OMGOMGOMGOMG.
I am literally shaking my butt in my chair as I type this. Jason is used to this behavior, though the cat is like, "WTF," but I don't even care. Is that shocking, though? We all know how excited I get about food, right? Especially sweets! /swooooooon
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! And while traditional desserts for this holiday are usually pumpkin or apple pies and the like, I decided to go rogue and made mille-feuille instead. It was an amazing way to spend some of my day yesterday. I also never got out of my pajamas and played a lot of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Oh, and I ate a questionable amount of chocolate chip cookies.
Mille-feuille (also known as Napoleons or Neapolitans in bakeries across the U.S.) translates to "a thousand layers" because of the delicious puff pastry it's made with. Where it originated from seems to be a mystery. Some say it was invented in France, while others claim it came from Naples, Italy. I have no opinion on this. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I absolutely love this dessert. Whenever I was allowed a treat at the bakery as a kid, I either went for this or something with all the chocolate. We also always made sure this was in an assortment of treats each holiday.
I've been stalking Trader Joe's the last month or two for their puff pastry sheets because I really wanted to make mille-feuille and have it for you before the holiday. And a couple weeks ago, they finally had some in stock! It's a seasonal item, so it's only available during the holiday season.
Why Trader Joe's brand? Well, for me, it's a personal preference. Their brand is one of the few you can find made with actual butter that's budget-friendly. And butter is what makes puff pastry shine! You can pick up whichever brand you'd like. Pepperidge Farm is the easier one to find as most common grocery stores have it (though, not made with butter) whereas Trader Joe's isn't as available to access depending where you live. Alternately, you can hit up a specialty market for Dufour brand, which is the king of ready-to-buy puff pastry. Budget be damned!
If you really wanted to, you could make your own puff pastry, but that involves a lot of work. It's something I'd like to do one of these days for the fun and experiment of it, but that day is not today. Until then, store-bought is fine with me! You can read more on buying vs making puff pastry on The Kitchn.
When using store-bought puff pastry, making mille-feuille is relatively easy, but it involves a little patience and your undivided attention during the hands-on steps of making the pastry cream. For the puff pastry, you have to pierce the pastry entirely before baking (pictured above). This is to keep the pastry from puffing like mad.
As for the pastry cream, you have to mix together hot milk with raw egg yolk and you have to do that without cooking the egg. By doing that, you have to add the hot milk to an egg mixture with flour and sugar very slowly. And during the steps when asked to whisk, you really have to whisk! No breaks. Okay, maybe a 5 second break to switch hands or quickly shake your hand out, but you have to immediately get back to it! Whisking will allow the cream to thicken and avoiding this very important step will result in a very sad pastry cream.
Once it comes to making the icing, it might seem tricky at first because you're whisking a decent amount of sugar with a small amount of milk, but it will blend! Just think of it as a tiny workout for your arms for the first minute or so. The final product will be a thick, but pour-able sauce. Getting the feathered pattern might also look tricky, but it's actually very easy! You take some melted chocolate and draw lines with it down the pastry after icing (I used a spoon), then take a knife and drag it through the lines crosswise in one direction and repeat that in the opposite direction. Don't worry, the icing will set once the dessert is chilled in the fridge.
Now that you've learned the important steps, go make this! And absolutely come back to tell me how it came out. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to gawk at the mille-feuille in the fridge as I won't be able to eat any until tomorrow.
Kitchen Tools Used:
- Saucepan
- Whisk
- Baking Sheet
- Pyrex 1 Quart Measure Cup
Ingredients
Pastry Cream
- 2 cups whole milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, or 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Puff Pastry
- 1 16 ounce package puff pastry, 2 puff pastry sheets
- Flour for dusting
Icing
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 2 dark chocolate squares
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Pour milk into a small, heavy-bottom saucepan and simmer over medium heat until just before boiling; you'll know it's done when it's steaming. Remove from heat.
- In a heatproof bowl, whisk together the eggs, salt, sugar, and flour until combined (I used my pyrex 1qt cup I measured the milk in).
- Using a ladle, scoop some of the hot milk and slowly pour it into the egg mixture while whisking constantly. It's very important you do this slowly as you want to temper the eggs, not cook them. Do this until about half of the milk is in the egg mixture.
- Bring the saucepan back to the stove over low heat. Whisk the hot milk while pouring the egg mixture back in and continue to whisk constantly until thickened. This will take 3-4 minutes; don't stop whisking!
- Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, and place in a small bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, allowing the wrap to touch the top of the pastry cream (this will prevent the cream from forming a skin).
- Place in the fridge to chill for at least thirty minutes (this can be made a couple days in advance).
- Lightly dust your counter or cut-proof board with flour. Roll out puff pastry and cut each sheet into thirds.*
- Using a fork, prick each sheet entirely (see image earlier in the post for example).
- Place parchment paper on your baking sheet(s). Add puff pastry and don't allow them to touch.
- Place in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes, until the bottoms are golden. Remove from oven and let cool about fifteen minutes.
- While the puff pastry is cooling, make the icing by adding powdered sugar and milk into a bowl and whisk together until thoroughly combined; the icing will be thick, but pour-able.
- Melt the chocolate in a small double boiler or in the microwave using a small bowl.
- Assembly time!
- Take one sheet and top with a quarter of the pastry cream. Spread all over evenly. Top with another sheet and repeat with another quarter of the cream.
- Add the third sheet upside down and top with half of the icing. You can do this by adding a couple tablespoons at a time or streaming it down the pastry. Using a butter knife or icing spatula, spread evenly.
