Cheat’s Millefeuille from ‘The Social Kitchen’ Cookbook

 

Updated post.

Here I share Shally Tucker’s pretty recipe for Cheat’s Millefeuille on the blog from the book ‘The Social Kitchen’ compiled by her daughter Dani, in her loving memory.

I must make a vegan equivalent for myself!

This cookbook honours her energy, effervescence and joie de vivre and is designed to encapsulate a mother’s philosophy: to encourage people to cook, to enjoy life, to give back, to entertain, to create, and to have fun.

It’s her book of wisdom, humour and quirky ideologies.

The book features recipes, stories and even some of her crafty ideas. All of which built the foundations of the ‘Social Kitchen’, which the Tuckers grew up in, and love!!!

 

Cheat’s Millefeuille

 

SERVES 6–8 

Ingredients:

• flour, for dusting
• 350g all-butter puff pastry 80g packet of Osem vanilla
• instant pudding 500ml double cream
• 250g strawberries,
• hulled 150g dark chocolate
• (70% cocoa solids) 100g icing sugar

Proper millefeuille is a classic French pastry made with crème pâtissière and takes a while to make! Mom’s cheat version is much quicker and still really good to eat. 

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. Line a large baking sheet with baking parchment – you need to have another baking sheet of the same size to hand.

Dust your work surface with flour, then roll out the pastry to make a rectangle measuring about 30 x 40cm. Trim to neaten the edges, then cut the pastry into thirds widthways to make 3 equal rectangles. Place these on the lined baking sheet and prick them all over with a fork, then put the other baking sheet on top so the pastry doesn’t puff up too much. Bake the pastry in the oven for 15–20 minutes until cooked and golden, then leave to cool.

Whisk the vanilla pudding mixture in a bowl with the cream. Cut up half the strawberries and fold them into the pudding mixture, then place it in the fridge to firm up for 10 minutes. Slice the remaining strawberries.

Place a piece of pastry on a serving dish or board and spread it with half the vanilla and strawberry mixture. Add a few sliced strawberries, then top with a second piece of pastry. Spread over the remaining vanilla pudding, add more strawberries, then top with the third piece of pastry.

Break up the chocolate and put it in a heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water – making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. When the chocolate has melted, carefully remove the bowl from
the pan and leave the chocolate to cool slightly.

Mix together the icing sugar with 2 tablespoons of water to make a thick icing. Spread this over the top piece of pastry. Put the melted chocolate in a piping bag and pipe stripes over the icing.

Carefully drag a knife along the top of the millefeuille to create a zig-zag effect in the chocolate. Cut the millefeuille into sections with a sharp knife.

All proceeds from the sale of this book go to Dermatrust (The Dermatitis and Allied Diseases Research Trust).

Dermatrust is a registered charity, which aims to improve the treatment and care of skin diseases through supporting the advancement of research and treatment of benign and malignant diseases of the skin.

www.thesocialkitchen.org

Buy the book HERE.