Millefeuille berry cake. "Milfeuille": the famous French cake from Alexander Seleznev - a recipe with a photo

"Milfeuille" is a French analogue of the Napoleon dessert, beloved by many of our compatriots. The name of the delicacy is translated as "yarrow", since it is based on puff pastry cakes. They are layered with custard or other cream and fresh berries. This is the main difference between Millefeuille and Napoleon. As a result, rather thick layers are obtained, so that only three or four cakes are enough. The French believe that the most delicious "Milfeuille" is crispy, so they serve it immediately after cooking, without waiting for the cakes to soak in cream and berry juice. All this affects the taste of the finished sweet, making Millefeuille completely different from Napoleon, despite the fact that their recipes have much in common.

Cooking features

"Milfey" is made from yeast-free puff pastry. The cream is used custard, cheese, cottage cheese, creamy, sour cream or other. If you use ready-made dough and one of the simplest cream options, it will take very little time to prepare a dessert. But still, cakes and cakes, from start to finish, prepared at home from the highest quality ingredients, turn out to be much tastier than those made from purchased semi-finished products. If you fully want to create a French dessert with your own hands, knowing a few points will come in handy, since the task before you is not entirely simple.

Puff pastry can be made from margarine or butter. The most delicious is obtained from natural oil of high fat content.
The preparation of puff pastry is not rushed. Having rolled out the first layer, the product, folded in an envelope, is put into the refrigerator. After a while, it is rolled out again, folded into an envelope, and cooled. Do this 2-4 times. As a result, it can take almost half a day to prepare the dough for Millefeuille alone. If you have scheduled the preparation of Millefeuille, do not plan other important things for this day. Prepare a large amount of dough at once so that some of it can be frozen: this will significantly reduce the time for preparing dessert next time.
You only need to cut the puff pastry with a sharp knife, otherwise it sticks together at the slices and does not rise during baking.
Puff pastry contains a lot of oil, so it is enough to lay baking paper on a baking sheet before baking the cakes. If you are not sure of its quality, you can grease it with butter or vegetable oil, but only in a very thin layer.
Part of the baked dough can be crumbled and used to sprinkle the finished cake (or pastries), following the example of Napoleon.
Berries and fruits for Millefeuille are usually taken fresh. If you are using frozen ones, let them thaw and drain off any juices. Canned fruits are not suitable for making Yarrow, as they soak the dough quickly.
If you use butter to make cream, take it out of the refrigerator in advance so that it softens. Cream, on the other hand, must be used cold, otherwise it will be difficult to whip. The custard is cooked in a water bath or very low heat so that the yolks do not curdle.
In order for Millefeuille to have a classic look, the cream is not spread on the cakes, but spread using a culinary bag or syringe. This can be done only after the cakes have completely cooled down. The cream also needs to be cooled.

Dessert should be served fresh, otherwise it will cease to be crunchy, losing some of its charm.

Classic Millefeuille Recipe

wheat flour - 120 g for dough, 20 g for cream;
chicken eggs - 1 pc. for the test, 2 pcs. for cream;
powdered sugar - 40 g for dough, 20 g for custard, 20 g for butter cream;
lemon juice - 20 ml;
butter - 60 g;
salt - a pinch;
vanillin - a pinch;
milk - 0.2 l;
fat cream - 100 ml;
fresh berries (strawberries or others) - 0.25–0.3 kg.

Cooking method:

