Milles Feuilles (napoleon Pastry)

Total Time: 1 hr 10 mins Preparation Time: 20 mins Cook Time: 50 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• 1 package frozen puff pastry
• 3 cups milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 3 1/2 tablespoons cornflour (corn starch)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar

Recipe

• 1 for the pastry cream: put 2 1/2 cups milk, sugar, vanilla and almond extracts in a small boil to come to the boil.
• 2 dissolve the corn flour in the remaining milk and pour into hot milk.
• 3 whisk the corn flour into the milk and turn off heat.
• 4 beat the egg yolks in a medium-sized bowl and slowly whisk in some of the hot milk into the yolks, whisking all the while.
• 5 do this until you have incorporated nearly all the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly, to temper the yolks.
• 6 add any leftover milk mixture and place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard.
• 7 refrigerate and cool completely.
• 8 for whipped cream: place all ingredients in mixer bowl and whip until snowy peaks form.
• 9 remove 1/3 of whipped cream and fold into pastry cream.
• 10 for pastry: preheat oven to 425f.
• 11 take 1 sheet of puff pastry and lay out flat, with long side facing you.
• 12 cut in 1/2 lengthwise.
• 13 repeat with other sheet of puff pastry, so you have 4 equal pieces.
• 14 butter a cookie sheet or baking pan large enough to contain the puff pastry pieces and place the pastry on the cookie sheet.
• 15 pierce the pastry all over with a fork.
• 16 bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 300f and bake a further 35-40 minutes (pastry should be baked through and a deep golden-brown).
• 17 to assemble: place 1 sheet of pastry on a platter, spread with half of pastry cream, ensuring you don't spread all the way out to the edges of the pastry.
• 18 place another sheet of pastry over and spread with remainder of pastry cream.
• 19 place third sheet of pastry over and spread top and sides of assembled pastry with whipped cream.
• 20 crumble up the fourth pastry sheet with your hands and sprinkle broken pieces of pastry on top of whipped cream and press some onto sides.
• 21 place in refrigerator for 1/2 hour to set.
• 22 just before serving, place 2 tblsps of icing sugar into a sieve and sieve directly over cake.
• 23 serve immediately.
• 24 this is a dessert that is quick to make and assemble but has to be eaten close to making, otherwise the puff pastry absorbs moisture and becomes soggy.
• 25 note: a very nice variation is to thinly spread the first and second puff pastry sheet (the ones that you spread with the custard) with a thin scraping of seedless raspberry jam before you spread with custard.