This ultra-indulgent recipe was inspired by my foodie friend from MD’Rékréation. I’ve lost count of the lovely encounters that have come from this blog and my passion for pastry, and that’s exactly what I love. The funniest part of the story is that we live 5 minutes from each other. After a foodie stroll around Paris together, a four-handed pastry workshop awaits us soon, the outcome of which will be an incredible dessert; I can’t wait already! But back to this millefeuille.
I wanted to make a fairly elaborate dessert but without too much fuss (is that even possible?). I thought back to the millefeuille that Maamar had made a few days earlier: a vanilla, hazelnut praline and caramel millefeuille presented on its side (an assembly we owe to Christophe Michalak).
That’s when I remembered I still had some inverse puff pastry in the freezer (that’s the « no fuss » part because yes, let’s admit it, that’s the hardest step of the recipe).
I never tire of the vanilla and pecan combination, so it’s a pecan praline that I made, as well as a very smooth caramel whose recipe has already been published on the blog. And for the vanilla cream, I let myself be won over by whipped ganache, which is what Maamar had done too. A millefeuille recipe a little different from the one I’d already made a few years ago.
I had a few little problems at the assembly stage because I went for an XXL version of the millefeuille (sheets of puff pastry measuring 11×28 cm). But I hadn’t anticipated that standing it on its side would turn out to be complicated, if not impossible. And then, when it came to piping, my millefeuille was so big that I realised right from the start that I wasn’t going to have enough whipped ganache. So I re-cut my puff pastry sheets to get 8.5×28 cm sheets. Which is still very big. I couldn’t stand it on its side, so I left it flat and ended up piping the cream in balls. In the end, my millefeuille was heavy (since it was so big) and the cream sagged a little, so I decided to smooth the edges instead of keeping the rounded look.
So I ended up with a millefeuille a little far from the expected result but strangely, I find it has an ultra-indulgent look with that praline and that runny caramel. Don’t you?
Ingredients & method
7 components · Full recipe
Reversed Puff Pastry
Ingredients
- None
Method
1
I refer you to my article on Pierre Hermé's reversed puff pastry. Tip: make the pastry over two days and do the final fold on the day you will roll it out.
Vanilla Whipped Ganache (start the day before)
Ingredients
- 150 g (5.3 oz) heavy cream
- 85 g (3 oz) white chocolate
- 1 vanilla pod
- 2.5 g (0.1 oz) powdered gelatine
- 15 g (0.5 oz) water (to rehydrate the gelatine)
- 250 g (8.8 oz) cold heavy cream
Method
1
Rehydrate the gelatine in the water.
2
Break the white chocolate into pieces in a bowl (you can melt it slightly in a bain-marie or microwave).
3
Heat 150 g (5.3 oz) of cream with the split and scraped vanilla pod in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover and leave to infuse for 15 minutes.
4
Remove the vanilla pod, then reheat the cream.
5
Off the heat, add the rehydrated gelatine and stir.
6
Pour one-third of the cream over the white chocolate and stir with a spatula to create an emulsion. Add the second third, then the third, until smooth and homogeneous.
7
Add the 250 g (8.8 oz) of cold cream, mix again, and blitz briefly with a hand blender to fully homogenise.
8
Cover with cling film pressed to the surface and refrigerate for several hours (ideally overnight).
Pecan Praline (can be made ahead)
Ingredients
- 300 g (10.6 oz) pecan nuts
- 200 g (7.1 oz) sugar
- 50 g (1.8 oz) water
- 1 pinch of fleur de sel
Method
1
Toast the pecan nuts in the oven for about 15 minutes at 150°C.
2
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan or cast-iron pot, bring the water and sugar to a boil. At 116°C, remove from the heat and pour the pecans into the liquid sugar, stirring to coat all the nuts. The mixture will turn white — this is normal.
3
Return to medium heat and stir continuously until the sugar melts again and caramelises (about 20 minutes). Do not stop stirring to avoid burning the nuts.
