Method

Rough Puff Pastry

1. Pour the flour into the bowl of a stand mixer along with the salt. 

2. Pour in the cold water and vinegar. 

3. Tip the cubed butter into the centre, then with the paddle attachment, mix on a low speed, just until the dry bits of flour have been absorbed. This should only take 15-20 seconds. The lumps of butter will still be there! 

4. Scoop the mixture out of the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough into a long rectangle. You need to work quickly here especially if it is a warm day as the butter will start to soften too much.

5. Once you’ve rolled it out, you might need to use a lightly floured bench scraper to loosen it from the work surface. 

6. Perform a single turn, by folding one-third of the dough up on itself, and then folding the remaining third of dough over the top as seen in the PDF. 

7. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill it. If it is a warm day, I prefer to do 10 minutes in the freezer then 15 minutes in the fridge. But on a ‘normal day’, 20 minutes in the fridge will be enough.

8. Unwrap the dough and with the open seam facing you, turn the dough 90 degrees so it is now adjacent to you. Roll the dough slightly to give it a little bit of width, then rotate it 90 degrees again so the open seam is facing you again. Roll the dough into a long rectangle again, flouring as needed to ensure it doesn’t stick.

9. Use a bench scraper to get underneath the dough if it feels like it is sticking, then perform a double turn, by folding ¼ of the dough up on itself, then the remaining ¾ of the dough to meet. Fold the dough in half, then wrap in cling film to chill again.

10. Repeat steps 9&10, 2 more times (performing two more double turns) and chill the dough.

11. Unwrap the dough again, and roll it out, performing one final single turn (as seen in step 7). In total you will have done 1x single turn, 3x double turn, 1 x single turn. Refrigerate the dough for 2 hours (or overnight).

Basic Cremeux/Pistachio Cremeux/Raspberry Cremeux

1. Add the pistachio paste and raspberry puree into two separate bowls and set these to one side.

 *Note –  Pistachio Paste is quite expensive so you can make it yourself. Just toast shelled pistachios in the oven for about 15 minutes at 170C/340F and then process them in а food processor. You will need to do this with about 300g of Pistachios or it won’t be enough for the blades of your food processor to pick up. It will take some time to blend them and you need a high powered food processor! 

2. Add the powdered gelatin into a small dish and pour over the cold water. Allow this to bloom for 10 minutes. Once bloomed, scoop this into a large bowl with a sieve placed over the top. 

3. Into a medium bowl, add the egg yolks and sugar. Whisk briefly to combine.

4. Add a splash of the cream just to prevent any lumps and whisk to combine.

5. Pour the entire mixture into a medium saucepan along with the cream. Place the pan on a medium heat and whisk constantly, The mixture needs to reach 80-82C. As you continue to cook it, you will see it thicken in the pan, just be really careful not to scramble the eggs.

6. Once at temperature, immediately remove it from the heat and pour it through the sieve over the gelatin. Some of the egg might have caught on the bottom of the pan but don’t panic!

7. Use a hand blender to blend the mixture to ensure the gelatin has completely incorporated. 

8. The mixture should weigh around 480-500g so we’re going to split this equally between the two bowls. 

9. Pour around 240g of the mixture over the pistachio paste and blend it with a hand blender to completely emulsify it. Cover the surface with cling film and refrigerate overnight (minimum of 6 hours)

10. For the raspberry, let the basic cremeux cool to around 40C/104F before pouring it over the puree. Blend with a hand blender to completely emulsify it. Cover the surface with cling film and refrigerate overnight (minimum of 6 hours)

Raspberry Coulis

1. Add the powdered gelatin into a small dish and pour over the cold water. Allow this to bloom for 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, whisk together the sugar and pectin and set this to one side.

3. Add the frozen raspberries (they can be fresh too) and raspberry puree to a small saucepan. 

4. Cook them down until they reach around 40C/104F on a digital thermometer, then add in the sugar/pectin mixture. Continue to cook the mixture until it reaches a boil. 

