Daring Bakers: Mille Feuille

There is nothing quite like the smell of puff pastry baking in the oven. The heady smell of butter cooking (and you use a LOT of butter in puff) is intoxicating. Oh boy. The aroma always, always puts me in a good mood.

This month's Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenity Full. Suz challenged us to not only tackle the buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it a step further and create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it. Check out some of the really fantastic mille feuille done by the Daring Bakers here.

Wow! What a challenge, eh? I'd seen recipes for mille feuille before and usually, after scanning through the recipes and gawking at the pictures (it's an impressive looking pastry, for sure) I move on. I've never felt brave enough to actually make this pastry because it looks too daunting. So Suz's challenge kinda threw me in a corner. Now, I had no choice.

First, what is mille feuille? Also known as a Napolean, the mille feuille is a French pastry where thin sheets of puff pastry are layered with a filling, most often pastry cream. Translated literally, Mille Feuille  means "a thousand leaves" and while the dessert usually comes in three layers, the nature of the puff may suggests many, many more layers of buttery goodness. There have been many variations to the mille feuille: fillings range from cream to jam to nut pastes to fruit preserves. There are also recipes for savoury mille feuilles — a wild mushroom and goat cheese recipe I saw somewhere has kind of got me curious. Will try that later, for sure.

The first step was making puff pastry.

I've made puff pastry before. Once. It turned out fine but I found it a very laborious ... and messy process and have since resolved to always buy my puff. Famous last words, eh? The challenge required us all to make our own puff pastry — we could either follow the recipe provided by Suz or use our own/any other recipe for the pastry that we prefer. I decided to follow Suz's recipe.

Turns out, Suz's recipe was really, really fool-proof. Her instructions are so clear and the photographs of the individual steps to the process were really helpful and I found that I was enjoying myself as I rolled the dough, folded it, rolled it some more, folded it again ... you get the picture. (Oh, speaking of pictures, I tried to take photos of each step as well but if you want a better look, check out Suz's guide.)

The layers of flaky dough in puff pastry are the result of repeatedly folding and rolling layers of dough and butter, thereby creating many layers. In my maiden attempt to make puff pastry more than a year and a half ago, I found working with the butter to be extremely messy. The recipe I followed then called for the butter to be "flattened" while it was still cold, using a rolling pin. I tapped the block of cold butter with the rolling pin (gently while still putting some weight into it) until it became flat-ish and then rolled it into a square. Melted butter is hard to manage. Really hard.

Suz's recipe however calls for the butter to be at room temperature. It is then creamed together with a little bit of flour to form a paste. This paste is then placed in between two sheets of cling film and (using a rolling pin or your hands) flattened into a 12 cm square. The square is then chilled for about 15 mins. The addition of the flour makes the butter extremely easy to work with. Also, I used my hands to form the paste into a square ... with ease. I was pleased as punch. 

My sheets of puff turned out a little thicker than intended. As its name suggests, puff pastry puffs up in the baking process, revealing the "thousands" of layers of buttery pastry. In the mille feuille however, the dough  is weighted down so it doesn't rise as much. This is, I am supposing, to ensure the slices of pastry in the mille feuille are nice and thin (hence easier to eat and perhaps making it look dainty and neat) yet still light and flaky. I weighed mine down with another aluminium baking tray but on hindsight, I should have used a heavier weight, like a ceramic dish or something as aluminium weighs hardly anything.

Still, I was pleased with the texture of the pastry. Light, buttery, flaky! Yay.

For the filling, I decided to go with pastry cream and jammy fruits. Nothing fancy but a combination that is guaranteed to taste good. I used a recipe for a citrus-flavoured pastry cream that I stumbled upon years ago. It isn't too sweet and the tang of lemon, well that's always a good thing, right?

As for the fruit topping, well, I didn't so anything fancy: I simply cooked down some mixed berries with sugar and water until the mixture thickened, keeping the fruits whole for the most part. The berries were a little under ripe though and I added a bit more sugar to mask the tartness of the not-quite-ripe berries.

Strawberry and Cream Mille Feuille
(Makes 6-8 mille feuilles)

Pastry
250g all purpose flour
50 g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
1 tsp salt
about 1/2 cup cold water (I used slightly less)

200g butter, cut into pieces and left at room temperature
31/2 tbsp all purpose flour

1. Whisk the 250g flour and salt together. Add the cold butter and using your finger, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the water a little at a time and bring together with a fork or a spoon (or your fingers) until the crumbs come away from the sides to form a dough.

2. As the dough comes together, use your hands and gently knead for a few minutes, incorporating all the loose bits of flour that may still be at the sides and bottom of the bowl. Knead till the dough is nice and smooth (about 3 mins). Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 mins.