4
At the end of cooking, the nuts should be glossy and a lovely auburn colour. Spread on baking paper and leave to cool.
5
Once completely cold, break the nut slab and place in a food processor with the fleur de sel.
6
Blitz, pausing regularly (to avoid overheating the paste), until you reach a praline consistency. The longer you blitz, the more liquid it becomes. You will have some left over — store in a small glass jar at room temperature (or in the fridge) for a few weeks.
Creamy Caramel (can be made ahead)
Ingredients
- 95 g (3.4 oz) sugar
- 50 g (1.8 oz) + 100 g (3.5 oz) glucose
- 50 g (1.8 oz) milk
- 1 vanilla pod
- 200 g (7.1 oz) heavy cream
- 2 g (0.1 oz) fleur de sel
- 70 g (2.5 oz) butter
Method
1
In a small saucepan, heat the cream, milk, 50 g (1.8 oz) of glucose, vanilla and fleur de sel.
2
In another saucepan, cook the sugar and 100 g (3.5 oz) of glucose to 185°C.
3
Deglaze off the heat with the hot cream. Watch out for splashes.
4
Return to the heat and cook to 105°C, stirring with a spatula. Pass through a fine sieve if needed.
5
Allow the caramel to cool slightly; at 70°C, add the butter cut into small pieces. Blitz with a hand blender and transfer to an airtight jar. You will have some left over — store in a glass jar in the fridge for 2–3 weeks.
Puff Pastry Sheets
Ingredients
- 300 g (10.6 oz) block of puff pastry
Method
1
Roll the block into a rectangle 26 cm (10.2 in) long by 21 cm (8.3 in) wide. Rest the dough in the fridge for 3 hours to prevent shrinkage during baking.
2
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan.
3
Cut the rectangle into three strips, each 26 cm (10.2 in) long by 7 cm (2.8 in) wide.
4
Place on a sheet of baking paper and dust with a little caster sugar, which will caramelise during baking.
5
Bake for 25 minutes. You can place another baking sheet on top for a thinner, flatter pastry (as I did), or leave uncovered for a thicker result.
Vanilla Chantilly
Ingredients
- 200 g (7.1 oz) heavy cream
- 40 g (1.4 oz) mascarpone
- 2 tablespoons icing sugar
- ½ vanilla pod
Method
1
Place the mixing bowl and beaters in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.
2
Pour the cream and mascarpone into the cold bowl and start whisking at medium speed. When the cream begins to stiffen slightly, increase the speed. The cream will gradually rise and firm up.
3
Check the consistency periodically by stopping the mixer. The chantilly is ready when it holds its shape completely — with mascarpone it sets faster, so pay close attention. If you turn the bowl upside down, it should not fall. Take care not to overwhip, which would make the cream greasy or even turn it to butter.
4
Add the icing sugar and vanilla seeds when the cream is almost fully whipped.
5
Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 16 mm plain nozzle and refrigerate until assembly.
Assembly
Ingredients
- None
Method
1
Whip the vanilla ganache like a chantilly and transfer to a piping bag fitted with a 16 mm plain nozzle.
2
Place the first puff pastry rectangle flat, then pipe sausages of whipped vanilla ganache with the piping bag. Repeat with 2 more pastry rectangles (keeping one for the top layer).
3
Between the ganache sausages, pipe a thin strip of pecan praline and a thin strip of creamy caramel.
4
Stack the three filled pastry layers, then place the final pastry rectangle on top with the caramelised side up. Press gently to adhere. Smooth the edges with a spatula.
5
Take the piping bag from the fridge and pipe the vanilla chantilly on top of the last pastry layer.
6
Refrigerate until serving. In all honesty, I would have liked to keep the sausage look of the whipped ganache rather than smoothing the edges. But my XXL millefeuille was far too large and perhaps too heavy — the ganache sagged under the weight of the layers, so I decided to smooth the sides instead.
Gallery
