Matcha tea mille-feuille

For 6 to 8 mille-feuilles

Preparation : 1 hour / Cooking : 45 minutes / Resting : 4 hours minimum

FOR THE Puff pastry:

• 420 g of T55 flour
• 136 g of butter
• 170 ml of water + 16 g of salt

FOR GARNISH :

• 500 g of mascarpone
• 250 g of pastry cream
• 16 g of gelatin (8 sheets)

• 500 ml of milk
• 80 g of sugar
• 100 g egg yolks (about 3 eggs)
• 50 g of cream powder

FOR FINISHING

• Icing sugar
• Matcha tea

Make the puff pastry : start by making the Beurre Manié. Mix the flour and butter. Spread the beurre manié into a rectangle 1 cm thick with a rolling pin. Wrap it in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Make the tempera : arrange the flour in a fountain on the work surface. Cut the butter into thin sticks. Gradually add it to the flour, working with your fingertips to obtain a shortbread consistency. Add the salted water gradually until the dough forms a ball. Do not overwork the dough. Wrap it in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Spread the tempera to the same dimensions as the couverture. Stack them, dip on top, and press with a rolling pin to make them adhere. Spread until you get 4 times the original width? Fold the two edges towards the center, like a wallet, then fold two in the same direction. Wrap in cling film and leave to rest for 1 hour in the fridge.

Rotate the dough 90 degrees then roll it out again to obtain 4 times the original width. Fold it as before then leave to rest for 1 hour in the fridge.

Repeat the operation once again. Reserve in the fridge.

Make the filling : start by preparing the pastry cream. Bring the milk with half the sugar to a boil in a saucepan. Stop the heat as soon as it boils. Whisk the egg yolks, the rest of the sugar and the cream powder. When the mixture is homogeneous and smooth, add half of the sweetened milk to loosen it, stirring well, without foaming.
Transfer this mixture to the saucepan containing the rest of the sweetened milk and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a whisk, while scraping the bottom and sides of the saucepan because the cream sticks quickly! Cook like this for 3 to 4 minutes, until you obtain a slightly thick cream. Remove into a cold container and cover in contact with cling film. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Whip the pastry cream in a salad bowl and add the mascarpone. Soften the gelatin in water.
Prepare the matcha tea custard. Squeeze the gelatin well and add it to the still hot cream before passing everything through a fine sieve. Add the custard to the custard, mixing well. Whip the mixture up: it should almost form peaks when you remove the whisk.
Reserve in the fridge.

Cook the dough : preheat the oven to 180°C (th. 6).

Roll out the dough to a thickness of 2 mm. Place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place 4 objects 1 cm high (like petit four molds) in the 4 corners of the plate. Place a sheet of parchment paper and a second baking tray on top (this assembly allows you to control the height of the lamination). Cook for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 165°C and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove the top tray and the parchment paper on top and brown for a further few minutes.

Turn off the lower heat of the oven. Sprinkle the dough with icing sugar and cook for about 3 minutes (until the sugar has melted). Immediately cut the cooked dough into rectangles measuring 12 x 3 cm. Allow 3 rectangles of dough per mille-feuille. Do not let it cool as it quickly becomes crumbly.

Using a piping bag, pipe the cream onto the first rectangle of puff pastry. Place second rectangle on top and repeat the operation. Finish the third rectangle. Decorate with matcha tea.

Tip : if you use commercially available puff pastry, roll it out and cook it following the instructions on the package, then cut it as soon as it comes out of the oven to the dimensions indicated in the recipe. If you wait for it to cool, it will break under the knife blade!

You can replace the cream powder, for the pastry cream, with cornstarch. In this case, increase the quantity of egg yolks a little.