Mille Feuille

"A Mille Feuille (also knows as a custard slice or vanilla slice) is a light and airy bite that would be ideal to adding to an afternoon tea, or even on a party spread. Follow our recipe to make these delicious treats."

First, roll out your puff pastry into six strips like shown in the image, prick the pastry with a fork and place them on a lined baking tray. For best results, it’s ideal to leave the pastry to chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas mark 6, and once the pastry is chilled, leave the strips to bake in the oven. Once they’re golden (usually around 15 to 20 minutes), take them out the oven and leave them to cool on a rack.

Now you’ll need to make the crème patisserie. To do this, over a medium heat to heat the milk to just before boiling point. Then, in a bowl, mix together your egg yolks, caster sugar and plain flour. As you’re beating these together, gradually add in the cornflour and hot milk. Returning to the same pan you were using earlier, bring the mixture to a boil and make sure to stir it constantly until it’s got a smooth, creamy texture. At this point remove it from the heat.

You’ll then need to scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod, setting them aside, while mixing the pod to the crème. Cover this and leave to cool completely. Add in the double cream and whip into stiff peaks. Spoon this into a piping bag – a small round nozzle is recommended for this. Pipe onto half of the pastries like shown in the image.

In a clean mixing bowl, create the icing by beating together the icing sugar with 2-3 tbsp of water - spread this onto the remaining pastries. Then, melt the dark chocolate and use a teaspoon or a parchment cone to drizzle this on top of the icing while it’s still soft.

Sandwich together the two different pastries, making sure the icing layer is on the top. Before serving, place these in the fridge to cool.

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