Wrap a piece of butter of the right size in foil and put it in the freezer for half an hour.
Sift flour, mix with salt and a tablespoon of powdered sugar.
The frozen butter, holding a piece by the foil, chop on a grater. It will be easier to do this if you first dip the butter into flour.
Sprinkle the butter with flour, sprinkle with lemon juice, knead the dough.
Wrap the dough in cling film and put it in the main compartment of the refrigerator for half an hour.
Roll out the dough, fold it into an envelope, put it in the refrigerator for another half an hour.
Roll out the dough again, fold it into an envelope. Remove to refrigerator.
After half an hour, roll out the dough again into a 36 cm by 24 cm rectangle or a 30 cm by 30 cm square.
Lay parchment on a baking sheet. Wrapping the dough around the rolling pin, transfer it to a baking sheet, spread it out.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
Pierce the dough in several places with a fork, brush with a beaten egg, put in the oven.
After 10 minutes, sprinkle the dough with powdered sugar, return to the oven for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, cut into three 12cm x 24cm pieces if you plan to make a small cake, or into 18 5cm x 10cm pieces if you prefer Millefeuille in the form of cakes. Leave the cakes to cool.
Divide the remaining eggs into proteins and yolks, only the latter will be required to prepare the cream.
Place the yolks in a bowl, add powdered sugar, vanillin, 50 ml of milk to them, beat with a whisk. Add flour and stir until a homogeneous mixture is obtained.
Heat the rest of the milk without boiling. Pour in a thin stream to the yolks, while whisking them.
Put the cream in a water bath or a slow fire. Cook, stirring, until it thickens. Remove the cream from the heat and let it cool down. To speed up the process, a bowl of cream can be placed in a container filled with cold water.
When the cream has cooled, whip the cream, adding the remaining powdered sugar to them.
Combine cream with custard.
Wash the berries, let them dry. Cut large strawberries in half.
Put the cream in a pastry bag. Point it out onto the cakes. You need to cover 2/3 of the cakes, leaving the third part for the final layer.
Put the berries on the cream, slightly drowning them in it.
Put the second part of the cakes covered with cream on half of the cakes decorated with cream and berries. Spread clean cakes on top.

Before serving, the cake can be sprinkled with powdered sugar, decorated with berries.

Millefeuille with cheese cream and raspberries

puff pastry - 0.5 kg;
mascarpone - 0.2 kg;
fat cream - 0.2 l;
dessert wine - 40 ml;
powdered sugar - 40 g;
raspberry confiture - 40 ml;
fresh raspberries - 0.25 kg.

Cooking method:

Mix mascarpone with alcohol, whisk.
Separately, beat the cream, then combine it with the cheese mass and beat again.
Defrost the finished puff pastry, divide into 2 parts (often it is sold in packs of 2 layers).
Roll out the first layer, put it on a baking sheet covered with parchment, pierce it in several places with a fork and put it in an oven preheated to 220 degrees for 15 minutes.
Cool the baked layer slightly, cut into 4-8 pieces of the same size, leave to cool.
Bake and cut the second layer of dough in the same way.
Divide the cakes into groups of 4 cakes. As a result, you will get either 2 large cakes or 4 medium-sized cakes.
Divide the confiture by the number of cakes and spread the appropriate number of cakes (if making 2 large cakes, cover 2 cakes with jam).
Cover the cakes smeared with confiture with clean ones, press down. The resulting pairs of cakes, fastened with confiture, will become the center of future cakes.
Cover the cakes glued with jam with cream and berries, using half of these products.
Apply the remaining cream and berries on 2-4 cakes (according to the number of cakes). Leave a few berries (6-12 pieces) for decoration.
Assemble the cakes by placing the first layer of a single-layer cake with cream and raspberries, the second layer - a pyramid of cakes glued with jam, covered with cream and berries. Put clean cakes in the final layer.
Sprinkle the cakes with powdered sugar.
Spread out the berries.

Dessert according to this recipe is not too sweet, but very tasty. Cream cheese and sour raspberries create a harmonious pair. A sprinkling of powdered sugar softens the sourness inherent in raspberries.

A simple recipe for Millefeuille

puff pastry - 0.4 kg;
fresh or frozen cranberries - 0.2 kg;
sugar or powdered sugar - 100 g;
sour cream with a fat content of 25% - 0.25 l.

