Today, we were all home to celebrate Mum's Birthday (and her retirement!) For the occasion, I tried my hand at fine French pâtisserie and baked a Hazelnut Mille-Feuille. I must say I was quite happy with how it turned out, the pastry beautifully crisp and flaky, and the hazelnut mousseline delightfully light, creamy and nutty. And I'm not the only one thinking rather good; we've all already decided the second half of the dessert will be our supper!
Ingredients (serves 6 to 8):
620 grams/1.35 pounds Rough Puff Pastry
half a litre/2 cups semi-skimmed milk
120 grams/4 ounces caster sugar
8 level tablespoons cornflour (starch)
1 1/2 tablespoon Spiced Pear Liqueur
300 grams/10.5 ounces unsalted butter (half cold, half at room temperature)
walnut halves, to garnish
Preheat oven to 180°C/360°F.
Line three baking trays with baking paper. Set aside.
Divide Rough Puff Pastry into three equal portions.
Roll each Puff Pastry portion out onto a lightly floured surface.
Using an upturned plate as a template, cut each Puff Pastry square into a neat circle.
Place a Puff Pastry circle onto each of the baking trays, cover with another sheet of baking paper and lay a light cake tin on top of each. This will allow the Puff Pastry to cook and rise evenly, and not too much.
Place baking trays in the hot oven, and bake, at 180°C/360°F, for 40 minutes.
Once cooked and golden, remove from the oven, sprinkle each Puff Pastry disc generously with Icing Sugar.
Increase oven heat to 240°C/465°C and quickly place the baking trays back in the oven, for 45 seconds to a minute until Puff Pastry discs are just caramelised. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool completely.
In a frying pan over a high flame, toast hazelnuts until just browned and fragrant. Remove from the heat, and allow to cool completely.
Pour milk in a large saucepan.
Halve vanilla bean, and scrape off its seeds with a knife.
Add both the vanilla seeds and bean to the saucepan, and bring the milk to a simmer over a low flame.
Meanwhile, energetically whisk the egg yolks with the caster sugar in a medium bowl, until mixture becomes fluffy and pale yellow, and falls of the whisk like a ribbon.
Whisk in cornflour, until perfectly blended.
Gradually pour, warm milk over the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly until well-blended.
Pour mixture back in the saucepan, and heat over a low flame, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until it thickens into a custard.
Cut the cold halve of the butter into small dices.
Place a glass roasting tin into the freezer for 10 minutes.
Once thickened, stir in Spiced Pear Liqueur and remove custard from the heat, and add cold butter dices, a few at a time, whisking after each addition until beautifully smooth and shiny.
Remove glass tin from the freezer, and pour the butter custard into it, levelling with a spatula. Cover with cling film, and place in the refrigerator to cool slightly, at least half an hour.
Place toasted hazelnuts into a food processor, and process until reduced into a fine powder. Set aside.
Place at-room-temperature butter in the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, and beat the butter, gradually increasing the speed until it is pale, smooth and fluffy. Spoon fluffy butter into a bowl.
Spoon cooled butter custard into the bowl of the electric stand mixer, and beat on medium speed, gradually adding toasted hazelnut powder until well-blended.
Then, increase heat to high, and add fluffy butter to the mixture, a heaped tablespoon at a time, until the hazelnut custard mixture becomes thicker, light, airy and fluffy and turns into a hazelnut mousseline. Keep about 3 tablespoons of the hazelnut powder.
Spoon hazelnut mousseline into a large piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle.
Place a Puff Pastry disc onto serving dish, and beautifully pipe hazelnut mousseline onto it. Sprinkle with a little reserved hazelnut powder. Top with a second Puff Pastry disc, and repeat piping of hazelnut mousseline and sprinkling of hazelnut powder. Finally, place the last Puff Pastry disc on top, and pipe remaining hazelnut mousseline in the centre. Sprinkle with hazelnut powder, with Icing Sugar, and garnish with walnut halves.
Chill in the refrigerator until serving time.
Serve Hazelnut Mille-Feuille with chilled Champagne.
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