A mille-feuille (; ),[The name is also written as millefeuille and mille feuille.] also known by the names Napoleon in North America,
vanilla slice in the United Kingdom, and
custard slice, is a
French cuisine dessert made of puff pastry layered with pastry cream. Its modern form was influenced by improvements made by Marie-Antoine Carême.
Traditionally, a mille-feuille is made up of three layers of puff pastry (pâte feuilletée), alternating with two layers of pastry cream (crème pâtissière). The top pastry layer is finished in various ways: sometimes it is topped with whipped cream, or it may be dusted with icing sugar, cocoa, pastry crumbs, or sliced . It may also be glazed with icing or fondant icing alone, or in alternating white (icing) and chocolate or other colored icing stripes, and paper marbling to create a marbled effect.
History
According to the
Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, mille-feuille recipes from 17th century French and 18th century English cookbooks are a precursor to
.
The earliest mention of the name mille-feuille itself appears in 1733 in an English-language cookbook written by French chef Vincent La Chapelle.
In French, the first mention of the mille-feuille appears a little later, in 1749, in a cookbook by Menon:
To make a mille-feuille cake, you take puff pastry, make out of it five cakes of equal size, & of the thickness of two coins, in the last one you shall make a hole in the middle in the shape of a Maltese cross, regarding the size you will base yourself on the dish that you will use for service, bake them in the oven. When they are baked & cooled, stack them one on the other, the one with the hole on top, & jams between every cake, sentence & ice them everywhere with white icing so that they appear to be a single piece; you can embellish it with some red currant jelly, candied lemon skins & pistachio, you serve them on a plate.
The word 'mille-feuille' is not used again in the recipe books of the 18th century. However, under the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte, several of the fanciest Parisian pastry shops appear to have sold the cake.
According to Alan Davidson in the Oxford Companion to Food, the invention of the form (but not of the pastry itself) is usually attributed to Szeged, Hungary, where a caramel-coated mille-feuille is called 'Szegediner Torte'.
Composition
Traditionally, a mille-feuille is made up of three layers of
puff pastry and two layers of custard]]. The top layer is coated with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.
In later variations, the top is glazed with icing, in alternating white (icing) and brown (chocolate) strips, and then combed.
It is often layered with fruits, most commonly strawberry and raspberry.
Variations
According to La Varenne, it was earlier called gâteau de mille-feuilles (), referring to the many layers of pastry. Using traditional puff pastry, made with six folds of three layers, it has 729 layers; with some modern recipes it may have as many as 2,048.
[italic=unset 1992, republished in 2007 (in French). The counting of layers was reported in Compte-rendu du Séminaire n°32 de gastronomie moléculaire (December 18, 2003) from the French Society of Chemistry, see Compte-rendu (in French).]
In France, the pastry called Napoleon is made with two joined layers of filled with frangipane.
Argentina and Uruguay
Rogel, a popular cake, the Argentine variant of the French pastry mille-feuille, consists of various layers of puff pastry alternating with layers of dulce de leche and a top glazed with meringue. Rogel is considered a classic, and a wedding cake favourite.
Australia and New Zealand
In Australia, a variant of the mille-feuille is usually known as the
vanilla slice. It is made using a
gelatin-set crème pâtissière, and in many cases, passionfruit icing. "French Vanilla slice" refers to a similar product without fondant icing. In
New Zealand, it is variously known as a custard slice, a custard square, a vanilla slice, or, with passion-fruit icing, a passion-fruit slice.
Balkan countries
A similar local variety is called
krempita in
Serbian cuisine and Bosnia and Herzegovina,
kremna rezina or kremšnita in Slovenia and
Croatian cuisine, krémeš in
Slovak cuisine, and cremșnit in
Romanian cuisine.
Belgium and the Netherlands
In
Belgian cuisine and the
Dutch cuisine, the
tompouce or tompoes is the equivalent pastry. Several variations exist in Belgium, but in the Netherlands it has achieved an almost iconic status, with very little variation seen in form, size, ingredients and colour (always two layers of pastry, nearly always pink glazing, but orange around national festivities). The cartoon character
Tom Puss by
Marten Toonder is named after the tompouce.
Canada
In
Canadian cuisine, mille-feuille is often named gâteau Napoléon among French speakers, and "Napoleon slice" in English-speaking Canada. It is sold with either custard, whipped cream, or both between three layers of puff pastry;
almond paste is the most common filling. A French Canadian method of making a mille-feuille uses
instead of puff pastry, with pudding replacing the custard layer.
German varieties
In the German-speaking part of
Swiss cuisine and also in
Austrian cuisine, it is called
Cremeschnitte. In
Israel it is known by a variation of that name, (קרמשניט).
Greece
In
Greek cuisine, the pastry is called μιλφέιγ, a transcription of the word mille-feuille using the
Greek alphabet. The filling between the layers is cream whereas whipped cream (a vanilla-infused French Chantilly) is used at the top of the pastry.
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, the 拿破侖 (, "Napoleon") is layered with
buttercream,
meringue and
walnuts.
