Mille-Feuille

Name: Mille-Feuille (Thousand-layer Pastry or Napoleons)
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: With a sharp chopping knife make 2 diagonal cuts the long way of the dough to create three 4-inch-wide strips of dough. With the back of a small pointed knife push all edges in at intervals of 1 inch. With a table fork, stick the dough all over, but not on the edges. Refrigerate 15 minutes and then bake in a preheated 450-degree oven for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake another 15 minutes. If bottom gets too brown, slide another cooky sheet under the pan, or use a sheet of foil.; When strips are done, slide them off pan to a wire rack to cool. Mix 1 cup confectioners’ sugar, ¼ teaspoon lemon juice, and about 4 teaspoons hot water to make a thin paste. Spread this mixture over one of the strips of pastry.; With a very sharp knife cut the strips of pastry across into six 3-inch-wide pieces. A few hours before they are to be served, coat 2 cut pieces with the chilled Crème Pâtissière, stack one on top of the other, and top with an iced piece. Refrigerate until ready to serve.; Sprinkle a cooky sheet with cold water. Roll the dough up around the rolling pin and then unroll on the dampened cooky sheet. Roll the dough out once it is on the pan.

Thousand-layer Pastry or Napoleons

Preparation info

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Hows and Whys of French Cooking

By Alma Lach

Published 1974

About

Method

Make Feuilletée dough. After the second turn, while the dough chills, prepare Crème Pâtissière for the filling. Refrigerate sauce so it will be cold when ready to use.
Give the dough its required six turns. On the sixth and final turn of the dough, roll it into a