Christmas Millefeuille Recipe
By Nicola Lando
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130 minutes prep time
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60 minutes cook time
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Difficult
Browse hundreds of extraordinary Christmas food gifts at Sous Chef. Or for the foodie Christmas gift that every food-lover is hoping for, see our finest Italian panettone.
In this Christmas millefeuille recipe we've combined chocolate with the festive flavour of eggnog, that favourite of Christmas tipples. The eggnog cream is infused and flavoured with nutmeg, cloves and vanilla paste. For a more boozy version you can even add a splash of brandy to the cream.
To decorate the millefeuille and to make it that extra bit more indulgent we've made tiny chocolate truffle drops which instantly melt in the mouth. Make the pastry creams no more than a day in advance and assemble the dessert no more than a couple of hours before serving to make sure the millefeuille pastry stays flaky and crisp.
For the millefeuille puff pastry Serves: 4
- 500g puff pastry (shop bought, or homemade)
For the eggnog cream
- 150g milk
- 40g caster sugar
- 15g corn flour
- 1 egg yolk
- 30g butter
- 3 cloves
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- A splash of brandy (optional)
- 1 gelatine sheet
- 1/2 tsp vanilla paste
For the chocolate cream
- 150g milk
- 40g caster sugar
- 15g corn flour
- 1 egg yolk
- 30g butter
- 1/2 gelatine leaf
- 35g dark couverture chocolate (70%)
For the chocolate truffle drops
- 30g double cream
- 100g dark chocolate couverture (70%)
- 30g butter, softened
Equipment
- 4 baking trays of similar sizes
- 3 piping bags
- Small piping nozzle (5mm diameter)
Assembly and presentation
- 4 x one inch strips of card (around 10cm in length)
- 2 tsp cocoa powder
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- Dusting spoon Natural black slates
To make the puff pastry
- Roll the puff pastry out evenly to form a rectangle measuring 21x56cm.
- Let it rest in the fridge for 20 minutes. Then check the dimensions again – it will probably have shrunk in which case you will need to roll it out a little more to maintain the same dimensions.
- Preheat the oven to 210°C, fan oven.
- Cut the rectangle in three width wise making 4 rectangles measuring 21x 14cm each
- Place two rectangles on a baking tray covered with baking parchment and the other two rectangles on a second tray covered in baking parchment.
- Place a layer of baking parchment over the pastry. Refridgerate for 10 minutes.
- Place another baking tray on top of the baking parchment, sandwiching the pastry inside.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 210°C and then drop the temperature to 180°C or until the pastry is nicely browned and crisp.
- Transfer to a cooling rack and leave to cool.
To make the eggnog cream
- Place the gelatine in a bowl of cold water.
- Bring the milk, cloves and roughly ½ of the caster sugar to the boil in a pan.
- Meanwhile mix together the remaining caster sugar and the corn flour in a bowl using a whisk.
- Add the egg yolk to the bowl and mix to combine.
- When the milk has come to the boil pour around 2 tablespoons of it over the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
- Pour the egg mixture in with the rest of the milk and return to the hob over a low flame, whisking constantly.
- When the mixture begins to thicken remove from the heat whilst continuing to stir constantly.
- Strain the gelatine and whisk it into the hot cream.
- Add the butter, vanilla paste, ground nutmeg (and a splash of brandy). Mix until the butter has melted and all the ingredients have been combined.
- Pour the eggnog cream into a flat dish covered in cling film. Cover with another layer of cling film and place in the freezer for 15 minutes to rapidly drop the temperature of the cream. Then transfer to the fridge until ready to use.
To make the chocolate cream
- Place half a gelatine leaf in a bowl of cold water.
- Bring the milk and roughly ½ of the caster sugar to the boil in a pan.
- Meanwhile mix together the remaining caster sugar and the corn flour in a bowl using a whisk.
- Add the egg yolk to the bowl and mix to combine.
- When the milk has come to the boil pour around 2 tablespoons of it over the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
- Pour the egg mixture in with the rest of the milk and return to the hob over a low flame, whisking constantly.
- When the mixture begins to thicken remove from the heat whilst continuing to stir constantly.
- Strain the gelatine and whisk it into the hot cream.
- Add the butter and dark chocolate. Mix until the butter has melted and all the ingredients have been combined.
- Pour the chocolate cream into a flat dish covered in cling film. Cover with another layer of cling film and place in the freezer for 15 minutes to rapidly drop the temperature of the cream. Then transfer to the fridge until ready to use.
To make the chocolate truffle drops
- Soften the butter in a bowl on a low heat in the microwave. The butter should not be melted but should be very soft so that its consistency resembles pastry cream.
- Bring the double cream to the boil in a pan.
- Pour it over the chocolate. Stir to melt all the chocolate drops and to create a silky ganache.
- Add the softened butter and mix to combine.
- Place the nozzle in the piping bag and fill the bag with the chocolate ganache.
- Place in the fridge for 15-20 minutes until the ganache has the right consistency for piping - it shouldn’t be runny, just solid enough to make it easy to pipe.
- Pipe little drops of the ganache onto a plate covered in cling film.
- Place in the fridge to harden until ready to use.
To assemble the millefeuille
- Once the pastry has completely cooled cut each of the 4 strips into 3 equal rectangles using a serrated knife.
- Decorate the top layers of the millefeuille by choosing the best rectangle and using the underside as the top since it will be flatter.
- Mix together the cocoa powder and ground nutmeg.
- Place the strips of card over the chosen top pastry layers at an angle. Use a dusting spoon to dust the pastry with the cocoa/nutmeg powder.
- Place a nozzle in a piping bag and fill with the chocolate cream.
- Pipe long thin lines of cream along the length of each base pastry layer.
- Sprinkle with a few chocolate truffle drops.
- Place the middle layer of pastry on top.
- Clean the nozzle and place it in a new piping bag. Fill with the eggnog cream and pipe long thin lines as with the chocolate cream.
- Top with the decorated top pastry layer.
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the cream firm up a little.
- Serve on individual slates, sprinkled with chocolate truffle drops.
About the author
Nicola is co-founder and CEO at Sous Chef. She has worked in food for over ten years.
Nicola first explored cooking as a career when training at Leiths, before spending the next decade in Finance. However... after a stage as a chef at a London Michelin-starred restaurant, Nicola saw the incredible ingredients available only to chefs. And wanted access to them herself. So Sous Chef was born.
Today, Nicola is ingredients buyer and a recipe writer at Sous Chef. She frequently travels internationally to food fairs, and to meet producers. Her cookbook library is vast, and her knowledge of the storecupboard is unrivalled. She tastes thousands of ingredients every year, to select only the best to stock at Sous Chef.
Nicola shares her knowledge of ingredients and writes recipes to showcase those products. Learning from Sous Chef's suppliers and her travels, Nicola writes many of the recipes on the Sous Chef website. Nicola's recipes are big on flavour, where the ingredients truly shine (although that's from someone who cooks for hours each day - so they're rarely tray-bakes!).
