How to make
For the citrus fruit season, I'm offering you a recipe with the incredibly fragrant citrus fruit - bergamot. A wonderful classic French cake, which is served as a New Year's dessert. This version of the mille-feuille dessert was created in Paris in the 19th century with the citrus scent of bergamot.
I'm giving you the quick and easy version of the recipe for Parisian-style mille-feuille cake with ready-made puff pastry.
First, prepare the cream, so that it can cool down well. Soak the gelatin in cold water. Add the grated vanilla pod to the milk along with the bergamot peel. Beat the yolks with the sugar in a bowl.
Add lemon and lime juice, then add the sifted flour and cornstarch. Remove the vanilla pod. Pour 1/3 of the hot milk over the yolks. Mix everything, then pour in the remaining milk. Return the mixture onto the hob and stir without stopping. The citrus cream will thicken. Remove it from the heat and add the chopped butter, the strained gelatin and cocoa butter.
Mix with a liquidizer to make the cream homogeneous and leave it for 15 minutes in the freezer in a bowl. Then whip the cream vigorously and add the mascarpone. Mix everything quickly and carefully. Then prepare the puff pastry. Preheat the oven to 390°F (200 degrees).
Defrost the puff pastry overnight in the refrigerator or at room temperature until they soften. Unfold the sheet onto parchment paper. Using a round plate or pan, cut out a 7″ (18 cm) circle from the puff pastry sheet. You can cut ot four circles of that size from one puff pastry sheet. You can prepare two small cakes with a diameter of 6″ (15 cm) or one cake with a diameter of 7″ (18 cm).
Pierce each circle with a fork, so that the dough does not rise during baking. Transfer the puff pastry cut out into a baking tray lined with parchment paper, spread it with the beaten egg on top and sprinkle it with sugar for a caramelized finish.
Bake the puff pastry until it aquires a golden brown color on top. Allow the cake to cool slightly on the paper and then transfer it onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Sprinkle one puff pastry circle with powdered sugar on top. Using a piping bag, pipe out vanilla citrus pastry cream onto the first circle. Add the blueberries. Place the next circle on top, sprinkle it with powdered sugar, pipe out the cream on it and sprinkle it with toasted sliced almonds.
Add decorations, fruit - in the case blueberries, raspberries or strawberries. Place the finished cakes in the refrigerator for at least half an hour before serving them. Just before serving, sprinkle them generously with powdered sugar.
This is an original recipe for a confectionery cream created in Paris in the 19th century used to make the wonderful Mille-Feuille or better known as Napoleon cake. Enjoy!
