Chef N showed us how to make Millefeuille Praliné (aka Napoleon) today. He made it look like it was a simple task, but during my practical I found out just how hard it was to make this dessert.
The millefeuille praliné is essentially made up of three layers of puff pastry, with a praliné base in between the bottom two layers of puff pastry, and light praliné cream in between the top two layers of puff pastry. The photo below is the lovely millefeuille made by Chef N:
In our practical, we had to make a puff pastry détrempe (flour and water mixture) and give it to the chef in exchange for one that was prepared earlier (because we do not have enough time to rest the dough). Then we had to wrap the butter inside the détrempe, and then roll out the dough and make the relevant turns in it.
I had done puff pastry from scratch before (in Basic Pastry last term), but this recipe is slightly different from the one we did last time, plus last time we had a couple of days to complete the turns. This time, we had to do all the turns and use the puff pastry in the same class (i.e. everything done within 2.5 hours). My puff pastry was a disaster (it was too elastic, and I just had so much trouble with it that I was almost in tears)... But I did my best to roll it out (even though it kept shrinking back like an elastic band), and I baked it.
In the end, I wasted a lot of time battling my recalcitrant puff pastry dough, and my puff pastry was overbaked on one side and underbaked on another. My light praliné cream was a bit lumpy because the pastry cream was a touch too cold when I mixed it with the cold whipped cream. There was also one other problem with the caramelized hazelnuts, but I think I can fix that one easily (it was just an oversight on my part).
I scrambled to get my millefeuille assembled, and I presented it on time (just barely). Chef N made some kind comments and gave me some tips for correcting my mistakes, but I was really mad at myself. I *must* practise making more puff pastry between now and the exam.
As you can see from the photo, my millefeuille looks fine, but it was not quite edible. Chef tasted a little of my millefeuille, but I felt so sorry for him. He really didn't have to taste it to know it was quite awful. I wouldn't eat it anyway, and I certainly wouldn't inflict it on any other human being. Oh yes, I hope the resident squirrels find their way into the garbage bin and enjoy those three hazelnuts that I dipped in caramel, even if they find my millefeuille puff pastry unpalatable.
Having said all that, I shall conquer this problem. If you recall, I had problems with Chantilly Cream last term, and eventually I learnt the skills for making a decent Chantilly Cream. Now I must do the same with Puff Pastry. Exactly six more weeks till exam time...
