Millefeuille


Millefeuille
Millefeuille is one of the best pastries available, if it is well made, i.e.: 2 layers of light vanilla cream between 3 layers of fine crispy (possibly caramelized) puff pastry.
325K 4.8/5 based on 33 reviews
Grade this recipe:

Last modified on: October 13th 2010

Keywords for this recipe:
For 5 people, you will need:
Times for this recipe
Preparation: 57 min.
Resting: 15 min.
Cooking: 30 min.
All in all: 1 hour 42 min.
When should you start or finish this recipe?
If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time
To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe


Stage 1 - 20 min.
Millefeuille
The day before, or several hours before, make crème pâtissière (confectioner's custard).

Roll out puff pastry as thinly as possible. Then put on a baking sheet in the fridge for about one hour, so that if it needs to shrink, it happens in the fridge instead of the oven.

It is very difficult to make a regular rectangle (see photo) but don't worry about that.

Preheat oven to 410°F (210°C).

Stage 2 - 30 min.
Millefeuille
Put a sheet of cooking parchment onto pastry and place a cooling rack on top. We do that to stop puff pastry swelling too much during cooking, essential for millefeuilles.

Put in the oven for about 30 minutes, but remove paper and rack after 20 minutes to allow pastry to brown.

Stage 3 - 15 min.
Millefeuille
When pastry is cooked, remove from the oven, allow to cool a little and put on a rack to finish cooling.

Stage 4 - 5 min.
Millefeuille
With a bread knife or steak knife, trim the edges of puff pastry to get a regular rectangle (you can use a ruler to help with this).

Stage 5 - 3 min.
Millefeuille
Cut the rectangle into three. (use the first piece as a template to cut the others to the same size)

Look at the three parts to determinate the best looking, that means flat, regular and brown. This will be the top of your millefeuille.

Stage 6 - 1 min.
Millefeuille
Make 150 g Chantilly cream and fold it gently into crème pâtissière, with a maryse by turning with the bowl tipped at an angle.

Stage 7
Millefeuille
You will get a delicious vanilla cream, light and perfumed.

Stage 8 - 3 min.
Millefeuille
On the serving plate (quite impossible to move a millefeuille when finished without catastrophe), put the least pretty piece of pastry.

Stage 9 - 5 min.
Millefeuille
With a forcing bag full of cream, pipe small balls or rosettes of cream...

Stage 10
Millefeuille
... over the whole surface.

Stage 11 - 2 min.
Millefeuille
Then gently add the second piece of puff pastry.

Stage 12 - 5 min.
Millefeuille
Cover with more piped balls of cream.

Stage 13 - 10 min.
Millefeuille
Mix 1 tablespoon water with 4 tablespoons icing sugar to make a glacé icing, and spread over top of last (and best) piece of puff pastry.

You can also add trails of melted chocolate, but it's not easy to do well.

If you want to be sure of quick success, just sprinkle top with icing sugar.

Stage 14 - 3 min.
Millefeuille
And finally, place the last puff pastry piece on top.

Your millefeuille is ready to serve.
Remarks
Millefeuilles can be made in an infinite variety of shapes and flavours, but keeping to this basic principle: 2 layers of something soft between 3 layers of something crispy. Just by keeping puff pastry and replacing vanilla cream with a layer of raspberries or strawberries and a lime cream, it's extraordinary.

Be careful!: You can put your millefeuille in the fridge to wait, but not too long: 4-5 hours maximum, never more, never overnight! Because eventually the cream will soak into the pastry, and you will get that horrible limp thing that bad bakers try to pass off as millefeuille.
Keeping: Several hours in the fridge, covered by a plastic film.
Source: Home made.
Nutritional information
Proteins (gr)Carbohydrates (gr)Fats (gr)Energy value (in k-calories)Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe300 110 %1,650 160 %1,310 200 %3,060 150 %12,810 150 %
Per 100 g40 10 %200 20 %160 20 %380 20 %1,580 20 %
Per person60 20 %330 30 %260 40 %610 30 %2,560 30 %
The % figures are calculated in relation to the Recommended Dietary Intake , or RDI of 2,000 k-calories (or 8,400 k-joules) per day for a woman Change to a man
Possible allergens in this recipe: Egg, Milk, Gluten, Sulfites
How much will it cost?
  • For 5 people : 3.47 €
  • Per person : 0.69 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.
This recipe uses (among others)
Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream)
Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream)

You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: St Tropez tart, Almond cream or frangipane, Pistachio cream, Paris-Brest, Peach and green tea tart, ... See them all 19

Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée)
Puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée)

You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Small foie gras pasties, Vegetable pie, Chicken pie, Small cheese and bacon rolls , Ch'ti mussel tarts, ... See them all 71

Chantilly cream
Chantilly cream

You can get more informations, or check-out other recipes which use it, for example: Mini Mont-Blanc choux puffs, Saint Honoré cake, Chantilly rice pudding, Pear charlotte, Cranachan, ... See them all 29

Other recipes you may also like
Crème brulée
Crème brulée
Crème brûlée (burned cream) is quite easy to prepare: it's a simple egg-cream dessert. The only difficulty is in making the delicious crunchy caramel layer on top. The perfect crème brulée (for me) is a cold and soft cream, with on top a nice hot caramel crust. This is a completely new version...
December 31th 20111.7M 74.3 4 hours 38 min.
Vanilla sugar
Vanilla sugar
Almost essential in patisserie, you can find it in expensive little sachets of about 10g. It's necessary to distinguish between the vanilla sugar which really contains vanilla, and vanillin sugar, purely chemical which has never seen a vanilla pod. Here is how to quickly make a whole jar full of...
August 12th 2018410K 15 26 min.
French baguettes
French baguettes
This classic of French baking is rather different from the recipe for leavened bread, it's a question of making a good crust and light crumb along the whole length. To succeed, you should know that there are two secrets: water first of all (much more than for normal bread), and the working of the...
October 24th 20171.1M 364.7 5 hours 6 min.
Stewed apple (compote)
Stewed apple (compote)
Here is a very basic but delicious recipe, and the pitfalls to avoid.
November 8th 20172.4M 14.8 1 hour 13 min.
New leavened bread
New leavened bread
This new recipe for leavened bread is simple and delicious, but needs rather long resting times. If you'd like more more information about making your own bread, look at this dedicated page.
December 30th 2019899K 34.3 7 hours
News list of cooking-ez.com

Sign up to receive the latest recipes (next batch due to be sent on 2024-09-22)

*Your e-mail Your first name or nickname
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Post a comment or question
Posted by:
I am not a leaving thing
Follow this recipe (as 4 people already do)
If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page