Cooking method:

Roll out puff pastry, dividing into 2 parts, bake in an oven preheated to 220 degrees (for 15 minutes). Cut each cake into 6 pieces.
Beat sour cream with powdered sugar, leaving 20–40 g of a sweet product to decorate cakes.
Defrost cranberries, drain liquid. If it is possible to use a fresh berry, stop the choice on it. Cranberries can be replaced with black currants or other sour berries.
Cover 8 cakes with sour cream, spread a berry over them. Fold the cakes in pairs (laying on top of each other). Cover with the remaining cakes.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Heat the knife, touch the surface of each cake 2-3 times with the blade - brown streaks will appear on them, as the powdered sugar caramelizes.

It will take no more than an hour to prepare a French dessert according to the above recipe, but its taste will not disappoint you.

Mille Feuille is a popular French puff pastry dessert with custard or other cream and fresh berries. In composition, it resembles the well-known Napoleon in our country, but the taste is completely different.

Recipes for delicious cakes

1 hour 15 minutes

435 kcal

5 /5 (5 )

Dessert millefeuille is a puff pastry with a very rich cream, decorated with fresh fruit.

In its essence and cooking technology, it is very similar to our "Napoleon" and, strictly speaking, differs little from it.

Stock and kitchen appliances: a very sharp knife, a baking sheet for baking dough, a container for making cream (preferably glass), a cooking syringe (optional for restaurant serving).

Mille-feuille is a combination of two French words: "mille" (mile) - a thousand and "feuille" - layers, sheets. Usually in cookbooks this combination is translated as “yarrow”, but personally I like “thousand layers” more, in my opinion this is more suitable for a cake.

Required products

For test:

For cream:

Features of product selection

In this recipe, we will prepare dough for millefeuille ourselves. If you have enough time and inspiration, the dessert will turn out to be truly homemade. But you can, of course, not bother. As a rule, networks offer to use ready-made puff pastry, this is quite acceptable (you will need a package of 450-500 g).

If you make the dough yourself, do not try to replace the butter with margarine - then it is better to buy ready-made. It is butter that will make your dough truly homemade!

Cream for millefeuille can be used in a variety of ways. I took not the cheapest, but not the most expensive option.

If you want to surprise your guests with a truly luxurious dessert, use Italian cream cheese instead of cream. mascarpone(you won’t need a thickener in this case), but if, on the contrary, you are going to cook a cake for no reason and you don’t have expensive cream at hand, you can use fat sour cream.

Drain the sour cream on cheesecloth and hang over the sink for a few hours (preferably overnight). The serum will drain and the cream will be much thicker.

Another option: take 2 parts of sour cream and one part of fatty cottage cheese. First, the cottage cheese must be rubbed through a sieve or passed through a meat grinder, then beat with sour cream, powdered sugar and a thickener.

In a word, millefeuille is an unlimited flight of fancy and the absence of clear rules, so do not restrain yourself in experiments!

Concerning fruits, then I would not recommend using canned from a can. They are too “wet”, mixed with the cream, they quickly swim, and the dessert loses all its attractiveness.

If you really want to cook millefeuille in winter, just decorate it with shortbread crumbs and a sprig of mint!

History of the French Dessert

The first mention of the millefeuille cake appears in French cookbooks as early as the 17th-18th centuries, but the exact origin of the dessert is unknown. The original versions of the French millefeuille had jam instead of cream.

There is a similar dessert in the UK, where it is called vanilla slice (vanilla layers) or cream slice (cream layers), in Hungary and Italy (in Naples, however, this dish was not sweet, but salty, since the southerners made the filling from cream cheese, spinach and pesto).

In Russia, it is believed that the most delicate cake made of puff pastry with cream, melting in your mouth, was prepared by chefs on the occasion of the celebration of the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812, and witty chefs gave it the name of the defeated enemy - "Napoleon".

The French themselves are convinced that according to the classic recipe, millefeuille should be crispy, and not wet, which is the main difference from Napoleon. But here, as they say, the taste and color - in order for the cake to crunch, it just needs to be served immediately, not allowing it to soak.

How to cook Millefeuille cake at home: a step by step recipe

Let's start with cooking test for millefeuille.

Pour 4 cups of flour into a bowl or on a clean table, make a depression in it and drive eggs into it. Pour in water in which salt and citric acid are pre-dissolved. Start kneading until you get a dough.

