Tart rhubarb meets crisp pastry in a spring embrace
Recipe courtesy of Loyalist College Culinary Program Chefs and Staff.
Indulge in the delightful layers of the Rhubarb Mille Feuille, a perfect blend of tartness and sweetness encased in flaky, buttery bliss. This recipe features a homemade puff pastry, enriched with a luscious rhubarb coulis and velvety pastry cream for a decadent treat.
Part 1 – Blitz Puff Pastry
Ingredients
250 g Bread flour
250 g Pastry flour
500 g Butter, slightly softened
8 g Salt
250 g Water, cold
Procedure
Sift the two flours together into a mixing bowl.
Cut the butter into the flour as for pie dough, but leave the fat in very large lumps, 2.5 cm cubes.
Dissolve the salt in the cold water.
Add the salted water to the flour/butter mixture. Mix until the water is absorbed.
Let the dough rest for 15 minutes. Refrigerate it if the kitchen is warm.
Dust the counter with flour and roll out the dough into a rectangle. Give the dough five single folds.
Part 2 – Rhubarb Coulis
Ingredients
225g Fresh or frozen rhubarb
½ A lemon, juiced
115g Sugar (to taste)
Procedure
Place the rhubarb in a saucepan and add the lemon juice. Bring to a boil and then simmer gently.
Simmer until the rhubarb pulp has broken down. Taste, adding more sugar if desired, although the coulis should be tart.
Allow to cool.
Part 3 – Pastry Cream
Ingredients
800 ml Milk
115 g Sugar
To taste Vanilla
200 ml 35% cream
3 Egg yolks
60 g Corn starch
Procedure
Place milk, sugar and vanilla in a pot and boil.
Mix cream, egg yolk and corn starch to a paste.
When milk mixture is at a boil, add in the cream mixture and stir vigorously.
Reduce heat and simmer custard for 4 – 5 minutes stirring constantly with a whisk or until thick (don’t burn).
Remove from heat and divide into two bowls.
Cover bowls with plastic wrap directly on the custard to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool to room temperature.
Add rhubarb coulis to ½ of the pastry cream to taste before pastry cream has set.
Part 4 – Mille Feuille Assembly
Ingredients
Blitz puff pastry dough
Pastry cream
Rhubarb pastry cream
Procedure
Roll the puff pastry dough into a very thin sheet about the size of a sheet pan.
Place on a sheet pan and let rest 30 minutes, preferably in the refrigerator.
Poke holes in the puff pastry (dock) with a fork to prevent blistering.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until brown and crisp, approx. 8 – 12 minutes.
Trim the edges of the pastry sheet and cut with a serrated knife into equal strips 3 – 4 inches (7.5 – 10 cm) wide. Set the best strip aside for the top layer. If one of the strips breaks, it can be used as the middle layer.
Spread one rectangle with half of the warm vanilla pastry cream.
Top with a second sheet of pastry.
Spread with another layer of warm rhubarb pastry cream.
Place third pastry rectangle on top, with the flattest side up.
Refrigerate until completely cold and pastry cream is firm.
Dust top layer heavily with icing sugar.
Cut to desired size and enjoy!
Photography by David LeClair | Food styling by Ruth Gangbar
