Classic Millefoglie Cake | Italian Recipe
Ingredients
Puff Pastry:
For the stick of butter
250g Butter (take it out of the fridge 30 min before using it)
75g Flour 00
For the dough
175g Manitoba flour
10g salt
100/110g water
Recipe:
Start with the stick of butter by adding 250 g butter with 75 g flour 00 and knead with the hook of the planetary mixer at low speed until all the flour has been absorbed by the butter (about 1 minute).
Then put on the work surface, dusting the surface with flour, and knead lightly by back and forth with your hands for a few seconds. Flatten the dough on the surface creating a mini rectangle and leave aside for later.
For the dough take 175 g Manitoba flour with half the water + salt required and start kneading with the hook, putting the rest of the water a little at a time at speed 1/2. The dough must be removable from the machine easily once it is ready. Then put it on the floured work surface, flatten for a moment with your fingers and let it rest for 5 minutes.
Roll it out with a rolling pin and put the stick of butter in it, closing all the edges well and then overturning it and starting to roll it out with a rolling pin to give the first simple fold to 3.
Once you have given the simple fold, flip and pull it well to then give the double 4 fold.
Turn over from the other side, spread out slightly, put on a plate covered with film, and then leave it in the fridge to rest for 1 hour.
Take it out of the fridge and make the other two folds as previously done, one at 3 and the other at 4. Always dust the surface with flour and pull the dough well between one fold and the other. Once you have given these two folds, the dough is ready. Since it’s folded like a book flatten it slightly with a rolling pin after having turned it over and close the sides a little with your hands. Then leave it to rest for the whole night in the fridge before using it, always on a plate, covered with adherent transparent film, to preserve it from making the skin on top. In theory, it would be enough to let it rest for a couple of hours before using it but I recommend leaving it overnight for a better result.
Pastry Cream
Ingredients:
400 g of fresh whole milk
100 g of liquid cream
150g Sugar
1 vanilla bean
grated zest of half a lemon
5 egg yolks (100 g)
60 g of flour 00
Put on the fire milk with cream, vanilla bean engraved with a knife, half grated lemon zest, and half of the sugar provided in the recipe and let it almost boil.
While the milk is on the stove, prepare the basic mixture by putting the remaining sugar and flour in a bowl. Combine flour and sugar with your hands, rubbing them together to avoid lumps.
At this point, remove the vanilla bean from the milk and pour a ladle full of boiling milk in the flour and sugar mixture. Mix energetically with a whisk, add the egg yolks, and continue to mix energetically until it hardens a little. As soon as the milk barely comes to a boil, lower the gas to the minimum and pour in the mixture we have just created.
Mix well with a whisk until the mixture becomes creamy and thick then turn off the heat and transfer the cream to a colder container, stirring it a little to cool it down quickly. As soon as it has cooled a bit, cover the container with transparent film adhering to the cream and put it in the fridge to cool completely before using it.
Assembly:
Puff Pastry
Pastry Cream
Powdered sugar
Recipe:
Take the puff pastry out of the fridge, cut in half, and roll each part out rectangularly with a rolling pin making really thin.
Cut the excess dough, prick the entire surface well with a fork, let them rest for 40 minutes on the baking sheet at room temperature. After 40 minutes bake at 180 ° in a preheated ventilated oven for 20 minutes.
Personally, halfway through cooking, I turned the baking sheet to cook everything evenly. Once ready let them cool before cutting them in the shape you like. Once they’re cut, stack 3 pieces together filling with pastry cream in the middle of every piece and garnishing the top with powder sugar.
Put them in the fridge before serving if you like them better cold.