In the second practical lecture, chef asked us to use the puff pastry we had made in the previous lecture for the delicious (and popular) Strawberry Mille-Feuille and Almond Pithiviers!
（在藍帶中級烘培的第二堂課, 我做了人見人愛的草莓層派和杏仁派！）
The biggest difference in using the puff pastry between these two dessert is whether or not we want the puff pastry to rise.
In the Mille-Feuille we want to ensure the puff pastry is flat and flaky to make the tasty layers between the cream. However, for the Pithivier we want the pastry to rise to give the nice texture and the beautiful hight!
(千層派的皮我們希望他扁扁酥酥的,杏仁派我們則希望他澎起來！）
Thus, when making the Mille-Feuille we tried our best to prevent the puff pastry to rise! Chef taught us to use a matching tray to press the puff pastry from both sides when it goes into oven and of course we have to dock the pastry as well!
Here at school we only have time to bake 1 big tray of flat puff pastry, so we weren't allowed to make a Mille-Feuille with a lot of layers. We stuck 2 layers in the bottle with raspberry jam to make sure the base is strong enough and put the last layer on the top of the cake. I thought it wouldn't turn out to be as nice as the ones we commonly see in shops, having at least 3-4 layers of pastry, but I was wrong! it tasted beautiful! So if you are at home, and it's not really convenient to bake more layers, I would recommend using this method for your Mille-Feuille!
For the Pithiviers we used almond creme as the filling! I think it is also very common for mums to put some beef or other meaty fillings in this delicious puff pastry, just like a giant pie!!! Yum yum yum, so tasty!
I really like how this puff pastry looks, no decorations, only the rising effect and the cuts that I gave to it before it was baked.
In the illustration I drew the way we gave the shape to the Pithiviers. In step 3, after I filled in the almond cream between the two layers (top and bottom), I placed a 7" ring mold as a guild and pressed the flower petals with a "half alcohol cap" !!! I really think this is a brilliant shape! I also drew it in the diagram!
After I shaped it I egg washed it twice and gave it radial cut on the top before I put it into the oven! No pastry docker this time!! This is because I want it to rise beautifully!
I hope you will like the way I have represented what I learnt at school! And please don't be shy to leave a comment for me or give me a tweet or email! Can not wait to share more!!
Fang xx
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