Lemon & Peach Mille Feuille

Method

Puff Pastry:

• 1)

  We’ll start by making the puff pastry as it’s the most time consuming part (counting the resting phase).

• 2)

  In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the flour, salt, 50 gr of butter and give it a quick stir just to disperse the salt evenly. Pour in the water and mix on medium-low speed for 8-10 minutes until the dough pulls apart from the sides of the bowl.

• 3)

  Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour (even though there is no yeast in the dough, the gluten we just developed needs time to relax for further handling)

• 4)

  While the dough is resting, prepare the butter for laminating, also known as “Tourage”.

  15 min prior to taking the dough out of the fridge, prepare the butter block for laminating. Take the cold butter out of the fridge and cut into even slices aligning it in a 15x15cm rectangle over a piece of parchment paper.

• 5)

  Now enclose the rectangle from all sides and start rolling out the butter filling up all the gaps.

• 6)

  Now take the chilled dough out of the fridge, dust with flour and roll out into a 40x40cm square. To start laminating we need to make sure consistency of the dough is the same as the butter. To achieve this, I recommend placing the rolled out dough into the freezer for 10-15 minutes, keeping in mind the butter itself is relatively chilled.

• 7)

  Now place the rolled out dough back on the lightly dusted work surface and place the butter in the center of the dough as seen below. Then enclose the butter from all sides.

• 8)

  Starting from the bottom and working upward, tap down the dough with a rolling pin. This is crucial to ensure the butter get distributed in between the sheets of dough evenly throughout.

• 9)

  Now, applying pressure only in upwards direction, start rolling the dough out evenly as you can until reaching about 50cm in length. Then fold the first end of the dough halfway up and fold the second end to overlap the first fold.

  

• 10)

  Now rotate the dough 90* and repeat the step above four additional times.

  In between each fold, wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for about an hour.

  

• 11)

  When ready to roll out, cut the dough into 3 relatively even pieces and roll each out into a 30x40cm rectangle. The dough should be 3-5mm thick.

  Try to roll the dough evenly as you can, as all imperfections will be amplified while baking, making the surface very bumpy.

• 12)

  Place the rolled out dough lined with parchment paper on the opposite side of your baking tray, cover with another piece of parchment paper and another baking tray. The dough is now sandwiched in between two baking trays, this helps to keep the dough from rising too much while baking.

• 13)

  Place the sandwiched dough into your 200*C pre heated oven for 20-25 minutes, then remove the upper tray, sprinkle with powdered sugar and bake for further 15 minutes at 180*C until the dough is deeply golden brown.

  Baking time will vary depending on the thickness of the dough, so what you’re looking for is a very dark golden brown color and a rich nutty smell coming from the oven. (Under baked puff pastry will be soggy while eating).

The peach filling:

• 1)

  Wash the peaches and cut into cubes, keeping the skin on.

• 2)

  Combine the peaches, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, salt, liquor in a heavy bottom pot, bring to a boil on high heat, then reduce to low and simmer for 5-10 minutes, depending how watery the peaches are.

• 3)

  Take off the heat and blend with an immersion blender.

• 4)

  Place the pot back on the stove on medium low heat, stir in the agar-agar and whisk constantly for 3 minutes.

• 5)

  Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and refrigerate until completely set (Do not touch until it’s completely chilled as it will rupture the structure when using agar-agar.)

The lemon cream:

• 1)

  Combine sugar and lemon juice in a small pot and bring to a boil whisking constantly, then set aside.

• 2)

  Lightly beat the eggs, then temper the syrup into the eggs (Slowly pour the hot syrup into the beaten eggs, whisking constantly to make sure eggs don’t coagulate)

• 3)

  Now place the egg-syrup mixture on medium heat and cook whisking constantly until reaching 80*C (consistency of a pudding)

• 4)

  Pass the cream through a fine sieve, add cubed butter and whisk until fully incorporated.

• 5)

  Refrigerate the lemon curd until completely chilled, then before assembling the cake, whip equal amounts of lemon curd and mascarpone.

Assembly:

• 1)

  To assemble, trim the ends of the puff pastry, pipe out lemon cream throughout the sides and fill the gaps with peach cream. Take another piece of puff pastry and place atop repeating the first step. Enclose the cake with a final layer of puff pastry and garnish as per wish.