Phil Vickery's Summer Mille Feuille 🍓

Wednesday 27 July at 2:59pm

Phil’s fabulous flaky pastry layered with cream and strawberries makes for the ultimate summer treat.

Summer Mille Feuille

Ingredients

300g ripe strawberries, hulled and sliced

560ml double cream

3 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp icing sugar

1 large sheet ready rolled puff pastry

4-5 tbsp good quality strawberry jam

8-10 tbsp fondant sugar

½ tsp pink colour

½ chocolate colouring

6-8 tbsp lightly browned flaked almonds

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C, Gas 6. Unwrap the puff pastry carefully, and re roll nice and thin.

2. Place on a baking sheet and dock well with a fork.

3. Pop the pastry in the hot oven and cook for 20-25 minutes or until nicely risen and golden brown. - Take care with puff pastry. It tends to burn very quickly once you take your eye off it.

4. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. It must be cooked right through, it's very important. Allow to cool.

5. Next, place the vanilla, cream and sugar into a bowl and lightly whip. Keep as cold as possible.

6. Once cool, cut the pastry into three equal pieces lengthways.

7. Spread two of the layers with the jam. Place the strawberries on top of the jam.

8. Using a palette knife spread a thick layer of whipped double cream on top of the strawberries and jam. Then carefully using a clean palette knife lift one of the strips of pastry onto the top of the other and nestle down nicely.

9. Mix the fondant icing sugar with a little water or lemon or lime juice and spread over the last pastry slice.

10. Quickly mix the pink colouring with a little of the fondant sugar, then the same with the chocolate colour separately.

11. Using a small paper piping bag, pipe pink lines about 1cm apart along the fondant. Then repeat in between with the chocolate fondant.

12. With a knife or skewer, swipe through the icings leaving a 1-2 cm gap. Turn the board round and swipe the other way to get a zig zag effect. Put the final fondant iced piece of puff pastry on top.

13. Take the palette knife again, and using any excess cream from the bowl and from the edge of the pastry, carefully fill in the gaps around the layers of pastry and strawberries. Once nice and tidy, carefully stick the browned almonds to the outside of the pastry.

14. Chill until the fondant is set, press lightly and slice.

15. Serve with double cream left over and strawberry sauce.