3. Add the 31/2 tbsp flour to the 200 softened butter and mix till you get a paste. Place the paste between two sheets of cling film and using your hands or a rolling pin, shape it into a 12cm square.  Chill for about 15 mins until butter firms up a little. Don't chill it for too long that the butter hardens and becomes tough to work with.

4. Remove the chilled dough from the fridge (once its been chilled for at least 30 mins) and roll it into a 15cm square.

5. Remove the chilled butter and place it in the centre of the dough square: the corners of the dough square should face the sides of the square of butter.

6. Fold the four corners of the dough over the butter square: it should resemble and envelope (you may have to stretch the dough a little). Turn the dough parcel over and tap it gently with the rolling pin to flatten.

7. Making sure your work counter is floured slightly, gently roll the parcel until you get a rectangle about 6mm thick.

8. With the longest side of the rectangle facing you, fold the dough into three equal portions: first, fold 1/3 of the dough from the right side to the centre. Next the left 1/3 to the centre. What you will have is a narrow three-layered strip of dough.

9. Repeat step 6, 7 and 8.

20. Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 mins.

21. Repeat steps 6,7,8 two more times

22. Wrap and chill again for 30 mins.

23. Repeat step 6,7,8 another two times.

24. Wrap and chill for about 30-45 mins until ready to use.

25. Preheat oven to 200C.

26. Remove chilled dough and roll till it becomes as thin as cardboard.

27. Cut into three equal pieces and place on a baking sheet. Sprinkle sugar over the tops.  Cover with parchment paper and weigh down with a heavy baking dish or tray.

28. Bake for about 25 mins or till lightly golden. Remove weight and parchment paper and bake for a further 5-7 mins till golden.

19. Cool and then cut to desired size/shape for mille feuille.


Pastry Cream

11/2 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1/3 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
3 tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp all purpose flour
50g butter, cubed
1 tbsp lemon zest
pinch of salt

Heat the milk and vanilla bean until it starts to simmer. Remove from heat.
Add the sugar to the egg yolks and stir to combine. Soft the cornstarch and all purpose flour into the egg yolk mixture and stir to combine.
Remove the vanilla pod from the milk. Pour the milk (still hot) into the egg mixture, whisking all the while.
Return the mixture to the heat and whisk until it starts to thicken. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan with your whisk so the mixture doesn't thicken and clump up or burn at the bottom. The cream is done when you lift the whisk and the cream forms a ribbon.

Remove from heat and stir in the zest and butter. Stir till butter melts and incorporates into the cream. Transfer into a bowl (you can pass the mixture to a strainer into a bowl to ensure there are no lumps) and cover with a sheet of clingflim (pressed onto the surface) to prevent a crust from forming.

Chill till ready to use.

Fruit compote
1 cup berries (of your choice)
1/4 cup water
sugar

Heat fruit, water and sugar (as much as you need) on low heat until mixture thickens.
Remove and cool.

Asssembling the Mille Feuille

Place a layer of pastry on a board/plate.
Pipe the cream onto the pastry to form an even layer.
Top with fruit compote.

Set aside.

Take another piece of pastry.
Pipe a layer of cream. Top with fruit.

Place the second piece of cream-topped pastry on the first and place a third sheet right on top. You can then dust icing sugar on top or make a simple glaze (icing sugar+ water/lemon juice) and spread on the top layer.

Roasted Vegetable Puff

Marty and I have been making sandwiches for sale for over a year. Every Monday for close to 16 months (save for the weeks we are both out of town), we deliver our Crazy Juliet sandwiches to our colleagues. It's been great. But lately we've been feeling a little sandwiched-out. We needed some time apart, us and our sandwiches. We needed something fresh. So, we started introducing pies, puffs and quiches to our weekly menus.

As such, I've been experimenting with various vegetarian puffs and pastries. It's been quite challenging, really. After all, how many types of vegetarian pies and puffs can there be? Pies and/or puffs that are substantial enough for lunch. Pies and puffs that won't go soggy by lunch time (we deliver them around mid morning). It's been a ride.

So my kitchen became a test kitchen for all kinds of vegetarian pies and puffs. The first one to graduate from the test kitchen is this Roasted Vegetable Puff. This is really a very basic vegetable puff. It has no exotic vegetables or cheese to boast off. In fact, as horrific as this may sound, I used processed mozzarella cheese. I don't usually buy processed cheese but I had a packet in my fridge from I can't remember when which I wanted to use up. 

Still the puff was really good, proof that the simple things in life are usually very, very good.

The secret? Good puff pastry and roasted vegetables. 

Puff pastry is rich, flaky, buttery and soft. It is good enough to be eaten on its own (think croissants) but is also lovely as a light crust to coat a pie, sweet or savoury. I tried making puff pastry once and it was awfully satisfying: I'm not gonna kid you and say it was easy. No, it was pretty laborious. The wonderful 

flakiness of the pastry comes from the many layers of dough and butter that is folded and folded and folded some more (sometimes more than a hundred folds go into a block of puff pastry). I made it because I was curious about the process and I wanted to see how successful my home made puff pastry would turn out. It was, thankfully, a success. But, I never have made it again because it's so much easier to buy good pre-packed, ready-made all-butter puff pastry. 