- Using a small spoon, drizzle four or five lines of chocolate down the pastry, lengthwise.
- Take your butter knife and create a feathered look by dragging the knife crosswise through the chocolate lines, about an inch apart. Then drag the knife through lines in the opposite direction.
- Repeat steps 15-18 for the remaining puff pastry sheets.
- Chill in the refrigerator for at least three hours before cutting.
- Use a serrated knife to carefully cut into pastry. Each pastry log can be cut into 5-6 servings, depending on preference.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Pastry cream recipe slightly adapted from The Kitchn.
This is gorgeous! One of my favorite desserts I've never made - I'll have to try your recipe!
Thanks, Tracy! It's one of my favorites too and I'm sad I don't have anymore at home to eat!
Oh. My. Goodness. I can see why you were so excited for this! This looks amazing! It's making me want to make some right now!
Guuuuuuuurl, nothing gets me more excited than delicious sweets! Thanks, Shelby. <3
My goodness that looks delicious! I'm a massive fan of mille-feuille and can never resist it when I see it at a patisserie. I haven't tried making my own before though!
Thanks, Amanda! It's pretty easy to make, you should totally try it sometime! I agree it's irresistible. I never pass it up when I see it.
I love millefeuille! I always thought it was super difficult to make, but you make it look easy!
Thanks, Hillary! I used to think the same until I started making it myself. Eventually, I'd love to experiment making the puff pastry as well. 😀
Yummmmm! This looks so so good! I've never tried mille feuille before but I think I'm going to give it a try! 🙂 Thanks for sharing this!
OMG ARIEL. Next time you see some at the patisserie, you have to try it! Unless you end up making it before then. Either way, you gotta have it. IT'S SO GOOD. <3
LOVE Mille-Feuille and didn't realize it could be made using store bought puff pastry (although that makes total sense!). Yum. I'm going to have to give this recipe a try.
Yeah, Tara! You totally should. And invite me over for some because I'm hungry. 🙂
You were quite the ambitious cook this Thanksgiving. Such a stunning dessert. Growing up, my grandmas always had Mille Feuille for the holidays. This is bringing back so many happy memories. So good!
Thanks, Lynn! The best foods are ones that bring back awesome memories. <3
Wow, this looks amazing, I will have to give it a try and I will be on the lookout at my Trader Joe's for some of their made with butter puff pastry!
Yay! Thanks, Joy. Let me know how you like it when you make it!
What a gorgeous dessert! I bet it tasted so good!
Thanks, Marsha! Come over next time and we'll pig out on it together. 😀
This looks absolutely gorgeous. Yummy !!!
Thanks!
Hi Marissa! I do not know how I missed this post - must be old age! 🙂 I could eat this entire thing by myself! I would never attempt making puff pastry, I leave that to the masters! Trust your Thanksgiving was wonderful and that you and Jason stuffed yourselves until you could hardly breath - I know I did! Now I'm gearing up for Christmas which I know will be another gut buster, but that's what holidays are all about.
Hi Dorothy! I say we blame the crazy holiday season instead of age. 😉 I agree on leaving making the puff pastry to the masters! It's something I want to try eventually just to say that I did, but who has time for that these days? Not me! I made sure to wear stretchy pants on Thanksgiving and stuffed myself good. It's possibly why my clothes are starting to feel more snug, but like you said, it's what the holidays are about! It's hard to say no to all of those tasty goods.
Hi again Marissa! You are too kind - I make more lists than I can keep track of and then I forget where I put them! I wore stretchy pants on Thanksgiving too and intend to keep wearing them until the first of the year...or maybe longer! The key for me is just taking a little of everything, but sometimes I can't resist and take a lot of one thing like dessert first! Hey WTF I'm entitled after cooking/baking it all! 🙂
My pastry cream didn't thicken at all, and I whisked like crazy. What could be the reason?
Oh, no - I'm so sorry! Pastry cream can be a pain sometimes. I don't know what the reason could be, but let's try to figure it out. I know it's important that the milk be very hot when whisking into the egg mixture and it will also firm up when in the fridge to cool. Did it thicken at least a little while on the stove? It won't be stiff fresh off the stove, but it should also not be a thin liquid either. Can you walk me through the steps you took?
Just made this for dinner. Mine didn't looks as lovely as yours and I think I will make the icing a little thicker next time but wow! Easy and delicious! Thank you.
Thanks, Kelli - I'm so glad you made it and enjoyed it! By dinner, I hope you mean your actual dinner and not for dessert after dinner because that would make you my hero. 🙂
Okay, you have me convinced. This is on my list. Maybe in addition to a couple pies (lots of people) this Thanksgiving!
Yes! Let me know how it comes out. 😀
Oh, my pastry cream didn't thicken to the pudding level that I was expecting either. I mean it did somewhat, and I kept going a long time, well beyond the time suggested, so I hoped it would thicken in the fridge a lot more but it didn't. It was closer to a thick creme anglaise. It's probably operator error here but I looked at the Kitchn recipe and she uses only 1 1/4 cups milk for the 4 egg yolks, so I wondered if the quantity of milk made a difference here.
I think I will try this another time with a different pastry cream recipe. I've made it before without major issues, so I'll pinch one of those and see if it works better for me.
Sorry to hear, Julie! I appreciate the feedback. <3 I might need to revisit my version of the pastry cream or maybe the instructions. My version is meant to be thick and pour-able, but not runny.
Thanks for the idea though and yours looks beautiful!