Recipe: Mille Feuille

Mille Feuille (1,000 leaves/layers) is still my favorite pastry. Specifically Mr. Pierre Herme's version filled with chocolate and praliné. Oh wow, I need to go get one of those soon.

I had dinner with a friend a few weeks ago at my apartment. She made delicious Korean BBQ ribs and I made the classic version of a vanilla mille feuille. The key to having a good mille feuille is to show off the two contrasting textures - crispy puff pastry with light and creamy vanilla cremé.

Want to give it a go? I think you should! It is a perfect surprise for Thanksgiving or Christmas! The best part is that you can make the pastry dough a day or two in advance. Just freeze the dough until its ready to be baked! OR if you really are pressed for time or simply don't want to attempt this somewhat daunting recipe - go ahead and buy frozen puff pastry from the market. Lets be honest, sometimes there is just NO time.

Pate Feuilletage Inverse (Puff Pastry dough)
Oven: 450F or 230C


400g Butter
130g Flour


In your mixer, combine butter and flour until smooth and homogenous. Form this into a cube and wrap with plastic. Refrigerate until ready to use. 

270g Flour
10g Salt
140g Water (approx.)


In your mixer, combine all ingredients to create a firm detrempe (read:dough). This is a French culinary term for the first stage in the process of making puff pastry, which requires only flour and water. After, form into another cube, wrap with plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.


Onto a floured surface, roll out your butter dough in a rectangle just enough so that you can wrap the detrempe inside of it. Place the detrempe in the bottom half of the butter dough and fold the butter over the detrempe to enclose it as if it is a giant ravioli. Note: don't be afraid to use flour on the counter and the top of the dough, butter is easily melted and sticky so you will need to use flour to prevent the sticking and if the dough gets too warm and soft stick it in the refrigerator to firm up again. 

Press together the ends of the butter to close everything up. Place the dough with the longest seam to your left, as if it is a book (an upside down one). Roll the dough out to about 10 cm x 35 cm long. Now you will give the dough its first "turn". Visually divide the dough into thirds. Fold the top third down and fold the bottom third up. It will end up looking like this. 

Repeat this three more times to total four turns keeping the long seam to the left. Remember, if the dough gets too warm and starts sticking to your table wrap it and refrigerate it until firm again (15 mins-30 mins).

PHEW! The hard part is over. Now let your dough rest in the refrigerator for an hour or so. When you are ready, roll out the dough to the size of a baking sheet (normally 40cmx60cm). This size will give you enough servings for about 12-13 people. The thickness should be about 1 cm and it should be even in thickness all the way through. After you have rolled it out, let the dough rest in the fridge again for an hour because it is elastic and will retract a little. (This is when you would want to freeze the dough if you want!!)

Bake at about 190C/375F until golden brown and crispy. (If you can manage, flip the pastry half way through - probably about 30 minutes).

BRAVO!! 

Now, pastry cream.



750g milk
250g cream
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
200g sugar
80g corn starch
220g egg yolks (about 6)
50g butter, unsalted, cut into pieces

In a medium saucepan, bring the milk, cream and vanilla to a boil. In another bowl mix the sugar, starch and egg yolks together. When the milk boils, pour half of the milk onto the egg mixture and mix immediately. 

Put the milk back on the heat and add the egg mixture into the pot. Put on medium heat and mix constantly until the cream is thick and reaches a boil for 1 minute. Always mix! You don't want to burn the bottom of the cream :)

Scoop out onto a tray covered in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold. You can also put it in the freezer for about 5-10 minutes to cool it faster and then store in the fridge.

Now, combine the cooled pastry cream with about 25% whipped cream. 

Assembly:

Cut the puff pastry into three even sections lengthwise. Fill a pastry bag with the cream and pipe the cream on top of the first layer of puff pastry. Spread the cream with a spatula so it is evenly distributed and without holes. Place second layer of puff pastry on top. Repeat the layer of cream and top off with another layer of puff pastry. Top with a sprinkle of icing sugar or anything else you would like! In this photo I used the extra bits of puff pastry and crunched them up into small pieces to put all around the outside. Just cover the sides with left over cream and then press the crunchy bits into it.

VOILA! Phew, now go have a drink!

we're not in Kansas anymore...

Truth be told, I feel like Dorothy right now. I don't want to get too down into the details here because blogging is for happy people but the truth is that sometimes life isn't all rainbows and butterflies like the internet makes it seem sometimes. I know all you bloggers out there know what I'm talking about. We write and share all the great, beautiful and exciting moments of life but the reality is...we are just like everyone else with struggles and some straight baggage! Right?

As incredible as it is living in the city of lights (even though its raining like crazy this week!), there are ups and downs just like living anywhere else in the world. As you know, I started my internship in a prestigious Paris patisserie last week. I was so excited and nervous but once I met everyone there I was feeling pretty positive about the whole thing! After about a week now, I feel actually awful. It has been one of the most challenging experiences of my life. I thought an office job was tough, personal trainers were intense and event planning involved multi-tasking. Pastry kitchens are all those things, combined, times ten and on crack!!