Now the other reason this vege puff is so tasty is because the vegetables were roasted. I don't know about you but I love the flavour of roasted vegetables. They taste sweeter as they caramelise so nicely in the oven. All you need is to coat them in olive oil and then season them with salt and pepper. That's it, really. That's all you need.

I selected my vegetables carefully. Potatoes would be an easy way to make the puff filling but I am not a huge fan of spuds and so I struck them off the list of possible ingredients. Spinach? Nah. Carrots? Next time. Red peppers? Nah. 

Here's what I ended up with: eggplant, broccoli, pumpkin, cauliflower and mushrooms. 

Oh! And the cheese, of course. 

ROASTED VEGETABLE PUFF

Makes 4

2 cups broccoli florets

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 cup pumpkin, cut into 2cm cubes

1 cups mushrooms (shiitake, Swiss brown, button..) halved or quartered (size should match the pumpkin)

1 medium eggplant, sliced, salted and drained.

1 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese (or 4 slices of the processed stuff that I used)

Olive Oil

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup vegetable stock

1/2 tbsp corn starch diluted in 2 tbsp water.

1/4 cup milk

Puff pastry

Preheat the oven to 200C. 

Mix all the vegetables in a bowl and coat them in about 2 tbsp of olive oil. (The vegetables should be cut around the same size so they cook equally.)

Transfer the vegetables to a rimmed baking tray: make sure they are laid out in one layer (to make sure they roast evenly). Season with salt and pepper. 

Bake for about 40 mins, turning them over midway.

Let the vegetables cool. 

Heat the stock in a small saucepan. Add the diluted corn starch and stir over low heat until the stock thickens — about 5-7 mins over low heat. Turn off the heat and add the vegetables into the thickened stock. Leave to soak/

Meanwhile, lightly flour your work surface and cut the puff pastry into 8 squares. My squares were about 8cm x 8cm.

Place one square on your floured work surface. Spread your cheese on the square ad then spoon the roasted vegetables onto the square (don't scoop out too much juice or the puff will get soggy), leaving about a 1/2 cm boarder on all four sides. Brush the boarder with milk. 

Take another  square and place it atop. You may need to gently (I stress, gently) stretch the pastry over the filling so that the top and bottom squares meet. Press the edges together and seal with a fork (this gives the puff a nice patterned edge).

Make a slit on the top of the puff for the steam to escape when baking. Now, brush the top of the puff with milk. 

(If you want to decorate the puff, use a small biscuit cutter in any shape you like: 8 cut outs in total/ 2 per puff).  Place the cutouts on the puff (how you arrange them is up to your artistic vision) and brush the shapes with milk as well.)

Repeat with the other 3 puffs.

Bake for 15 to 20 mins or till the the puffs and nice and golden and the flaky layers have risen. 

Brinjal and cheese puff

I was going to make some spinach puffs with feta and pine nuts (kinda like the Greek spanakopita) but then I decided to try something different. Eggplant! Yes, a Baba Ghanoush-like filling with white cheese sounded good.

It didn't really matter because, quite honestly, almost any filling would taste great in delicious, buttery, home made puff pastry  .... right? Well, I think so anyways. You can tell I am still on a high from the success of making puff pastry from scratch .....*glow*

So anyway, I put the spinach away and took out the sole eggplant I had in my fridge.  It was nice and plump, and a gorgeous deep purple... just right for the roasting. Yes, the first step is to roast the eggplant.

Step 1.
Roasting the eggplant is easy. Simply place it in a roasting pan, prick it with a fork in a few places and stick it in the oven (pre heated at 200C) for about 40 mins. No oil or butter necessary.

Step 2

Once you've roasted the plant, cover it with plastic wrap and let it cool. Then, gently srape away all the black skin and place it in a colander to drain for about 30 mins. 

Step 3

The mash up! With a fork (or your hand blender/food processor), mash the eggplant. Don't let it get to be a puree ... leave a little chunky pices in there. If you want, get rid of some of the seeds as you mash (I did this). 

Add about 1/2 tsp of lemon juice, 3-4 tbsp of greek yoghurt, a handful of chopped fresh parsley (I used chevril) and season with salt and pepper. That's it. Your filling is good to go.     

Step 4

The accompaniments. What would go well with mashed eggplant? I decided on white cheese (or you could use feta). Note: you may want to ease up on salting the eggplant if you're using white/feta cheese as these cheese are pretty salty already.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Step 5

Making the puff. Roll the puff pastry while chilled (not frozen) as you want the butter to remain firm. Cut into rectangles or sqaures (depending on whether you want a circular puff or a square one. The size of your rectangles/circles really depends on how big you want your puff to be).

