Mille-feuille (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One thousand radiant wafers

from as many minute thoughts

Pin pricks upon black card

are only seen with bright behind

 

A vacuum within ruptured space

has minuscule control

A fist can’t hold the light in

but fear can damp it all

 

Radiance drops to tea light

barely flickers past the wall

Life breath shortened – taken

From within – without it all.

Friday I have a very big dinner!
We invited 3 families and we were overall 17 people, adults and children. I love a full house although I’m working really hard for it.
Thursday I was in the kitchen until 2:00 at night! I have made: chicken soup, chicken tajin with olives and lemon, lamb tajin with fava beans (broad beans) peas and artichoke. I have made pithivie with mushrooms and tarragon (ottolenghi recipe and it was very delicious !) with my hand made puff pastry:) I have made all kinds of salad: matbucha (which is a moroccan cooked spicy salad), beet root salad, tahini, aubergine salad (2 kinds- cooked and sliced and grilled), mushroom salad, and big green salad with loads of nice things like broccoli and cooked squash etc) and I even baked few flower breads and turtle shaped breads for the kids. For desert I made the Mille fuille (without butter! Only diplomat creme and I even bothered to do the fondant because my daughter asked for it and it actually went not bad at all..). I also had the Fraisier times twobecause as I was to leave the dressing room there was a cake there with a note “pls take me” so I couldn’t resist as I knew I have so many people..) and…I couldn’t stop so with the shel I made in practical 5 I filled with diplomat creme and arranged fresh fruits on top! I had two shells since my partner for the practical didn’t want it and gave it to me…dinner was a huge success and everyone was very happy although they always love me before they eat, when they come they note they haven’t eaten all day because they knew it going to be good but then they hate me for eating and feeling fat…  It’s not fair but I’m used to it. Often I ask myself why am I bothering so much in spending so many hours in the kitchen when I can actually get away with much less and still have ” happy customers”? I guess I do enjoy making people happy and I like the kitchen:).
Unfortunately I didn’t take photos of the food:( I forgot… But I have few photos below

Saturday I woke up at 11 and asked ofir to join me to the cake exhibition. It was at excel at the royal Victoria docks…quite a long way to go. We both felt we were abroad…the light docklands train is different, the scenery was different but it was the same non stop rain we know so well..it was windy as well and it made everything even uglier! The exhibition itself was really nice! Loads of stockist and suppliers and novelty cakes that are actually not cakes but art. I’m sure these cakes are not edible but they are great art! People who sculpt with gum paste and sugar paste and marzipan etc. I’m adding here few photos for you to enjoy!
On the way back the train stopped at camden and we had to get out of the tunnel and look for alternative way to get home! We had to walk in the wind and rain for the bus and change for another bus…we clinging to each other like two penguins in the cold….got home 2 hours later!
Bottom line it was worth it especially since I wanted to meet this Israeli artist who exhibits there and it was worth it!

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In a patisserie in Queensland, I was stunned to find the best lemon tart I have ever tasted. I discovered the place recently, in the quite isolated village of Cooroy, in the Noosa hinterland. It is called La maison de Provence. Something to visit when on holidays at the Sunshine Coast.

The French couple, Eric and Françoise Pernoud, who opened it in 2010, have been in Australia for more than 20 years, achieving Eric’s dream to move to Skippy’s country (the kangaroo movie he watched in his childhood). When he arrived, Eric Pernoud started as Chef patissier at the Ritz Carlton in Sydney, managing also the Korean, Hong-Kong and Singapore Palace’s patisseries.

Now, after all those years, it is not Eric’s first experience in opening a patisserie where you wouldn’t expect to find one. When he and his wife decided to start their own business, they had a bakery in Bowral close to Sydney and then in Pomona, an even more secluded village in Queensland. “You blink Blink and you’ll miss it.” And, each time, he encountered success.

Eric Pernoud comes from Annecy, a quaint medieval town close to the French ski resorts of Chambéry, where his wife comes from. They have five children, Erika, 20, the oldest, works in the kitchen, Axell, 17, and the youngest ones, triplets aged 3, who keep their mother very busy. Eric Pernoud starts his day at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning and finishes at 9 pm. This hard work is at the origin of every day’s fresh baked food, which has built the good reputation of the place.

