Raffaello Mille-Feuille
Serves 7
20 mins prep
50 mins cook
70 mins total
Raffaello-inspired mille-feuille, featuring buttery, homemade puff pastry filled with a coconut white chocolate pastry cream.
Puff pastry
Coconut white chocolate pastry cream
Garnish
Do Ahead
The puff pastry dough can be made in advance. The dough will keep in the refrigerator for up to one week or 3 months in the freezer when wrapped tightly in plastic wrap. Defrost in the refrigerator before using.
The pastry cream can be made 2-3 days in advance. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use, with plastic wrap touching the top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming.
Cut the butter into ½-inch cubes and freeze for 30 minutes. Measure out your ice water.
Make the puff pastry
In a food processor, pulse together the flour and salt until mixed.
Add the cubed, frozen butter and pulse until the butter is dime-sized. Stream in the ice water while the processor is running. Leave running just until the mixture forms a ball. Do not over process.
Turn out onto a reusable plastic sheet or plastic wrap. Press the dough through the plastic to form the dough into a disk or square. Wrap tightly and refrigerate at least 30 minutes and up to 2-3 days. You can start the pastry cream at this point, if desired.
Roll out the chilled dough into a 10x20-inch rectangle. Fold into thirds, like a letter (see how). Turn the dough 90 degrees and repeat this rolling and folding process twice. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. You could also start the pastry cream at this point, if desired.
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Turn over two large sheet pans. Place a piece of parchment paper or a silicone baking mat on the bottoms. Set aside another two sheet pans and pieces of parchment paper to go on top.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a 22x10-inch rectangle. Trim a thin bit off of the four edges of the dough*. Cut the dough with a pastry wheel or sharp knife into roughly 22 (2 x 5-inch rectangles).
Transfer the rectangles to the lined bottoms of the sheet pans, 1 inch apart. Cover with the reserved sheets of parchment and place the reserved pans bottoms down on top of the parchment. Basically you are sandwiching the puff pastry pieces between parchment and two pan bottoms to stunt their growth.
Place one of the pan sets in the oven and keep the other in the refrigerator until ready to bake. Bake for 15 minutes before removing the top pan and parchment and baking 8-10 minutes more, for a total of 25-27 minutes.
Transfer baked puff pastry to a wire rack to cool completely. Trim edges with a sharp, serrated knife, if necessary.
Make the pastry cream
Place the white chocolate in a medium heat proof bowl. Set aside.
Vigorously whisk together egg yolks and cornstarch until the mixture has lightened in color, about 2 minutes.
Bring the coconut milk to a boil in a medium saucepan. Once it boils, remove from the heat. Wait 3 minutes.
Slowly dribble ¼ cup of the warm milk into the egg yolk cornstarch mixture while whisking constantly. Continue whisking and dribbling in the rest of the milk slowly until it is all in.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and heat over medium, whisking constantly, until it boils and thickens. It should be able to coat the back of a spoon.
Once desired thickness is reached, remove from the heat and pour the mixture over the white chocolate in the heat proof bowl. Stir to melt the chocolate completely. Emulsify the mixture with an immersion blender until the pastry cream is lighter in color, about 3-5 minutes.
If making ahead, cover with plastic wrap, letting the plastic touch the surface to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate until needed. If you are in a hurry, pour the pastry cream on a sheet pan. Spread it thin, and cover completely with plastic wrap, letting it touch all of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate for 45 minutes or until completely cool.
Assemble
Transfer the pastry cream to a piping bag fitted with a plain round tip, like a Wilton 1A.
Group together the puff pastry pieces in sets of three.
Prepare the garnished top pieces. Melt the white chocolate in a microwave safe bowl in 20-30 second increments, taking care not to scorch it. Brush the top piece of pastry of each set with white chocolate and dip it into the coconut.
On top of one of the plain pieces pipe 12 small dollops of the cream. Gently cover with another plain piece of puff pastry. On top of that plain piece pipe another 12 small dollops of cream. Cover with a white chocolate and coconut garnished piece.
Repeat until all mille-feuille are assembled. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to serve.