Flour should always be sifted before making dough! Firstly, it saturates it with oxygen, and secondly, it eliminates small lumps and foreign objects!
When kneading the dough, be guided by its structure and, if necessary, add flour (it is impossible to calculate the exact amount of flour in advance, because the eggs come in different sizes, and the flour itself has different stickiness). You should have an elastic dough, almost not sticky to your hands.
Soft butter is mixed with the remaining glass of flour and put in the refrigerator for 30 minutes so that the butter "grabs".
Roll out the dough on a floured board, spread the butter on top.
We fold the dough with an “envelope” and roll it out again.
We fold the “envelope” again and roll it out.
We repeat the procedure four times. We tighten the finished dough with cling film and put it in the refrigerator for several hours.

According to the technology, the dough does not require freezing. But making puff pastry yourself is a rather tedious procedure, so you can prepare it for the future and freeze it in this case. The dough can be stored in the freezer for several months!
Roll out the “rested” dough in a thin layer (the thickness should be only a couple of millimeters) and cut into portioned pieces.
We spread the pieces of dough on the prepared baking sheet (if you have high-quality dishes, you don’t need to lubricate it with anything - there is already enough fat in the dough, but if in doubt, put baking paper on the baking sheet and coat it well with butter or vegetable (odorless!) Butter.
Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for about five minutes until golden brown.

Cream recipe for Millefeuille cake

Let's get some cream. Everything is simple here. Beat the cream well with a mixer, gently adding powdered sugar and thickener.

How to decorate and serve the Millefeuille cake beautifully

Collecting dessert. On each layer of dough, thickly lay buttercream, put fresh fruit on top. You can use strawberries, raspberries, currants - whatever you like.

You only need to work with puff pastry with a very sharp knife, otherwise you will break its structure at the edges and it will not rise. With regard to millefeuille, this is not fatal (although it’s still not good), but if you cook croissants, you risk spoiling the pastries, so it’s better to make it a rule not to break the technology!
The dough should always be placed in a well-heated oven, otherwise it will not rise!

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5KBqLp-H4IM/sddefault.jpg

https://youtu.be/5KBqLp-H4IM

2015-05-08T14:40:02.000Z

This video gives a complete picture of how to cook millefeuille, so there are no questions left.

Please note: the presenter uses a culinary syringe to assemble the dessert, this allows you to make the millefeuille cake very elegant, since the cream is not spread on the cakes, but is laid out on them in “heaps”. It looks insanely beautiful and expensive, like in a chic restaurant, and, in addition, this serving makes the dessert look completely different from the slightly boring and familiar Napoleon.

But if you don't have a syringe, no problem! Lubricate the cakes with a spoon, due to fresh fruit, the dish will still look very appetizing, and the shape of the cream certainly does not affect the taste.

Invitation to discuss the dessert and possible improvements

Millefeuille, like pizza, has a lot of modifications, and each has a right to exist. Once in the Soviet years, I made a salty "Napoleon" stuffed with canned fish - and believe me, this made an indelible impression on the guests!

"Milfeuille" can also be not only a dessert, but also a cold appetizer, so for a good hostess this is just a starting point for fantasy. What variations of this cake do you make? I would be grateful for original ideas based on millefeuille - send your recipes with photos, we will discuss!

Take out the frozen dough. Do not decompose immediately, you need to thaw. I always wait at room temperature, do not put on warming up. When the dough can already be unsticked, I spread it on a baking sheet with parchment paper. I pierce with a fork and wait for it to completely melt.

While the dough thaws and comes to its senses, I'll take care of the cream. I spread the cottage cheese in a bowl, mix it with powdered sugar and beat with a mixer. I add a little martini, whisk again. Then, in another bowl, whip heavy cream at the highest speed. They must thicken. Then I mix the cottage cheese with cream and put everything in the refrigerator.

I put the puff pastry rolled out across the width of the baking sheet to bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for 15-20 minutes. I cool the finished dough and cut it with a knife into even squares or rectangles.