In the patisserie, Françoise displays and sells French-style homewares. The Eiffel Tower drawn on the wall, bunches of lavender and starched white embroidered tablecloths give you the perfect picture. The full French atmosphere. Here, no sausage rolls or bacon and eggs, but cassoulet and coq-au-vin. The other day, one of the French cooks working there made some classic quenelles for lunch. “Customers discovered this very typical French dish still unknown in Australia and they loved it.”

This haven is not even set on the main road. Still, it attracts people from the whole region who queue to get one of the house specialities. For instance, the not so traditional but delicate mushroom flavoured quiche. “Someone one day send the plate back complaining that I shouldn’t put mushroom in the quiche. But I explain that it softens the texture. See, Paul Bocuse adds some potatoes to his recipe!”

In the shop’s window display, there are also macarons, mille-feuille, éclairs and my favourite, the melting lemon tart. The acidity of the fruit is just tempered with an under layer of vanilla flan. “The recipe is 100 years old! It comes from my grandfather!” (See recipe)

Does he miss the French Alps? “Yes, I do. But here the lifestyle is much more relaxed than in Europe. It is a nice country for raising children.”

facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Maison-de-Provence-Noosa-Hinterland/122400291192590

Adress: 9/13 Garnet Str. Cooroy 4563. Phone: 07 54720077

Not the person, but the dessert popular worldwide

Napoleon, AKA Mille-feuille

Napoleon

The Napoleon is commonly 3 layers of puff pastry, with 2 layers of pastry cream in between.  The top layer is usually topped with icing, powdered sugar, cocoa, or even mixed nuts.  As it is popular worldwide, many countries have their own variations of this centuries old dessert.

History

With the exact origin unknown, the Napoleon pastry dessert has been accepted as a French dessert.  Outside of France, it is known as Napoleon, but in France, it is called Mille-feuille, or “thousand sheets”.   The Italians have a version very similar to the mille-feuille, known as Mille-foglie, or “thousand leaves”.  The main difference the mille-foglie has to the mille-feuille is that it contains a layer of sponge cake with the layers of puff pastry.  Some debate that the Napoleon originates with the Italians due to the likeness, and the original French name for it “Napolitain” which refers to something from Naples.

**There are some stories that the Napoleon got its name from Emperor Napoleon due to his love of the dessert, but there is no evidence that connect the two.

The earliest citation of a dessert similar to the Napoleon was back in the 1600′s by Francois Pierre La Varenne, who was known as the greatest French chef of the 17th century.  His successor, Marie-Antoine Careme, the greatest French chef of the 18th century, and had also cited an improved version of the Napoleon.

Variations

• Australia – Vanilla Slice; Custard Slice.  The Australian version contains only 2 layers of puff pastry and a vanilla custard.  The top is usually dusted with powdered sugar or with a passionfruit icing.
• Canada – Napoleon Slice.  This version is most like the French version with the country’s long French history.  The filling is commonly custard, whipped cream, or both.  Almond paste is the most popular filling.
  -French Canadians serve it a different way; with graham cracker instead of puff pastry, and pudding instead of custard.
• Sweden & Finland – Napoleonbakelse.  Puff pastry filled with custard, whipped cream, and jam.  The top is glazed with icing and currant jelly.
• Belgium & Netherlands – Tompouce.  With two layers of puff pastry, the middle layer is a very sweet, yellow custard.  The top is glazed with a pink icing, although occasionally white, and orange on Queen’s Day.
• Hong Kong – Napoleon.  It is most commonly found with chiffon cake, buttercream, and walnuts.
• Iran – Napoleonic Bread.  Here, it’s thin puff pastries and topped with powdered sugar.
• Chile – Milhojas.  The layers of puff pastry are layered with dulce de leche and the top is dusted with powdered sugar.
• Poland – Napoleonka.  A thick cream is layered between two layers of pastry and the entire dessert is covered with powdered sugar.

