Millefeuille (Layer Cake)

Sometimes I find the best recipes come from the old, traditional books. In one of my grandma's dusty, ancient book of bakes, I found a recipe for this treasure: Millefeuille (more commonly known as cream slices). You can make it out of puff pastry; I'm going to put the recipe for rough puff (a more simple and faster type) but there is still nothing wrong with just buying frozen puff pastry.

               Ingredients

For the Rough Puff:

A squeeze of lemon juice

9 oz. Plain Flour (sifted)

6 oz. Cold, Cubed Butter/Lard

Cold Water

For the Filling:

1 Medium-Sized Carton Whipping Cream/Double Cream (or just a can of whipping cream)

Sugar

1/2 Jar of Raspberry/Strawberry Jam

For the Glace Icing:

Icing Sugar

Water

Cocoa Powder (optional)

Recipe

1. Line a baking tray, and heat oven to 220C/Fan 200c/Gas 7. Mix the butter with the plain flour well, but being careful not to break the cubes of butter. Add the lemon juice while stirring, still not breaking the butter, then slowly, bit by bit add some cold water, all the time mixing, yet still not breaking up the butter, until you get a stiff dough. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour.

2. While handling the dough as little as possible, roll the dough out on a floured surface into an oblong shape three times it's width. If you see the lumps of butter really melting, or if it's sticking too much, refrigerate wrapped in cling film for half an hour. 

3. Fold the top third of the dough down, and the bottom third over it, and rotate 90 degrees. Roll out to the oblong shape again, and repeat at least 3 more times. Leave aside wrapped in grease proof paper for half an hour before the next step.

4. Roll dough out on floured surface into a rectangle about 1cm thick, 6'' across, and the length of your tray (you may have to cut your dough so it fits). Place your dough on the tray and cut into 2'' strips across, and keeping them together, and put in the oven until golden brown, and bubbles can be seen on the surface. Leave to cool.

5. If using cream from a carton, add some sugar (but not too much - taste as you are doing it) and whisk until stiff. Then, once the pastry is completely cooled half each strip. Gather the strips in groups of three, and spread two of each group with jam (only on one side). Then spoon some cream onto the two, and sandwich together with the third.

6. Once finished arranging your Millefeuille, mix some icing sugar with a few drops of cold water to form a thick paste. Spread over the tops of your Millefeuille, and if needed make more. You can also make a small batch of chocolate icing, by adding some cocoa powder, and then to make a little motif, spread it in lines over the white icing, then cut through it with a toothpick.