I've always been fascinated by mille feuille. I always marvelled at how delicate and light they look in bakery displays - but I don't believe I've ever had one before. Luckily, I was able to make a gluten free, dairy free version of them for this week's GBBO challenge!
Yummy pastry. It was pastry week on the Great British Bake Off this week - and man what a challenge. From the previous weeks, I've already determined that gluten free, dairy free pastry reacts very differently to normal pastry. Interestingly, I've had a fair success with my pastry so far - possibly because it has not had to be shaped into anything except a mold so far. To be perfectly honest, I decided to try to make cream horns this week, but because of a series of blunders, I ended up making mille feuille instead. Not that it's easier, it just doesn't require gluten free pastry to curl around a horn, nor does it require you to remove said pastry from the horn after baking. Now don't get me wrong, it's doable - I just think I have to play with the quantity of water in the gluten free dairy free rough puff pastry mix a little more...It's the same recipe as below - just you need to get the dough to a point where it's so pliable that it rolls well and won't break up when you shift the mold after baking - or perhaps you need to butter the molds. I'll figure it out and let you know as soon as possible.
In other news, I was on holiday in the beautiful Ibiza this week - so went shopping a little later than normal. I missed my flight back to the UK and had to book a new one - and was rerouted through Madrid. So I ordered my ingredients off of Tesco Online while sitting in Madrid airport and it got delivered on Saturday afternoon with no mistakes and right on time, even though ten delivery drivers had decided to take unplanned vacations that day. I love Tesco Online. They make my life a million times easier.....and their app is ridiculously easy to use. So everything I needed for both cream horns or mille feuille were right there online and ready to go when I got back.....from eggs to sugar, to the flavourings I used for the mille feuille.
Anyway, so I made the pastry cream first....and I was nervous. I mean, how much chili do you use before really upset the unsuspecting chocolate lover? I added half teaspoon, although I had read about using 3/4 tsp chilli per 150ml of liquid because I was nervous...and when I was tasting it, it seemed quite spicy - so I strained the chilli out as soon as I could. On retrospect, though, I would use the entire 3/4 tsp per 150mL of liquid - because it tastes really spicy when the pastry cream is hot, but after chilling and filling and piping, the spicy taste calms down and becomes a nice little aftertaste. I am still amazed that someone actually discovered this flavour combination in the first place.....I mean, it sounds unlikely but it is like a secret gem in the treasure chest of flavours. Scared? Don't be. It's completely worth it...and sandwiched in lovely thin layers of puff pastry .... it's like heaven.
Gluten Free Dairy Free Chocolate Chilli Mille Feuille
Creamy and tasty chocolate chilli flavoured dairy free pastry cream layered between crunchy and light gluten and dairy free pastry to create the most spectacular mille feuille ever.
http://www.bewilderedbug.com/
This post is part of the Great Blogger Bake Off 2015 and is inspired by the Great British Bake Off 2015, Week 8 - Patisserie Week!
If you liked this recipe, please also check out my other bakes for 2015...
My bake from week 1 (cake) - White Forest Cake (gluten and dairy free). My bake from week 2 (biscuits) - Chocolate Dipped Orange and Cardamom Biscotti My bake from week 3 (bread) - Nutella bread (gluten free and almost dairy free) - that WON a prize in the Great Bloggers Bakeoff 2015 for that week! #chuffed My bake from week 4 (desserts) - Cheesecake stuffed meringue nests (gluten free and dairy free). (gluten and dairy free).
I am also linking up with another bake off group this week in an attempt to win some lovely Silver Mushroom goodies for my kitchen.
Click on the badge below for the link to that page - some awesome stuff there I tell you!