I’ve made the traditional Napoleon numerous times, with three layers of puff pastry, sweet pastry cream between them, and a fondant icing on top.  The most laborious part of making this sweet, sweet dessert, I would say, is the fondant icing. The puff pastry is easy enough to make, just make sure you don’t over-bake it so that it gets too dark and flaky, or under-bake it so that there’s still a chew in the middle.  The pastry cream is even easier, and can be flavored to your liking.  For a project once, I made Espresso Pastry Cream just by adding in coffee extract.  Or another time when I made Strawberry Pastry Cream just by adding in Strawberry jam; that one is probably my favorite pastry cream flavor.  The fondant is hard to deal with as you must get the right working temperature and the right thickness so that it coats beautifully onto the puff pastry.

Despite it’s difficulties, I love the Napoleon and enjoy making it.  There’s an annual competition called the “Great Australian Vanilla Slice Triumph” held in Ouyen, Victoria where they compete for the best Vanilla Slice.  Check out Vanilla Slice to see the infinite creations of the fabulous dessert! That’s one competition I would want to see

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Today was making a couple of desserts with the puff pastry we prepared yesterday. The first was a pithiviers which is 2 layers of puff pastry with a mound of almond cream in the centre and then decorated by scoring lines in the top in a curved radial pattern.

The 2nd dessert was a strawberry mille feuille. 2 circles of cooked puff pastry were sandwiched together with raspberry jam, topped with creme mousseline (creme patissiere enriched with butter), chopped fresh strawberries, more creme mousseline and then another circle of puff pastry. The top was decorated with fondant and piped chocolate and the sides with crushed puff pastry crumbs.

In the practical, my puff pastry had come out very well and I was very pleased with its flavour and texture.

Both desserts turned out pretty well with the pithiviers lasting a few moments when I got home and the mille feuille also being devoured by my family.

It’s a full-day project so I’m not sure how many of you will really be wanting to give it a go, but someone in bloggersphere might.

I used the Laduree recipe, from their Sucre book (excuse the lack of accents, I’m a bit technologically challenged at the mo and can’t find them on my computer…). The instructions are really clear, precise and easy to follow. I’ll throw in a couple pictures too just to make things that little bit easier.

This recipe makes a kilo of pastry, which is heaps, but you can freeze it in batches and use as needed.

500g all purpose flour

250 ml water

10g fleur de sel or other good quality sea salt

75g butter, melted

Dissolve the salt in the water, melt the butter.

Stir together, flour, water & salt solution and melted butter until a cohesive dough has just formed. Cover it in cling wrap and rest for 1 hour in the fridge. Sorry, no picture of this phase, it’s not that interesting.

After an hour in the fridge, roll the dough into a 30 cm x 30 cm square. Pound the butter into a 15 cm x 15 cm square. This is called the beurrage, just to get really technical. The square of pastry is the ‘detrempe.’ It’s really important that the butter is the same consistency as the dough. If it’s too warm by the time you’ve pounded it out, put it back in the fridge briefly to firm up again. Similarly, if it’s too cold, leave it out of the fridge for a little longer before using it.

Place the beurrage (that’s the butter) into the detrempe (the dough), like so.

Fold the corners over, as shown below. It’s really important that all of the butter is sealed in. If it leaks out, there’s no puff pastry.

Roll the dough out to a 60 cm long rectangle.

Fold it into thirds, like a business letter.

Rotate 90 degrees.

Roll out again to a 60 cm rectangle. Roll in the same direction that you did before, don’t change the angle just because you turned the dough. Makes sense?

You just completed the first turn, yipee! Now repeat this once more, fold into thirds and refrigerate for two hours.

After two hours, do another two turns, rest for two hours, do two more turns. And you’re done!

Now you just have to leave the pastry to rest over night in the fridge before using it.

For mille feuille, roll out some of the pastry to no more than 2mm thick. Bake on a lined tray, with another tray placed on top, for 25 minutes at 180C. Leave to cool completely. Sprinkle liberally with icing/confectioner’s sugar, and blast in the oven at 200C for 3 or 4 minutes, or until the sugar has caramelized. Be sure to keep a close eye on it so the sugar does not burn.

That is what I did with this simplified version of a Mille Feuille. I found an amazing recipe for a Maple Mille Feuille from Au Pied de Cochon’s Sugar Shack *brand new* book (p.107) but the custard seem long to make and easy to mess up.  After lots of trial and errors I remembered the Napoleon that I make during the summer time. This Napoleon is made with graham wafer (instead of puff pastry dough) and vanilla pudding (instead of custard), so I mixed the two recipes together and came up with this one. After all we are called sweet remedy….we don’t want to make your life harder just happier! Here we go with another easy sweet remedy recipe:

For this recipe I used a 9 x 9 baking dish.

