A dessert recipe prepared by the pros.
Serves 6
Prep time 120 mins
Ingredients
for the Mille- Feuille sheets
(Can be done in advance)
250g all-butter puff pastry,
for the Mascarpone Crème Chantilly
100 g of mascarpone
20 cl cream
4-5 tbsp. sifted icing sugar
for the Vanilla Ice Cream
142ml carton double cream
150ml full fat milk
57g golden caster sugar
Half vanilla pod
2 large free-range egg yolks
Method
for the Mille- Feuille sheets
Rolled out onto a lightly dusted work surface to a thickness of 3mm, bake at 190 digress. Let cool, then cut into 24 rectangles measuring 10cm x 3cm and 18 rectangles measuring 3cm x 5cm.
Set aside for use later, best kept in air tight container.
for the Mascarpone Crème Chantilly
Put the mascarpone in the bowl. Soften it with a whisk. Add your cold liquid cream. Whisk increasing the speed gradually. When the cream begins to thicken, reduce the speed and add the icing sugar, increase speed again. Whip until the desired consistency. Put in a pastry bag, place in fridge.
for the Vanilla Ice Cream
Put the canister from the machine into the freezer a day before you want to make the ice cream. Next day, pour the cream and milk into a medium heavy-based pan, then tip in half the sugar. Slit the vanilla pod down its length with a small sharp knife and scoop out as many of the tiny black seeds as you can into the cream mixture. Cut the pod into three and drop it into the pan.
Heat the cream and milk over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until it almost boils – you’ll see a few bubbles at the edge. Take off the heat and set aside for 30 minutes so the vanilla can infuse.
Put the egg yolks into a bowl with the rest of the sugar and beat with an electric hand beater for about 2 minutes until the mixture has thickened, is paler in colour and falls in thick ribbons when you lift the beaters. Using a measuring jug, scoop out about 125ml/4fl oz of the cream mixture and beat into the egg yolks to slacken them. Reheat the cream until it just comes to the boil, take off the heat and stir in the egg yolk mixture.
Return the pan to a low heat and cook, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon, for around eight to ten minutes, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Watch that it doesn’t boil – as soon as you see any bubbles rise to the surface, it should be thick enough, so take the pan off the heat, so the mixture doesn’t curdle.
Pour the custard into a heatproof bowl, then sit it in a bigger bowl one third full of iced water to cool (this takes about 20 minutes). Stir occasionally to stop a skin forming. Put the bowl of custard in the fridge for 3-4 hours, preferably overnight, so it gets really cold.
Get the ice cream machine running, scoop out the vanilla pod pieces, then slowly pour in the cold custard. Leave it to churn for 10-30 minutes (depending on your machine). When it stops, it is probably too soft to eat, so spoon into a piping bag with a straight nozzle. Pipe onto tray with baking paper, so not to stick. You should have enough to pipe out six pieces measuring 7 cm, the rest can be placed into container and churned further to be enjoyed later.
To decorate and plate
Thick strawberry coulis
Place 100g strawberries and 200 g icing sugar into blender and blitz, pass through sieve and pour into squeeze bottle. Keep in fridge until needed
Strawberries
Have 12 large strawberries, each cut into eight slivers, meaning you should have total of 96 wedges for the six plates. Keep in fridge until needed
Sugar Decorations
Colour some sugar red, heat to 120 degrees, let cool for a few seconds and form into abstract shapes. Set aside for use later.
Plating the dessert might look difficult, but if done in stages it should be easy. To start off get all the elements together next to the area you will be plating. Start with snipping, at an angle, the end of the piping bag with the Chantilly cream. Take 12 pieces and pipe wide swirls on them, take the other six and this time pipe thin swirls on top, and arrange sliced strawberries on top. Now assemble as per picture:
Bottom layer with wide piping – second layer with wide piping- top layer with the strawberries. Keep to one side. Take the larger sheets and divide into six sets of four, lay out on work surface. At this point on you will need to work fast or at least have someone help. Have your plates ready and all the elements for the plate nearby.
Take out the ice cream you had piped earlier, place ice cream onto a piece of puff pastry and encase with the 3 other pieces, placing them in an offset manner, as if in a box. Place onto plate, pipe strawberry coulis and place your sugar decorations. Place Mille-Feuille on top of the boxed ice cream. Place strawberries on plate. We used gold flakes to finish off this creation.
