Behind a fancy French name, a super simple, but really sophisticated looking dessert. Strawberry Mille Feuille with crispy pastry layers, fresh strawberries and a sweet, smooth vanilla cream filling.
I didn’t have much time last weekend to bake, but I wanted to use the strawberries we had. So, I decided to use some frozen puff pastry and make these super easy pastries. You need only a couple of simple ingredients and just a few easy steps.
This is that kind of dessert that you can’t eat properly. I mean it’s really hard to cut a bite with your fork without ruining the whole slice, but who cares?! They are soo delicious you have to live with this difficulty. The butter pastry perfectly balances out the light vanilla pastry cream and the fresh strawberries give it another texture and a sweet flavour.
I just love how they turned out. I have never made anything like this before but I am definitely going to remake it. The only mistake I made is that I added whipped cream to my filling because I wanted it lighter, but the cream made it a bit runny. So whipping cream is deleted from the recipe ).
For the pastry layer I used store bought, but you can use homemade puff pastry too (check my croissant recipe). I rolled it out into a rectangle, sprinkled it with powdered sugar and baked it for 20 minutes. Then I cut it into 12 slices.
For the filling I used my basic vanilla pastry cream and some fresh strawberries. You can make the filling a day ahead so it can cool down completely. Don’t use frozen strawberries, because they are to liquidy. You can also use raspberries or blueberries.
I love this recipe, because you can put it together in an hour, but everybody will think it is a really complicated dessert. But make sure you put them together right before serving so the pastry stays crispy.
Give this recipe a try before the strawberry season ends!
Strawberry Mille Feuille
Prep Time: 20 min. Baking Time: 20 min. Total Time: 1 hour Portions: for 4 person
Ingredients:
250g puff pastry
1-2 tablespoons powdered sugar
250-300g strawberries
100g granulated sugar
2 eggs
120 ml milk
160g butter (cut into small cubes)
8g vanilla sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
Put granulated sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla sugar into a large metal or glass bowl and mix them together.
Start cooking it on a bain-marine. ( Fill a pot with water and start boiling it. Then put the metal or glass bowl on top of the pot. Be careful and make sure that the bottom of the bowl isn’t in the water and the bowl is big enough. When you stir the custard use a kitchen cloth to hold the bowl because it can be hot.)
Stir the custard constantly until it thickens.
Take it off from the stove and let it cool down for a few minutes. Then mix in the butter cubes one at a time with a hand held mixer. Add the vanilla extract. It will become runnier. Cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge until it’s completely cold and thickened.
Preheat your oven to 390F or 200C. Line a baking sheet with parchment papaer.
Roll out your puff pastry into a 12x10 inch or 30x24 cm rectangle. Sprinkle it evenly with the powdered sugar. Cover it with parchment paper and put another baking sheet on top of it.
Bake for 15 min covered then for 5 minutes uncovered or until the top is golden brown and crispy. Let it cool down.
Wash your strawberries and cut them into halves.
Cut your puff pastry into 12 2x5 inch or 5x12 cm rectangles.
Put one off your rectangles onto a serving plate. Layer on top a few strawberries then cover it with a few tablespoons of vanilla custard. You can use a piping bag or just a spoon to spread the filling. Then cover it with a pastry rectangle and repeat it again. Dust the top with powdered sugar. Every dessert has 3 layers of pastry and two layers of vanilla custard and strawberries. Serve it immediately.