Maple Mille Feuille a la Sweet Remedy

Crust:

• 27  Graham wafers (that’s it!)

Custard or should I say Maple pudding:

• 1 pkg of vanilla pudding
• 2 cups maple milk
• 4 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tsp maple extract

Make the maple milk first by adding the maple syrup and the extract. Then mix all the ingredients in a bowl and put in the fridge with a plastic wrap right over to pudding, so it does not create a skin. Let it rest for about 15 min.

Maple Whip Cream:

• 1 cup of whipping cream
• 1/3 cup of maple syrup

Whip the cream until it becomes a little thicker then start adding the maple syrup slowly.

Glaze:

• 1 cup Maple Butter

Warm up  the maple butter and pour over. If you wish add some maple flakes for an extra crunch and flavor.

Once all your steps are done take your baking dish, put 9 graham wafers, put half the pudding mixture, then half the whip cream over.

Add another row of graham wafers, do the same as before. To finish it up, add the third row of wafers. Once you have assemble your quick and delicious dessert, pour your warm maple butter over and sprinkle a little maple flakes (optional).

This dessert is even better if you prepare it in the morning, that way it has time to soak all the nice flavor of the pudding and custard. Also no rushing to make dessert at night it’s already done!

Happy Sweet Remedy!

Today I’m taking a rare break from my usual chronicling of Japanese pizza weirdness to bring you an innovation by J-Dominos that can only be described as swoonworthy: the mille-feuille cheesy crust! That oozy goodness you see above is some sort of mystery cheese, sandwiched between a rather flaky and un-bread-like crust. In a country where cheese used to be an optional topping(!), this is a major breakthrough! It’s not for the purist, and doesn’t get big points for being great the next day, cold, for breakfast, but when it’s delivered hot to the door on a rainy night: yessssss!

I first picked a strawberry éclair, just because i couldn’t resist its look. Like a love at first sight. You see it, you want it. Even though i’m neither a strawberries lover nor an éclair one. But look at those colors and the little flowers. Can you find something cuter? But anyway. Verdict?
The dough is nice, not too soft, not too hard, which is perfect when you cut it, because the cream doesn’t flow everywhere. The frosting is also nicely done.
However i must say that i’m not really fond of the strawberry cream. Why? Because i find it too sweet first, and because i think it has a chemical taste. It doesn’t really have the real strawberry flavor. It’s ok once you get used to it i guess, but just i wasn’t expecting this. Nice looking but a little disappointing in taste.

Then i went for the mille-feuille, what i originally came for. Vanilla is my chocolate we could say. I’m not a chocolate fan, but i could die for vanilla. The main problem is that i’m often frustrated when it comes to vanilla desserts, because they don’t have enough vanilla flavor (that is except the Infiniment vanille tart from P.Hermé). So how was this vanilla mille-feuille…

the pastry dough was really good. Crispy, with a thin caramel layer, well it’s one of the best i’ve ever had so far. For that, the mille-feuille was worthing it. But again, the vanilla cream is just a little bland compared to the caramelized dough. The good point though, are the crispy pieces on the vanilla cream. So i think even though it’s not the best ever, it’s really good, and surely the best in the city. Go for it if you can.

And finally, the Yuzu-vanilla tart. Everyone in Paris was Yuzu here and there when i left last-year, but i didn’t know what it was exactly except that it was Japanese (not too hard to guess with its name). But just by tasting, you know that’s a citrus.

Now, i was expecting vanilla, because that’s what is written first, but that’s more a yuzu tart. Vanilla is only here to soften the yuzu taste. You nearlycan’t taste anything since the yuzu is quite strong (just like lemon and vanilla:you can forget about the vanilla flavor).
I tried the mousse alone and it’s the same. The flavor isn’t really existing. However the yuzu cream is really good. In fact, it should have been called a Yuzu vanilla tart. Again the name was tricky, the real star of the pastry is the Yuzu, not the vanilla.