Put one square on a plate. Spread a thin layer of jam on it. Cover with the second square. On another plate, we also coat the square, only with cream. It would be very good if you put the cream in a special bag and squeeze it out with beautiful patterns. Put a berry on top of the cream (I have raspberries). It is better to take fresh. We impose a cake with jam on the berry.

Millefeuille (the name literally translates as “thousand sheets”) is the original French dessert or puff pastry appetizer (we are all familiar with this dessert called “Napoleon”). This dessert is a small rectangular cake, but sometimes they are made large and round. Millefeuille cake is layered with fruits, various sweet creams, fruit jams, nuts, cheese and various other dessert goodies. Top with sugar-based icing. Unsweetened snack millefeuille can be with layers of fish or lobsters, various vegetables, pates, thick sauces. It is usually served at the beginning of lunch or dinner. The first recipe for millefeuille was published by the French cook Francois Pierre in 1651. The recipe was brought to perfection by the famous confectioner Marie-Antoine Careme.

classic millefeuille

Dough

Ingredients (for dough):

200 g of natural unsalted butter (and another 100 grams);
300 g wheat flour;
a pinch of salt;
a little white wine vinegar;
100 ml of ice water.

Cooking:

From these ingredients we will prepare classic puff pastry (the process is not fast, in several steps with 3 times cooling). We will bake cakes from the rolled dough (preferably of approximately the same shape) - they are baked quickly, for about 5 minutes each at a temperature of 200ºС. Baked cakes can be cut into small plates (if we want to collect cakes).

cream for millefeuille

Millefeuille cream is prepared in several versions. The most common is a cream based on Mascarpone cheese, to which egg yolks and a little powdered sugar are added. Since Mascarpone is not so much cheese as very thick and heavy cream, the dessert turns out to be very high in calories. Another option is custard.

Ingredients (for cream):

150 g of sugar;
80 g of premium flour;
6 yolks;
a little vanilla and cinnamon;
a tablespoon of cognac;
0.8 l of milk.

Cooking:

To prepare the cream, carefully separate the yolks from the proteins. You can make meringue or marshmallows from proteins, and beat the yolks with powdered sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Gradually add flour and mix until smooth. We heat the milk, pour a third of the milk into the yolks and mix well. When the remaining milk boils, in a thin stream, stirring constantly, pour the yolk mass into it. We will cook, stirring constantly so that the cream does not burn, until the cream begins to thicken. Pour in brandy, mix and cool the cream. To make it plastic, you can add 200 g of butter until the cream is completely cooled. To make vanilla millefeuille, a vanilla bean is added to the milk, heated, then the vanilla is scraped off and the bean is removed. The cakes are greased with a cooled cream, berries or fruits are placed on it.

Millefeuille with strawberries

Berry millefeuille is a traditional dessert, most often it is prepared with strawberries or wild strawberries. Strawberry millefeuille is very delicate, it must be eaten a maximum of 5 hours after preparation, until the cakes are soaked.

Ingredients:

Cooking:

Roll out the puff pastry into a thin layer, cut out the cakes of the desired shape, prick them with a fork and bake until done. Cool the cream well and beat with sugar. We wash the strawberries when the berries drain, remove the stalks and cut each berry into 2-3 parts. We put whipped cream or custard on the cakes, put the berries. Dessert can be of any height. Millefeuille with raspberries also turns out to be very tasty, while you can use both berries and berry mousse. The main thing is that the berries should not be damaged and not overripe.

Mille-feuille is a dessert that is prepared on the basis of puff pastry, dressed with butter cream, fresh fruits or berries. It tastes like a Napoleon cake, but differs from it in that the cakes remain crispy, and not soaked in cream.

According to the recipe, the millefeuille dessert can be prepared in the form of a tall, but at the same time light cake, or it can be in the form of a portioned cake, which will be more convenient to eat.

You can add any berries and fruits of your choice, but it is recommended to use fresh fruits. Canned and frozen can bleed into the cream and make it unattractive.

