Jun 30, 2010

A THOUSAND LAYERS OF SUMMER

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I have to say, mille feuille is one of those desserts that I enjoy eating but that I also truly enjoy making. The fantastic thing about the mille feuille is it's versatility- why stick to the classic recipe when you can play around with ingredients and flavours? Here in Paris, it is common to find each patisserie display an innovative presentation around this iconic dessert.
Like with risotto, I find that mille feuille should match each season of the year, and with strawberries being the fruit-to-eat these days, it was easy for me to make my decision in the kitchen. Plus, I had gone strawberry picking so I used up a basket of fresh goodies straight off the farm! Pure bliss!
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To make it, you will need of course puff pastry. You can either make it from scratch or buy a ready made roll, but the important thing is to have it bake between two baking trays. You can place the puff pastry on the baking tray, cover it with parchment paper and sandwich it with another baking tray- this will allow the dough to remain flat yet maintain it's crispiness.
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Bake them for 20 mins at 200C, remove from oven and sprinkle with icing sugar before baking once again at 160C for 10 to 15 minutes so that it caramelizes. You end up with one side that is shiny and another that is matte.
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Let the puffies cool then spread a layer of your garnish. You can go with either a custard-based stuffing or something more creamy- I prepared a mixture of whipped cream, mascarpone, sugar and some rose water.
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A lil'sprinkle of pistachios
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Then the wonderful strawberries
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And for some glamour, I brushed on some culinary gold dust in a pink/red colour
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There you have it, strawberry mille feuille with undertones of crushed pistachios and a rose flavoured creamy mascarpone filling!
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It was delicious, and I can't wait to try out the long list of flavours and fillings to experiment with for my next mille feuille sessions!
You can also now find this dessert featured on Saveur!

16 comments:

  1. Oh - one of my favourite desserts! Absolutely love your strawberry and mascarpone and rosewater ones... these look so beautiful!

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  2. These are lovely and delicious mille feuilles.

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  3. Marianna, your Mille Feuille is striking...like a statuesque, Amazon woman that's easily noticed in a crowd and admired.

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  4. Beautiful Marianna...the mille feuille look so pretty and I love the strawberries with mascarpone and rosewater! Thank you for sharing your tips on how to construct these.

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  5. Utterly beautiful. I love how you incorporated both pistachios and strawberries.

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  6. I make this often, but cannot eat so much crea, I like your little twist with the mascarpone and rose water....beautifully done!

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  7. it looks beautiful !! and that's a bronze strawberry??

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  8. thank you all!!! glad you liked this!

    @Swee San- its actually a strawberry brushed with the culinary metallic dust :)

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  9. Beautiful pictures! This looks so good, I will be trying this soon.
    Thanks for sharing!

    jessyburke88@gmail.com

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  10. I am speechless - such beautiful food - love the gold accent.

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  11. Hi Marianna:

    This is such a beautiful post that Saveur.com will make it a featured link on 8/26. The link will appear on our home page in our Daily Fare section. Everything will be sourced and credited. People will have to go to your site to view the recipe.

    I don't have any way of getting in touch with you. But would be happy to answer any and all questions.

    I am the contributing online editor of Saveur.com

    Thank you,

    Lael Hazan
    Lael.Hazan@Bonniercorp.com
    www.saveur.com

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  12. Good stuff here. I've been enjoying what I've been reading!

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  13. This looks great! One question-so the pink stripe on the top layer is... culinary dust? What is it?

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Thanks for stopping by, I love reading your comments!
x
Marianna