Mille feuille: Delicious, crunchy, sweet and bitter, you have them here.

It's a long time since I started blogging ^^, I never know that I still have many things which I want to test (and taste, haha), and make. It will take a lifetime and more to try them all.

Mille feuille is one of many things I want to make, layers of puff pastry that sandwiched between thick pastry cream. With each bite you will find both sweetness from the pastry, and bitterness (in a delicious way) from the caramelized puff pastry, the combination that everyone love.
Actually it can be made from the store bought puff pastry, no need to make the puff by yourself if you don't want to, ^^. But for me after I make "Pâte feuilletée inversée" I needed to find a special recipe for using my special puff pastry, haha, and I think about the "Mille feuille", it must be great esp. when made from delicious puff that'll melt in your mouth.
There are many ways to make this dessert, but I found that turns the simple puff pastry into a caramelized one sounds good. 
You have to start by baking the puff pastry until it darkens and very fragrance, then bake the upper parts of the "Mille feuille" with sugar to turn it into caramelized pastry. Some of the recipe will tell you to assemble in a long loaf, but I think it's easier to make it one by one, you don't have to cut the pastry with the pastry cream and strawberries inside (even it's not professional to do something like this, who care, haha, it's your pastry, make your life easy is better).
The pastry doesn't have a good keeping quality, but you can prepare everything, keep the pastry cream in the piping bag in the fridge, baked pastry in an airtight box and assemble just 2-3 hours (or less) before serving. So everyone will enjoy the pastry at its best. 
I suggest having this rich pastry with a cup of tea, black tea is great too, it will cut down the richness. Take it bite by bite with a sip of tea and you will feel like your time is slower and so relaxing, believe me ^^
Ps. You can use any puff pastry, a store bought one or other recipe, and your baking time will be varied up to your taste.

"Mille feuille" 

Makes 6 pastry

390g ................................ puff pastry 
or half the recipe of  inverse puff pastry (Pâte feuilletée inversée)
Pasty cream
60g .................................. egg yolks
250g ................................ whole milk
16g ................................... sugar (1)
½ ..................................... vanilla bean, scrap the seed out
35g ................................... sugar (2)
20g .................................. cake flour
15g ................................... butter
.......................................... superfine sugar for caramelize the top
8 ....................................... strawberries, slices
For decoration
6 ....................................... Strawberries
.......................................... Icing sugar


Preheat the oven to 190°C

Roll the puff pastry to 3mm thickness and about 35x25 cm in size (don't rush this process, just rolling and check the pastry, if it shrink let the pastry rest in the refrigerator before rolling into desired size, or your pastry will shrink after baking).
Line the baking sheet with baking paper and place the pastry on the paper.
Prick several times with a fork.

Bake for 20-23 minutes or until puff and light golden in color. 
Place another baking paper on top and put another sheet pan on top to weight the pastry down.
Bake for 20 minutes more.

Take the pastry out and cut into 18 pieces


Increase the heat in the oven to 220°C

Sprinkle 6 pieces of the pastry on a baking sheet and sprinkle the superfine sugar on top of the pastry.
Bake for 5-7 minutes or until caramelize.

Make the pastry cream:

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk and sugar to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar 2 and cake flour together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.
2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over low heat and whisk vigorously until the mixture thicken.

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth. Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F,stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled.
Assemble:

Pipe the pastry cream over the pastry, place the strawberry slices on to of it, then pipe the pastry cream over the strawberry slices, and put another piece of pastry on top of it. Pipe another layer of the pastry cream, place the strawberry slices and pipe the pastry cream over it finish with the caramelized piece of the pastry.
Decorated with icing sugar and strawberries.

Mille feuille: Delicious, crunchy, 

sweet and bitter, you have them here.