Make This Fancy Mille-feuille With Three Ingredients

Make This Fancy Mille-feuille With Three Ingredients

Impress your loved ones with a three-ingredient dessert that says, "I love you in the most efficient way possible

Assembling cheap packaged ingredients to create something upscale is a way of life. When it comes to desserts, it’s a way of life that I fully subscribe to. For example, faking an exquisite French dessert from a Snack Pack. Is it “authentic?” Well, let’s call it my authentic 

How to make the easiest mille-feuille

Bake the puff pastry

Thaw the puff pastry according to the package’s directions. You’ll need two sheet pans; one should be able to nest into the other. Line the larger sheet pan, the bottom one, with parchment paper and unfold the thawed puff pastry onto it. Dock the puff pastry all over with a fork and lay another sheet of parchment on top of the pastry. Put this in the freezer for about 15 minutes, and preheat your oven to 400°F

When the oven is ready and the puff pastry has chilled, lay the second sheet pan on top of the parchment-covered puff pastry. So you should have a puff pastry “sandwich” of one sheet pan, parchment, pastry, parchment, and another sheet pan. The purpose of docking the pastry with a fork and the second sheet pan on top is to weigh down the puff pastry and help it maintain a flat shape. Un-weighted, puff pastry will puff up so dramatically and irregularly that you would not be able to get even layers with it. I doubled up on sheet pan “weights” because mine are both kind of light

Bake it for 15 minutes and rotate the pans. Bake it for another 10 minutes and lift off the top pan and parchment to check on it. The puff pastry should be set and dry. The edges will be taking on a bit of color. If the center is very light in color, bake it for an additional three to five minutes. Remove the tray and replace the top parchment and second sheet tray. This will help maintain the flat shape. Allow it to cool completely for about 20 minutes. 

Fill and assemble the mille-feuille

Place the cooled sheet of puff pastry on a cutting board and carefully trim the very edges off to expose the flaky layers. This is a chance for you to even out any weird edges, too. Then slice the sheet into thirds, width-wise. Be patient—the pastry is strong but also brittle

Scoop the vanilla pudding out of the packages and spread it evenly onto two of the slices. I used three pudding packs split between the two slices. Don’t do too much or the filling could ooze out, and besides, you want a balanced bite of puff pastry and pudding. 

Stack one of the layers on top of the other. Press lightly to make sure there’s good contact. Place the final piece of pastry on top and press again. Leave the pastry in the fridge like this until you’re ready to serve it. While you shouldn’t make this dessert the day before, you can keep it in the fridge for a few hours before you’re ready to slice it. This will help it set, but too much time in the fridge will cause the pastry to become soft.

A note on slicing and assembly: If you want to pipe out the pudding decoratively, you can slice the pastry into individual rectangle servings first. Then pipe out the pudding layers with a piping bag and stack them. This means you don't have to fuss with slicing later and possibly making a mess with squished-out filling.

Slice and serve

With a serrated knife, slice the mille-feuille widthwise into individual servings. Be patient as you cut with a sawing motion. I like to grab the layers with my non-dominant hand so they don't compress. If any pudding pops out, just run your finger along the edge to make it flush with the pastry. You’ll probably get four or five slices. Before plating, dust the tops heavily with powdered sugar. Garnish your dessert with fresh fruit, whipped cream