5. Remove the pan from the heat, scoop in the bloomed gelatin and stir it to dissolve it into the raspberry mixture.

6. Pour this into a bowl and cover the surface with clingfilm. Refrigerate for a minimum of 1-2 hours. 

Assembly

1. Remove the chilled puff pastry from the fridge and place it onto a floured work surface. 

2. With the open seam facing you, turn the dough 90 degrees so it is now adjacent to you. Roll the dough slightly to give it a little bit of width, then rotate it 90 degrees again so the open seam is facing you again. Roll the dough into a rectangle, flouring as needed to ensure it doesn’t stick.

3. We are going to bake this on a baking tray, so we just need to ensure the rectangle we roll isn’t bigger than the tray. We are more concerned about the thickness. It needs to be around 7.5” tall and 0.2”/5mm thick. 

4. Once you are at that thickness, you can use a pastry wheel or a knife, to trim the rectangle of pastry down so it fits perfectly on your tray.

5. Lift the dough onto a silicon mat and refrigerate it for 20 minutes. 

6. Once chilled, cutting vertically, cut off ⅓ of the rectangle, leaving the remaining ⅔ intact.

 7. Work quickly here so the dough stays cold (if not, chill it again. This part will be a disaster if the dough is too warm!), use a lattice pastry wheel cutter or a lattice cutter and cut the ⅓ of dough to create the lattice design. 

8. Get both the latticed strip of dough, and the other strip of dough into the fridge for another 20 minutes while you pre-heat the oven to 175C/345F non-fan assisted.

9. Once it has chilled. Remove it from the fridge and place a second silicon mat on top, along with another tray and some extra weight! We need to weigh the top tray down as much as possible to stop the pastry from puffing up. I like to use more baking trays!

10. Place the tray of pastry into the oven on the middle shelf and bake it for 60 minutes.

11. After 60 minutes remove all the trays on top, and the pastry should be a light golden colour (if not place the trays back on and bake it for a little longer)

12. Place it back into the oven, uncovered, and bake until it is golden brown.

13. Remove it from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 220C/430F.

14. Dust the puff pastry liberally with icing/powdered sugar and then place it back in the oven, closer to the top shelf this time.

15. Keep a very close eye on it and bake it until the sugar has caramelised and the pastry is a deep, shiny golden colour. Be really careful not to burn it. It can take anywhere from 2-5 minutes. 

16. You will find the lattice probably caramelises quicker than the other piece of pastry so you can remove this early.

17. Get both onto a wire cooling rack to cool for 15 minutes.

18. Using a serrated knife trim down the latticed piece of pastry into a neat rectangle. Then cut the other piece of pastry into two, and then trim each of those pieces down so they match the exact size of the lattice pastry.

Final Assembly 

1. Add the chilled raspberry coulis into a tall jug, and with a hand blender, blend it to a smooth mixture. Add this into a piping bag and set it to one side.

2. Whisk both the raspberry and pistachio cremeux using a stand mixer until they are thick and hold a stiff peak. The pistachio cremeux will whisk up thicker than the raspberry cremeux, so don’t worry if the raspberry is slightly softer.

3. Add these into separate piping bags fitted with large round tip piping nozzles. 

4. Pipe three lines of the pistachio cremeux onto the base of the plain, non latticed pieces of puff pastry. There should be one line on each outer edge and one in the centre. It’s important the pistachio is on the outside to provide support, as the raspberry cremeux would be too soft to support the weight of the layers.

5. Pipe the raspberry cremeux into the gaps and then pipe 2 lines of raspberry coulis on top.

6. Dust icing sugar diagonally across the top of the latticed pastry, using a flat object to cover one side of the pastry. 

7. Carefully stack and assemble the mille-feuille, finishing the latticed piece on top. It is now ready to serve. If you need to serve it later, ensure you keep it refrigerated so the cremeux doesn’t soften too much at room temperature.