Harvest the cakes, cream, and fruit just before serving, as millefeuille is not shelf-stable.

Millefeuille: a classic recipe

Millefeuille with berries

In the classic version of the millefeuille recipe, one type of berry is used - raspberries. You should also adhere to a certain size of cakes - 10 by 20 cm.

You will need:

Cream 10% - 0.5 l.;
Eggs - 2 pcs.;
Vanillin - ¼ teaspoon;
Flour - 1 tablespoon without a slide;
Starch - 1 tablespoon without top;
Sugar - 5 tablespoons.
Puff pastry - 0.5 kg;
Raspberries or strawberries - 0.4 kg;
Mint leaves - for decoration.

Cooking:

Defrost the dough, roll it out with a rolling pin into a thin layer, 2-3 mm thick and cut into rectangles, 20 cm long and 10 cm wide. Make punctures with a fork over the entire surface, then the dough will not bubble during baking.
Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread out the dough. Bake for 15-20 minutes. The pieces of dough will become a nice, slightly brownish color. Take the dough out of the oven. Cool the portioned pieces separately from each other, do not stack them, this will help them stay crispy.
Pour the cream into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn off the fire.
Beat the eggs with a fork or with a whisk, add sugar, vanilla, flour and starch, mix until smooth.
Pour in the cream in a thin stream, stirring constantly.
Put the saucepan in a water bath and cook until thickened, stirring constantly to avoid lumps. The cream will acquire the consistency of thick sour cream. Cool down. Grind the cooled cream through a sieve to get rid of possible lumps. Chill the cream in the refrigerator.
Assemble the cake: Each cake will consist of three layers. Fill a pastry bag with cream. On the cake, apply cream in the form of balls, leaving room around the edges for the berries. Arrange the raspberries between the balls and around the edges, lightly pressing the berries into the cream. Cover the berries on top with a thin layer of cream. Top the second cake, cream and berries. Decorate the third top cake with powdered sugar, a few raspberries and a couple of mint leaves.

Before serving, chill the millefeuille in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes, but no more. Bon appetit.

Millefeuille in the form of a cake from homemade dough

Millefeuille in the form of a cake

You will need:

Flour - 5.5 cups;
Butter - 0.6 kg;
Eggs - 2 large or 3 small;
Cream 33% - 1000 ml;
Water - 1 glass;
Lemon - ½ teaspoon;
Salt - ¼ teaspoon;
Powdered sugar - 4 tablespoons;
Vanilla sugar - 1 pack;
Confectionery thickener for sour cream - 1 pack;
Fresh strawberries - as needed;
Grated chocolate - for dessert decoration.

Cooking:

Dissolve salt and lemon in a glass of water.
Sift through a sieve 4 cups of flour directly onto the table where you will knead the dough. Make a well in the flour, beat in the eggs and pour in the water. Gradually adding flour to the liquid, knead the dough. It will turn out soft and will not stick to your hands.
Cut room temperature butter into random pieces, sprinkle with 1 cup flour and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Roll out the dough, put butter on top, leaving space around the edges, wrap the dough with an envelope (photo) and roll it out. Roll up again (photo) and roll out. There will be 4 such repetitions in total. Wrap the dough in a towel and refrigerate for a couple of hours.
Take the dough out of the fridge and roll it out to the size you want for the cake. The thickness of the dough should be 2-3 mm, this is a fairly thin dough.
Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place in the hot oven. Cook for 5-7 minutes at 180 degrees. The dough will brown. Prepare 3-4 cakes. Cakes should be completely cool.
Whip the chilled cream, adding powdered sugar and sour cream thickener.
Assemble the cake on a serving dish: grease each cake with cream using a pastry bag or syringe, put the strawberries cut in half, melting them into the cream, the height of the cream layer with strawberries between the cakes should be about 2 cm. Also decorate the top cake with cream and berries, sprinkle with grated chocolate.

Serve immediately after cooking, before the cakes have had time to soak in the cream - then they will turn out crispy, as intended. Cut with a very sharp knife so that the dough does not crumble.