Ingredients portion 8
Wheat flour 400 g
Citric acid 2 g
Butter 250 g
Sugar 350 g
33% cream 200 ml
Egg yolk 5 pieces
Vanilla pod 1 piece
Gelatin in plates 10 g
Mascarpone cheese 200 g
Fresh berries to taste
Salt 2 g
Cooking instructions 5 hours
1 The dough for mille-feuille is the same as for croissants. You can buy ready-made puff pastry, but it is of course better to make it yourself to be sure of the ingredients, taste and quality. Industrial manufacturers often use margarine and palm oil instead of butter. Pour 375 grams of flour into a bowl. Then take 165 ml of water, dissolve 2 grams each of salt and citric acid. Add the water to the flour and beat an egg into the dough.
2 Knead the dough in the mixer bowl with the hook attachment for 10 minutes. Start on a low speed until all the ingredients come together, then increase the speed. Knead the dough in by hand, wrap in clingfilm and leave in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
3 Meanwhile, prepare the butter to be used to glaze the dough. Knead the softened butter with 25 grams of flour until smooth. The flour is needed to incorporate the butter into the dough so that it adheres to the dough.
4 Put the butter mixture on the parchment, spread it out in a thin layer so that it forms a square and wrap it completely in paper. Roll out onto the parchment with a rolling pin a few times to make the mixture flat and thin, no more than 5-7 mm thick. Put the butter in the refrigerator and keep it there until firm. This should take about 1 hour.
5 While the dough is resting in the refrigerator, make the caramel. Pour 250 grams of sugar into a saucepan and put it over a little higher than medium heat. Keep a close eye on the bottom of the casserole as this is where the sugar will melt. There is no need to stir the mass: if you intervene with a whisk or spatula, the sugar may subsequently crystallise. However, since you do need to stir the caramel, just shake the casserole dish a little.
6 After 10-15 minutes the sugar will have turned into this caramel. Make sure that the sugar does not burn; if it does, reduce the temperature. Pour the cooked caramel out in a thin layer onto a silicone mat and leave to cool.
7 Take the dough out, roll it up lightly and then continue to roll it out so that the middle is thicker and the edges thinner, like petals. Stretch out the corners of the dough so that they can then be covered with butter. Keep the work surface and the rolling pin cool. By the way, you can put the rolling pin in the refrigerator. The optimum room temperature is 15-17 degrees, which is quite cold. You can open a window in winter and turn on the air conditioner in summer. This is to prevent the oil from beginning to thaw. Thawed butter will cause the dough to tear and stick to the table top.
8 Take out the chilled butter. Measure whether it fits into the centre of the dough and whether it covers the edges of the dough completely. If not, set the butter aside and roll out the dough more firmly or stretch it with your hands. Wrap the butter in the dough like an envelope. The edges of the dough will cover the butter overlapping; press them down firmly.
9 Roll out the dough into a rectangle in two directions, outwards and towards yourself, but not across. The final thickness should be about 1 cm. The length of the piece of dough should be about four times the width. Do it very quickly as the butter will melt. Remove any excess flour from the surface.
10 Put the dough together. To do this, mentally divide it into three parts. Add the first two to each other, leaving one third of the dough, fold it in half. This will create a book, where one part is larger and the other smaller. If you fold the dough symmetrically, the middle of the dough will crumple when folded again.
11 Fold the dough in half. From the side, it will look like the one in the picture. These are the first four layers. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Then take it out, roll it out to 1 cm thickness, fold it in the same way, put it back in the fridge. Repeat the process two more times.
12 You will end up with a dough with 256 layers. This dough can live for a week in the fridge and three months in the freezer. In addition to mille-feuille, it can be used to make dumplings, cakes and pies. Cut it with a very sharp knife or a pizza cutter so as not to seal the layers.
13 Roll out the dough to the shape of the tray so that it is no higher than 5 mm. Prick the dough so that it will not puff up when baked and so that the layers will stick together in places. Bake the pastry in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes. The dough should brown on both sides. To prevent it from turning into a pillowy state, it should be turned upside down. It’s easy: at the moment when the surface is beginning to brown, open the oven, quickly flip the dough over with the ruddy side down and leave to bake. Allow to bake for about 10 minutes on each side. When ready, cool the crust.
14 While the dough is baking, make the cream. Whip the cold cream on the mixer bowl at the highest speed until soft peaks form, 5 to 7 minutes. Put the cream in the refrigerator so that it does not crumble.
15 Whisk the egg yolks. Add the seeds from one vanilla pod to the yolks. The pods do not need to be discarded, they can be added to the sugar syrup as it cooks so that it becomes vanilla and has a lovely caramel colouring.
16 While the egg yolks and vanilla are whisking, make the sugar syrup. Stir 100 grams of sugar in 80 ml water, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer until the syrup reaches 116 degrees. While the syrup is boiling, let the egg yolks continue to whisk, they will be fine.
17 Without stopping to whisk, add the hot syrup to the egg yolks, followed by the gelatine (soaked in cold water and squeezed out). Then add the mascarpone and whisk until smooth. Make sure that the mascarpone does not stick to the sides of the bowl. If necessary, stop the mixer, stir in the cream with a spatula and then continue to whisk.
18 Add the whipped cream to the cream and stir with a spatula or whisk. Stir gently from bottom to top to prevent the cream from settling. Put the cream in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
19 Cut the cold cakes. Cut off the edges first, they are uneven. These can be shredded and used for sprinkles or just eaten. For portioned desserts, cut the pastry into small rectangles of equal size.
20 Crush the caramel – break it into medium-sized pieces with your hands and beat it in the blender. The result should be a dusting of caramel.
21 Place the cakes on the baking tray, sprinkle a thin layer of caramel over a sieve. The caramel is to coat the crusts in a thin, crispy layer for texture, not flavour. Send to an oven preheated to 220 degrees for a few minutes. Preferably use an overhead preheater. As soon as a slightly crispy crust appears, take it out: do not overdo the caramel, it will burn, and with it the cakes will be worthless. The crust needs a thin crust that has just begun to set. Cool the crusts.
22 Take the cream out of the refrigerator, it will be quite crumbly. Stir with a spatula until smooth. Place the cream in a piping bag with the round nozzle.
23 Select one crust and place it on the serving plate. You can drizzle a little cream underneath so that it does not ride on the plate. Squeeze out the cream peaks onto the first cake. If the cream spreads, it means that either the cream or the cakes are not cold enough. For the mille-feuille to hold its shape and be in one piece, all the ingredients must be cold.
24 Place the berry pieces on top of the cream. Do not make them larger than the cream peaks, otherwise the second cake will stand on top of the berries and not on the cream. Cover the cream with the second cake. Do not put too much pressure on the bottom layer. Also squeeze the cream peaks out onto the cake.
25 Cover with the cream on the third cake and decorate with the cream and berries. The assembled mille-feuille should be served and eaten immediately. If you put it in the refrigerator, the crème will soak in the cream and you will have a Napoleon. 
