Viviana in the Kitchen: From Lorraine Pascale

Adapted from:

"Blueberry and lemon millefeuille" from Lorraine Pascale's Baking Made Easy. Also on BBC.

Original Ingredients: (Makes 6 triple-layer millefeuilles):

Original Method:

Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper. Dust the work surface with lots of icing sugar and roll out the pastry to a rectangle just larger than 27 x 30cm/10½ x 12in, trimming the edges straight. It should be super thin, as thin as you can get it, without stretching the pastry.
Cut out 18 rectangles about 9cm/3½in long and 5cm/2in wide and place them on the prepared baking tray. Sprinkle with lots of icing sugar and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
Remove the pastry from the fridge and bake in the oven for five minutes, then remove from the oven and sprinkle the pastry with more icing sugar. Return to the oven and bake for a further five minutes, or until the pastry turns golden-brown. Remove from the oven and set aside.
For the sweetened cream, put the cream, icing sugar and vanilla in a large bowl and whip until medium-stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed from the bowl. Fold in the lemon zest and juice, to taste, then scoop the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm/½in straight nozzle.
Place one of the pastry thins on a serving plate. Pipe blobs of cream over the pastry and put the blueberries between the cream, then put another pastry thin on top and repeat with one more layer. Sprinkle the top layer with more icing sugar and repeat until all the pastry and cream is used up.

My Ingredients: (Makes 6 double-layer millefeuilles):

My Modifications:

I only could roll out the pastry to a smaller rectangle of about 21cm x 28 cm. After trimming the edges, I cut out 12 rectangles each about 5cm x 9cm.
In addition to blueberries, I also added raspberries to some millefeuilles.
Extra lemon juice and zest were folded in the cream to reduce the sweetness. I also added zest on the top layers of each millefeuille after finishing with icing sugar.
I did not exactly measure how much icing sugar used but it's significantly less than 115g suggested.

As my pastry wasn't rolled thin nor even enough, some puff layers became quite thick after baking. Hence I only made 6 double-layer millefeuilles instead of 4 triple-layer millefeuilles.
Double cream instead of whipping cream was used, simply because I have a tub of double cream expiring in two days. I reduced the amount of sweetened cream as I had fewer layers to cream.
I used a sandwich bag (because I was too lazy and didn't want to use and wash my piping bags) for piping. I piped the whipped lemon cream as zig-zags over the pastry as the I could not pipe any nice blobs with a sandwich bag.
The total baking time was about 16 minutes:

One-line Verdict:

Using store-bought pastry doesn't mean easy peasey. Rolling it thin and cutting it even was NOT easy.

Verdict:

This millefeuille recipe is easier than most other recipes. The pastry was cut before baking so the messy step of cutting baked puff neatly is skipped. Whipping cream is a lot easier to make (or it can be bought readily) than Crème Pâtissière used in many other recipes.
Pre-cutting the puff pastry, however, seems to result in less tidy edges compared with the traditional ones that are cut after baking. If I make millefeuilles again, I will not cut the puff beforehand.
I accidentally made an extra squeeze of the lemon so the cream was less sweet than I'd like, though my other two friends seem to be pretty satisfied with the reduced sweetness.
Rolling the pastry thin and even were really challenging. And I didn't do it quick enough so the butter in the pastry started melting in the middle. I stopped and didn't roll further. Maybe I should just chuck the half-rolled pastry into fridge for 30 minutes.
Substituting piping bag with sandwich bag is acceptable but it's very difficult to make any decent blobs of cream.
Raspberries go really well with blueberries and lemon! I think those with two berries taste better than those with blueberries alone!
Overall I am happy with this though there are many rooms for improvement. I will make this again, definitely!
Approximate cost of the main ingredients: £3

Original Recipe:

"Creamy Pancetta pasta with mushrooms & parmesan" from Lorraine Pascale's Home Cooking Made Easy. Also on BBC.

Original Ingredients:

Original Method:

Cook the pappardelle according to the packet instructions.
Meanwhile, fry the pancetta in a frying pan over a medium-high heat for about five minutes. When it starts to brown, add the mushrooms and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the double cream.
Once the cream is hot, add the parmesan and stir together well.Once the pasta is ready, drain and return it to the pan. Add the pancetta mixture and stir through well. Season with some pepper (I find it does not usually need salt because of the salty parmesan and pancetta).

My Ingredients:

My Method:

Basically followed the halved recipe but substituting pancetta with bacon lardons, and pappardelle with fusilli. (The only reason for substitution is I already have lardons & fusilli at home).
I increased the portion of chestnut mushroom as we both love it so much. The original portion just won't be enough!

One-line Verdict:

Super easy and fool-proof. Ideal for mid-week quick dinner.

Verdict:

Quick, easy and delicious. Very happy as long as I don't think about the calorie and fat intake.
Approximate cost of the main ingredients: £5 (serves 2)

Viviana in the Kitchen