Six days a week, rising before the sun is up, riding the metro and all I can think about it: "don't eff up as many times today!". I feel out of sorts, incredibly stressed, buried by pressure. I am soo far out of my comfort zone and I have had to mentally talk myself out of breaking down in tears at least three times this week. Ugh! The rational side of me says: "Okay, just chill out! This is all a normal part of the learning process and I'm sure they have dealt with worse interns. The point is the learn as much as you can from these people and it is better to make mistakes now so you don't make them later." but the emotional side of my just wants to crawl into a hole and hide and maybe not return to the kitchen.

The thing is that I know I am talented in pastry and I love doing it but my five months of training is having a hard time keeping up with these men who have been working in this business for 8+ years! I really hope it gets better. I really, really hope so.

Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it..yet! Tomorrow is also Bastille Day here in France which means I get to watch fireworks go off behind the Eiffel Tower sooo at least tomorrow will be a good day post-work! :)

my parents made me nerd out in front of the shop when we went for breakfast 

the day the ATM ate my card. and a recipe.

There are a lot of challenges when moving abroad. Even making the official decision to bite the bullet and come here was tough, but then the drives to Los Angeles to work out my Visa application, finding an apartment, getting 6 suitcases up 6 flights of windy stairs, getting a French phone, learning a new (and impossible) language and the worst of all...opening a French bank account. *cringe*


Opening a bank account sounds pretty simple right? At home, you walk in and sit down with someone and 30 minutes later you walk out all smiles because it was painless and your card will be in your possession shortly. Whoooole different story on this side of the planet. I will spare you my ranting and just say that after three weeks of back and forth I finally was ready to go down and use the ATM to "activate" my card so I could finally pay my tuition and rent that was two weeks past due...oops. 


Thats when it happened. 
First mental breakdown since moving here.
You knew this was coming didn't you?


The ATM ate my card and spit out a receipt saying "Carte Capture".  I've got enough language skills under my belt to understand that. I turn around to walk in the bank to see they have taken their "lunch break" which lasts from noon until three. 


The result? Running back up the 6 flights to my apartment to enjoy my full fledged mental breakdown in peace. The ATM machine brought up every stress and issue I've had since I moved!

sad sad puppy

After a while I found my big girl panties and decided I needed to do something to turn this day around. I got out and just walked around the city along the Seine. It is amazing how sunshine and good music can turn your day around. By the end of my hour walk, I was feeling much better and remembered no matter if the bank system here might be out to get me, things can get stressful and I might get homesick sometimes, I couldn't ask for a more awesome life. Here are some of the sights I saw on my therapy march. Having a tough day? Get out and talk a walk, I promise it works :)

all better :)

Are you ready for some Palmiers?? I hope so. Here is the recipe. It is in grams. I know, pretty inconvenient but my life has been shoved into the metric system and it is the "professional" way of doing things so I am told. If you don't have a scale, you can convert the measurements here. Also, it might look intimidating but I am just trying to be descriptive so don't be discouraged and go for it my love!


Bonne Chance et Bon Appetit!


Pate Feuilletage Inverse (Puff Pastry dough)
Oven: 450F or 230C


400g Butter
130g Flour


In your mixer, combine butter and flour. Should feel like a dough. Form this into a cube and wrap with plastic. Refrigerate until ready to use. 


270g Flour
10g Salt
140g Water (approx.)


In your mixer, combine all ingredients to create a firm detrempe (read:dough). This is a French culinary term for the first stage in the process of making puff pastry, which requires only flour and water. After, form into another cube, wrap with plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.




Onto a floured surface, roll out your butter dough in a rectangle just enough so that you can wrap the detrempe inside of it. Place the detrempe in the bottom half of the butter dough and fold the butter over the detrempe to enclose it as if it is a giant ravioli. Note: don't be afraid to use flour on the counter and the top of the dough, butter is easily melted and sticky so you will need to use flour to prevent the sticking and if the dough gets too warm and soft stick it in the refrigerator to firm up again. 

{photo via} 

Press together the ends of the butter to close everything up. Place the dough with the longest seam to your left, as if it is a book (an upside down one). Roll the dough out to about 10 cm x 35 cm long. Now you will give the dough its first "turn". Visually divide the dough into thirds. Fold the top third down and fold the bottom third up. It will end up looking like this. 

{via}

Repeat this three more times to total four turns keeping the long seam to the left. Remember, if the dough gets too warm and starts sticking to your table wrap it and refrigerate it until firm again (15 mins-30 mins).


Phew, now you have perfect puff pastry! You can use this for many different recipes and I hope you try some out. But I told you I would tell you how to make Palmiers so you can have them with jam and experience heaven in the mornings.


