Raspberry Millefeuille
This recipe is a classic French dessert. I like to use raspberries, but strawberries do the job as well. The pastry cream can be made a couple days in advance and kept in the fridge, and if you are an overachiever and decide to make your own puffed pastry dough, it can be made in advance and frozen if you have access to good quality butter. We usually serve a dry Champagne to accompany this dessert.
This recipe is a classic French dessert. I like to use raspberries, but strawberries do the job as well. The pastry cream can be made a couple days in advance and kept in the fridge, and if you are an overachiever and decide to make your own puffed pastry dough, it can be made in advance and frozen if you have access to good quality butter. We usually serve a dry Champagne to accompany this dessert.
- Carbohydrate 9.74127272727272 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0.406121212121212 g
- Fiber 4.03787878787878 g
- Protein 0.745454545454545 g
- Saturated Fat 0.012269696969697 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (64g)
- Sodium 0.644545454545454 mg
- Sugar 5.70339393939394 g
- Trans Fat 0.11922606060606 g
- Calories 41 calories
Step-by-step
- Bake puffed pastry sheets between 2 cookie sheets at 350-400F (20 minutes - until golden).
- Remove and cut them into 3 equal 4 by 12 inch piece.
- With a pastry bag, spread a layer of Pastry Cream and line up the raspberries (lines must be on the short side - to ease cutting).
- Place delicately another sheet of puffed pastry and repeat the process.
- Place the last sheet of puffed pastry and sift confectionner sugar on top.
- To serve, slice in six equal parts (shape: 4 by 2 inch).
Creme patissiere does the heavy lifting in this construction, acting simultaneously as the structural mortar and the moisture buffer between crisp layers. Without proper chilling, that dairy-rich custard will liquefy under the weight of the pastry sheets and bleed into the berries, ruining the architecture. Pastry cream can safely sit sealed in the refrigerator for up to 48 hours before assembly, which breaks the workload into manageable blocks. Baking puff pastry between two heavy cookie sheets at 375 degrees Fahrenheit restricts excessive vertical rise, yielding flat, uniform rectangles that will not wobble when stacked.
Execution and Assembly Mechanics
Precision during the piping phase dictates whether the dessert will slice cleanly or collapse into crumbs. Aligning the fruit in parallel rows running along the short four-inch side provides distinct channels for a serrated knife to pass through without displacing the raspberries. Strawberries serve as a viable substitute for raspberries, provided they are hulled, sliced uniformly thin, and thoroughly blotted on paper towels to prevent excess water release. Sifting confectioners' sugar directly onto the final pastry layer must happen immediately before portioning into six individual two-by-four-inch rectangles to avoid moisture dissolution from ambient humidity.
- Bake pastry sheets until deeply golden to ensure structural rigidity.
- Keep custard chilled until loading into the piping bag.
- Cut portions using a serrated blade with a gentle sawing motion.