If you like Yuzu, go for it, it’s delicious. I really recommand it. I think i’ll try more pastries with Yuzu in the futur to have an alternative with lemon.

Bourkies vanilla slice, Woodend Victoria (looks like I need to take a road trip!)

Custard. Thick, creamy, sweet. Slabbed between two dainty sheets of flaky puff pastry. Eaten with a fork. This is a vanilla slice, an Australian cake institution, derived from the French mille-feuille, but oh so much better.

I have a weakness for vanilla slices, a weakness my beloved grandmother discovered while I was still a child, and diligently fostered with treats after school. Ever since, I’ve diligently sampled them far and wide, sometimes making pilgrimages to cafes of known vanilla slice awesomeness.

I’m not alone. Such is the obsession with vanilla slices in Australia that many country towns enter an annual competition to see who makes the best ones. The key component is the custard. Infused with vanilla, folded with whipped cream. The pastry is merely structural, an afterthought to hold it all together. It’s all about the custard.

So… I daresay you will not be surprised that it is often a vanilla slice to which I turn in moments of weakness, sadness, world-weariness. (Or sometimes I just can’t resist the sight of them — I’d be hard pushed to resist the one pictured!)

And if the guilt-monster starts attacking me? This is what I tell myself told myself today:

1. Custard is mostly made from milk, which we all know is a fundamental food group. Plus milk contains calcium for strong bones.
2. I need to break that $20 note to give change to the person who orders my coffee.
3. The sooner I eat the vanilla slice, the sooner I can hide the evidence.
4. Yesterday I ate a chocolate fondant, so it’s not as though I’ve been dieting recently.
5. I walked 10 minutes to the shops and back, so I deserve it.
6. There’s no point dieting until I start working out on a regular basis. So I might as well enjoy it…

What about you guys? Any sinful edible secrets you go to great lengths to rationalise? What’s the best excuse you can come up with?

My first stop was Selfridges, not for a shop; although it would have been foolish not to have had a browse at all the things I am never going to be able to afford, but to visit the “pop up” library at Selfridges.  I’m not sure quite what Selfridges’ definition of a pop up library is, but to me a library which is situated within four very solid walls and that has obviously had weeks of planning and setting up is not pop up.  Temporary, yes, it only runs for about another week, pop up, no. To me pop up suggests that it can transported and set up anywhere, although how I thought they were going to do that along with the 15,000 books and comfy sofas they also described I’m not sure.  I think basically I envisioned me in a tepee with a book.  Despite its lack of pop up-ness, I spent a very nice hour or so, browsing around and sitting cosily on the sofas having a bit of a read.  To be honest putting me in a room filled with books and sofas is pretty much guaranteed to make me happy, if only they’d have thrown in some free chocolate as well.

Despite the temptation to permanently move into Selfridges, I ventured back out in the big wide world.  My next stop was the Halcyon Gallery, exhibiting the glass work of Chihuly.  Some of the pieces were stunning, it was totally different to anything I’ve ever seen before, the shapes and colours that he used were amazing and I could have spent all day just staring at them.  I’m not even going to attempt to describe them,  but this is the website to give you an idea …

My voyage of discovery then somewhat veered off course, as my tummy rumbled and my legs ached (I went to the gym for the first time in two years on Saturday and I was feeling the effects.)  I entirely accidently stumbled across a patisserie, where I had a humungous Mille Feuille, I was genuinely upset that I couldn’t finish it as it was so good.  I ate it about four hours ago and I’m still full.  Although it may not have been entirely cultural, the waiters were Belgian so I’m totally claiming it.  With my tummy full, and my mind perhaps slightly more cultured, off I headed back to my nice warm bed to pretend that tomorrow isn’t Monday.

He was right, of course, it is entirely unnecessary, if you just want to survive, for food to be beautiful, delicious, and delightful to the senses. Such food has no survival value. In fact, often times, such food comes in small portions, even just single mouthfuls, and while it usually leaves an appreciative gourmet entirely satisfied, it is not unusual to finish such a meal feeling less than full. Much of the effort that goes into making such food is entirely unnecessary. But so is art, music, literature, traveling, even friendship, as C.S. Lewis said in his famous quote:

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…it has no survival value, rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.”

Talking about unnecessary food, however, I doubt there are many foods less necessary than pastries.