Now, trade your table flour for sugar (regular granulated sugar). Take your dough and give it a fifth turn in the sugar (I know, your arms will be stronger for it!). There should be an even coating of sugar over the dough. After the 5th turn, roll your dough out to about 10 cm x 80 cm. Fold the dough in half to mark the center. Fold the top half down to meet the center mark and fold the bottom half up to meet the center mark. Then fold the dough in half. Roll over the dough gently with your rolling pin to secure.

{via}

Now take a sharp knife and make clean slices of about 2 cm thick. Place them on a buttered baking sheet in the shape below and make sure to give them plenty of room to expand. Bake for 5-6 minutes until the bottom of the palmier is caramelized and then flip them over and bake for another 3-4 minutes until the other side is nice and golden caramelized. Transfer to a wire cooling rack. You did it!!!

Tres, tres Bien!

Palm-YAY

Thats how you  pronounce the name of these lovely little things - Palmiers.  I'm sure you have seen and/or eaten one of these in your life. They are just too cute shaped in a heart. But..uhh...before they get to baking in the oven they don't look so..."cute".

Hey now, I warned you. 

Palmiers are really pretty simple to make. It is puff pastry rolled in sugar and the sugar caramelizes in the oven for that crispy, sticky goodness. I already told you how much I love puff pastry so of course I had to take an entire box full of these babies home with me and later discovered that palmier + jam = heaven. Serious. So good. Would you all like the recipe for these? They are simple enough to conquer in your home kitchen. Yes?

PS- don't judge the hat. 

Field Trip Part 2: Moulins

Sorry, not Moulin Rouge (this time). Moulin is the french word for "windmill" or in this case we are talking about a flour mill! Our class went to tour the flour mill which supplies our school and a lot of Paris bakeries, pastry shops and cafes with flour. We had learned about the process in class and then we got to witness it in action and I thought it was pretty awesome (nerd alert!). 

Table "A" :)

In case you don't know, flour begins as grains of wheat and is crushed up many times and separated until you get what you think of as flour.  Today, it is all done by machines but we also got to see how they did it before technology changed the world. It was done with giant stones that ground up the wheat.  Here in the modern, functioning moulin. It is set out in the open country along a lovely little river - just step inside and you will find some intense machinery.

It is always crazy to me when I find myself standing in a building with so much history. The old mill has been there for hundreds of years. It's last year of production was 1905 and everything inside dates from then. It was one of 40 moulins along this little river and it one of the final ones standing today. They are now working on restoring it for the beauty of seeing it as it was in it's hay-day. The family who owns the mills are such lovely people and we were privileged to have lunch with them in the sweet little country town. It was so beautiful out there in the country (about 1 and a half hours outside of Paris) and a nice break from the city. I could fill my lungs with fresh, crisp air with no cigarette smoke or smog!  The best news, this moulin exports their flour! This means all you American lovers of mine will get real french baguettes someday soon, none of that supermarket hoopla! 

Then we had to have just a bit of fun. 

Mille Feuille

Mille Feuille is a layered pastry. It can be translated to "Thousand Layers" and is composed of sheets of puff pastry, pastry cream and anything else you feel like adding into the mix. It is so yummy! This is my favorite thing that we have made in class yet! I just kept finding a reason to cut another piece and devour it.

We made two different varieties: chocolate, hazelnut, praline and pistachio, strawberry. Both were beautiful and delicious but (big surprise) my knife kept hovering over the chocolate one for more.

You can find a version of this pastry in most shops and I would recommend it as a choice if you are debating on what to get. There are a few places you can find it in the states but not many.

The layers are: 

powdered sugar and decoration

chocolate puff pastry

hazelnut and praline pastry cream

chocolate puff pastry

chocolate pastry cream

chocolate praline crisp

chocolate puff pastry

the end.

Here is the pistachio version. Also delicious.

Would anybody like any of the recipes you have seen from my schooling? I would be happy to share one! Let me know your favorites so far!

Happy weekend! :)

Week 4: Puff Pastry

This week we entered the world of puff pastry. I have always loved this dough, not only because it is tasty and full of butter (more than you want to know about) but because it is so versatile and can take on a lot of different flavors. It is great with sugar, fruits, cheese, chocolate, cream...anything!

This dough takes brute strength though. You have to roll it out, fold it up, roll it out, fold it up..again and again. That is what creates all those flakey delicious little layers. It is a great way to get out some aggression. If your dough has been refrigerating it can get very firm. So, naturally you just take your rolling pin and beat the shit out of your dough. It is a crack up watching everybody just bringing rolling pin down on the dough. Great therapy! You should try it!

We made these the last week that my mom was here in Paris. She really loved the Chaussons aux Pommes. So much so that she packed them on the plane back to the states with her! Right now, she is either missing all the treats I bring home or she is thankful to be away from the potential 50 pounds I might be gaining here...

Chaussons aux pommes (filled with apple sauce), Brown Sugar & Apple in Chocolate puff, Chaussons Italienne (filled with pastry cream with rum raisins)

Dartois (puff pastry filled with almond cream), Bande Pommes (puff pastry topped with pastry cream and fruits)