Mille-Feuille

Mille-feuille, which translates to a “thousand sheets” in French, is a classic dessert that’s also known as a Napoleon pastry in the United States or a custard slice or vanilla slice in the United Kingdom. Using puff pastry, vanilla pastry cream, and chocolate and vanilla icing, this stacked dessert is elegant and delicious at the same time. Frozen puff pastry makes this dessert easy to make but if you’re up for a project, make your own puff pastry at home.  

Notes from the Food & Wine Test Kitchen

It’s important when making the pastry cream that your butter is softened to room temperature. If your butter is too cold, the mixture may curdle and be lumpy. If this happens, you can save it by increasing the speed on the mixer to high and warming the sides of the bowl with a small butane torch. It may take a couple of minutes, but the pastry cream will come back together. 

Make ahead

The pastry cream and pastry rectangles can both be made ahead up to three days in advance. The assembled mille-feuille can be refrigerated for up to three days.