Mille Feuille at Jacques Genin, Paris

Consisting almost entirely of ingredients that are considered to be a healthy body’s worst enemies (refined flour, white sugar (a.k.a white death), and plenty of butter), they have limited nutritional value and often take the blame for contributing  to unhealthy body weight.

Of course, if your diet consisted solely of pastries, a myriad of health problems would follow. But this is obviously not what pastries are meant for. They are unnecessary luxuries that give value to survival, that remind us that we are fortunate enough to be able to consider food as more than simple necessity.

Brioche Feuilletée at Pâtisserie des Rêves, Paris

They are not meant to assuage our hunger, as Muriel Barbery says in her novel “Gourmet Rhapsody”:

“That is precisely what is so good about the moment devoted to pastries: they can only be appreciated to the full extent of their subtlety when they are not eaten to assuage our hunger, when the orgy of their sugary sweetness is not destined to fill some primary need but to coat our palate with all the benevolence of the world.”

I love that. All the benevolence of the world. Just like a cup of tea with a friend, visiting an exhibition of a talented artist or reading a gorgeous poem can set the world right again, so can pastries.

Rose Macarons at Erelin's

I find it so very sad what that gentleman said to me a few months ago. I feel sad for him that he has lost touch with joy and unnecessary pleasures that life is full of. I consider it an incredible blessing to be able to enjoy things just because they are wonderful and because they add value and beauty to survival. Food should never become only something that is wholesome and nutritious or even worse, simply necessary. We are not here just to exist and survive but to enjoy the ride. And I truly believe that this ride would be much less awesome without sugar and butter. In fact, I believe they are absolutely essential for happiness!

Ispahan Croissant at Pierre Hermé, Paris

I can’t say I have a favorite cuisine, as I truly love something (or many things) in every one. The exception to this statement, is desserts. Which I, hands down, favor French over anything else.

(My Italian grandparents are rolling in their graves…)

My Twitter profile description states that I am ‘on a never-ending quest to find NYC’s greatest croissant’. This is the still the case, though I do have some serious candidates in mind now. But until I find that shining beacon of buttery-layered glory, I like to take a break now and again and give a few other French delicacies some love and attention.

I found a cafe near my office that has a great lunch special: $9.99 for a cafe sandwich and 4 macaron’s of your choice. :::swoon:::

This place, Mille-Feuille Bakery and Cafe, just happens to have quite amazing macaron’s. And the sandwich was pretty good too. $10 is sadly pretty typical for lunch in NYC, but to get a bonus pack of macaron’s is like my dream come true. Seriously, I’ve had dreams about macaron’s.

The cafe sandwich I ordered, the ‘Le Nicois’, might look sort of ordinary but it was definitely extra. Ordinary that is.

Served on rosemary olive oil bread (sort of a foccacia-French hybrid), the tender white tuna was really the star. It was further highlighted with accompaniments of the typical Nicois variety: kalamata olives, capers, parsley, red onions, red peppers, hard boiled eggs, olive oil and one surprise condiment – creme fraiche. The creme fraiche did an amazing job of bringing the whole sandwich together and really gave it a dreamy and luxurious quality.

The macaron’s I chose to cap off my meal were: rose, coconut, chocolate, and pistachio.

The rose macaron had the most delicate of flavors, in fact I almost missed it entirely and was about to write it off as a vanilla buttercream tinted pink. But upon further concentration, I noticed the sweet floral quality, which was more of an aroma than a taste, in the back of my mouth. Very interesting.

The chocolate had a nice, albeit expected flavor. The coconut I offered to my office-mate, so I’ll report back on that one next time. The pistachio though – oh my sweet, delicious pistachio. This little nugget of airy, green-dyed, sweet goodness packed a punch of flavor that I was not expecting. True, it was a little heartier to the palate than the traditional French macaron (which is supposed to collapse in your mouth upon contact). But that variation definitely did not make it any worse, just different. And holy buttercream, was this one good and different.

After this lunch experience, I’ve decided that I might just have to pick up another quest to explore in parallel to my croissant-seeking one. That of finding the greatest French macaron in New York City. A lofty goal, but I think I’m up for the challenge. Especially when the New York Times gave me a such a great head start!

:::Lord of the Rings quest music cues in:::