French · Dessert · Hard
Mille-Feuille
A thousand layers of shattering puff pastry with vanilla pastry cream. The Napoleon of French patisserie.
The whole recipe in 60 seconds
Mille-Feuille, in 5 ideas
- Baking between pans keeps the pastry flat and extra crisp.
- Dock the dough well or it puffs into a pillow.
- Chill the pastry cream fully or it will melt the layers.
- Use a serrated knife with a gentle sawing motion to slice cleanly.
- Assemble within a few hours of serving so the pastry stays crisp.
What you need
Ingredients
- 1 lb puff pastry
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 vanilla bean, split, or 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 2 tbsp butter
- Powdered sugar for dusting
- 1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped (optional)
How to make it
Directions
- Roll the puff pastry thin and dock all over with a fork.
- Bake between two sheet pans at 400 F for 20 to 25 minutes until deep golden.
- Cool completely, then trim into 3 equal rectangles.
- Heat the milk with the vanilla bean until steaming.
- Whisk the yolks, sugar, and cornstarch, then temper with the hot milk.
- Return to the heat and whisk until thick, then stir in the butter.
- Chill the pastry cream with plastic pressed on the surface.
- Layer pastry, cream, pastry, cream, pastry, dust with powdered sugar, and slice with a serrated knife.
Store bought puff pastry makes this an achievable weekend project instead of a two day marathon.