medium flour 7 : weak flour 3) 500g
Salt 12.5g
Cold water 225cc
Melted butter (unsalted) 125g
Butter to be folded (unsalted, 1cm-thick) 250g
Creme patissiere (Custard cream):
Milk 250cc
Vanilla stick 1/4
Egg yolks 4
Sugar 60g
Weak flour 20g

Creme chantilly:
Heavy cream 250g
Powdered sugar 20g 

 

Folded pie crust

1. Combine the flour and salt in a bowl, and add the water and melted butter. Knead the dough into a ball. Do not knead too much.
2. Wrap the dough in a sheet of plastic wrap and place it in a refrigerator for 1 E 2 hours.
3. Flatten the dough to a square just large enough to fold the butter in. Position the butter at 45 degrees to the perimeter of the dough, and fold the four corners to cover it.
4. Roll out the dough to three times its length, then fold it in three.
5. Wrap the dough in a sheet of plastic wrap and place it in a refrigerator for another hour.
6. Roll the dough in a direction different than the last time to three times its length, then fold it in three. Repeat the same procedure 5 times.
7. Roll the dough flat into a 2mm-thick square. Place it on a baking pan, put weight over it and bake in an oven at 2000C to make thin pie crust.

Custard cream

1. Combine the milk, vanilla stick (cut open) and sugar (take a small amount from that used for the cream) in a pan and bring to a boil.
2. Beat the egg yolks, add the remaining sugar and stir until the mixture turns somewhat white. Add (1) and mix well, then strain.
3. Put the mixture back into the pan and continue stirring with a wooden spatula while cooking until it thickens.
4. Spread the cream in a thin square pan and tightly cover the surface with a sheet of plastic wrap. Place the pan over ice water to cool the cream.

Creme chantilly

1. Combine the heavy cream and powdered sugar and whip it into soft peaks.

Roasted almond slices

1. Lightly toast the almond slices in an oven.

Apricot jam

1. Heat it in a pan to remove any lumps and to make it easier to apply.

Pistachio nuts

1. Boil the pistachio nuts for 1-2 minutes and remove the shells. Dry and slice.

Assembly and Finish

1. Cut the pie crust into three 26cm x 8cm rectangular pieces.
2. Squeeze out some custard cream on one piece of crust and place half-cut strawberries over it.
3. Thinly spread some more custard cream over the strawberries and top with another piece of pie crust. Repeat procedures (2) and (3).
4. Stick the almond slices on the sides. Place strawberries on top and then apply the apricot jam over them.
5. Sprinkle pistachio slices on top and squeeze out the creme chantilly along the wider two edges.

I LOVE this recipe, I've made it twice now and each time it gets better, of all the napoleons I've tried creating THIS one was my fave :)