Spread the filling on the bottom half of your pastry dough, leaving a 1.5 cm border for the edges. Don't forget to add your cheese to the filling! Fold the top flap over and seal the edges tight with your fingers. Use a fork to press the edges clse and so you get a nice ridges pattern.

Step 6

Egg wash. Beat an egg and add 1 tbsp milk/cream (optional). Brush the puffs with the egg mixture.

Step 7

Bake for 15- 20 mins or till the puffs are nicely ... err... puffed and are beginning to get golden. 

Step 8

Devouring the puff. Whatcha waiting for? Eat it quick as puff pastry is best eaten hot outta the oven. 

Puff the magic pastry

This puff doesn't look at all professional so you KNOW its homemade, right? Absolutely. But, though obviously imperfect, I don't think I've been so happy with anything I've baked as I am with this puff. It's a simple eggplant puff : roasted eggplant + greek yoghurt + lemon juice, chevril and pine nuts with white cheese.

But the filling is not what I'm over the moon about. It's the pastry. I made the puff pastry at home, from scratch. Making my own puff pastry has been on my to-do list for about six months. I've put it off so long simply because it looked to troublesome and difficult. Most books/recipes on puff pastry come with diagrams, for goodness sake! Diagrams? Egad. Diagrams just remind me of secondary school Science lessons. Not a very pleasant memory. So, yeah. 

But for some reason I felt brave enough to give it a go last Thursday. It was Chap Goh Meh (the 15th day .. and the very last day of the Chinese New Year) and there were some awesome firework displays going on outside. It was 9pm, my usual baking hour. My dog, Mojo, was terrified and refused to go outside. He kept close to me ... real close... his wet nose was, quite literally, stuck to my ankle.  The cutie.

So together, we marched into the kitchen for my most ambitious project this year.

Making puff pastry takes time. Why? Well, you get the rich, flaky and buttery goodness of puff pastry by patiently creating layers (and layers) of dough and butter.

Start by making your basic dough.

250 gms high protein or bread flour

pinch of salt

250 gms unsalted butter

3 tbsp water (more if necessary)

Sift the flour and the salt into a bowl. Cut up 50gms of the cold butter into cubes and with your fingers, gently rub it into the flour till it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the water (one tbsp at a time) and, using a knife (and later your fingers), bring the mixture together to form a dough. No need to knead. The dough should be a little sticky.  

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and rounding it into a ball.Make an X-shaped incision on top of the dough and then wrap tightly in plastic and chill for at least 40 mins. 

While waiting, work the butter.

Sandwich the remaining 200 g butter (still cold but not frozen, about 10-15 mins out of the chiller) in-between two sheets of greaseproof paper. Gently tap with a rolling pin until softened to the same consistency as the dough. Form the butter into a rectangle about 2 cm thick. Chill.

Note: You have to work fast because though your butter has to be soft enough to flatten, you cannot let it get too soft while you are folding it. Tip: don't work in a hot kitchen (i.e in the late morning/afternoon) and use a cold surface (like marble or tile).

Back to the dough.

Once the dough has chilled for a good 40 mins, place the ball on a lightly floured work surface and unfold the four segments that you cut into flaps earlier so your dough looks like a four-leaf clover (mine wasn't too pretty but, come on, it was my first go, right?). The centre should be slightly thicker than the "arms".

Now place the butter in the middle section of the dough (the mounded section) and fold in the arms, stretching the pastry in order to fully cover the butter.

Lightly tap the top of the pastry with a rolling pin to seal the edges and to enlarge and flatten the square a little. Next, roll out the pastry (one direction only, please) to a long rectangle. The edges of the rectangle should be even and straight: mine were not!!!

Now, roughly (in your mind) divide the rectangle into three segments. Fold the bottom third of the rectangle up toward the centre, aligning the edges. Then, fold the top third down: the edges should  meet.

Turn the square 90 degrees to the left (for maximum rising, always rotate the pastry in the same direction) so that the fold is at the side. Now, roll out the pastry into a long rectangle and repeat.

If you cannot work fast enough and you feel the butter getting too soft to handle, chill the buttery dough for about 20 - 30 mins till it hardens a little.

Repeat at least four times.

OK. My step-by-step pictures aren't pretty so have a look at the diagram which I got online.

Better? Yup. Meanwhile, I looked down at my ankles and noticed that my appendage (Mojo) was no longer around. He'd given up and was fast asleep in his cot.

I was really psyched that my pastry turned out well. I could actually see the thin layers of dough and butter. I was on a high. So high was I that the next day when the pastry was ready for use, I made four (yes four) different types of pastries!  

That's the preview. Lookout for the individual posts soon!