In
Mainland China, a similar product also marketed as a Napoleon (, or more commonly, ) varies between regions and individual bakeries, but usually features a top and bottom layer of rough puff pastry, typically made with vegetable
shortening rather than butter, and a
sponge cake and artificial buttercream filling.
Hungary
In Hungary, it is called krémes.
One version, the francia krémes (French Napoleon), is topped with whipped cream and caramel fondant.
Italy
In
Italian cuisine, the mille-feuille is known as the mille foglie and contains similar fillings. Another important distinction of the Italian variety is that it often consists of a layer of puff pastry with layers of sponge cake as well (e.g. from bottom to top, puff pastry, sponge cake strawberries and cream and then puff pastry).
Iran
In
Iranian cuisine, the pastry is called شيرينى ناپلئونى (, literally "Napoleonic sweet pastry"). It consists of thin puff pastry, rose water, pistachios and whipped saffron cream which is often topped with powdered sugar.
Lithuania
In
Lithuania, Napoleon or Napoleonas. In Lithuanian recipe pastry has layers of fruit filling such as wild cranberries jam and crème pâtissière. Sometimes is associated with weddings or celebrations.
Morocco
In
Moroccan cuisine, mille-feuille are consumed regularly and are known by their French name.
Philippines
In the Philippines, they are called napoleones ( , ; napoleón in the singular), and are made of two to three layers, with pastry cream or white custard as filling, topped with sugar glaze. It is a popular specialty on
Negros Island, especially in
Silay City, and can be bought as
pasalubong by many who visit the island.
Poland
In
Polish cuisine, the local variant of the pastry is officially called
napoleonka, and less commonly kremówka. It consists of two layers of pastry separated by a thick cream layer. The whole pastry is then covered with powdered sugar.
Portugal
Similar to other European countries, in
Portugal the French variation is known as mil-folhas (a direct translation of the French) in the
Lisbon region, and as napoleão (a transliteration of Napoleon's name) in the centre and north of Portugal. Conversely, in the north, the Russian variant is known as
mil-folhas, which in the Lisbon region is usually called russo (with the meaning of 'Russian') or possibly
russo folhado ('Russian pastry'). Both types are common across coffee shops, tea houses, and patisseries in Portugal; the French
mille-feuille is even found on some supermarket chains, produced industrially and either individually packaged or as a set.
While the recipe for the Portuguese variant is very consistent with the original French one, both in look, flavour, and size, there are two additional alternatives. The first is just a bigger version of the mille-feuille, with additional layers and probably more cream, being commonly 5-7 cm in height. The second alternative (more common in the regular format) is to tint the white icing sugar with egg gems, thus making it yellow in appearance, but also with the traditional chocolate marble effect. Finally, some places can also offer under the same name a few minor changes, such as a glazed caramel top, slices of almonds, or replacing the puff cream with jam, chantilly cream, or even marmelada (quince cheese), although these are uncommon.
Russia
Russian cuisine literature, a cake named Napoleon () is first mentioned as early as in the first half of the 19th century.
[ «Вонзаете вилку в сладкий пирог и – его имя Наполеон!» из статьи «Клятва при гробе Господнем. Русская быль XV века. Сочинения Н. Полевого. 1832». А. А. Бестужев-Марлинский. 1833. - Stick a fork in a sweet cake, and its name is Napoleon! from the article Oath at the Holy Sepulchre. Russian true stories in the 15th century. Works by N. Polevoy. 1832. Alexander Bestuzhev. 1833.] Alexander Bestuzhev explained the emergence of such names by the
romanticism and historicist spirit of that time.
[ The cake has enjoyed an especially great popularity since the centenary celebration of the Russian victory over Napoleon in the Patriotic War of 1812. During the celebrations in 1912, triangular-shape pastries were sold resembling the bicorne. The many layers of the cake symbolized La Grande Armée. In fact, the Russian "Napoleon" is an old recipe that was revisited in 1925 by the pastry chef Adrien Artigarrède. He added almonds from Crimea and icing sugar on the top (symbolizing the Russian Winter, once so helpful to Russians in their defeat of Napoleon).]
Later, the cake became a standard dessert in Soviet cuisine.[ – ] Nowadays, the Napoleon remains one of the most popular cakes in Russia and other post-Soviet countries. It typically has more layers than the French archetype, but the same height.
In popular culture the mille-feuille is referenced as a special treat for Count Rastov in "A Gentleman in Moscow."
South Africa
In South Africa and Zimbabwe, it is called a 'custard slice'.
Spain
In the Spanish cuisine , the puff pastry is thin and crunchy. They are often far deeper than solely three layers of pastry and can reach up to tall. In the north of Spain, milhojas are usually filled with creme patissiere and have three or four layers of puff pastry. In central Spain, milhojas usually have only two or three layers of puff pastry filled with very thick layers of whipped cream or Chantilly.
Nordic countries
In Swedish cuisine as well as in Finland, the Napoleonbakelse (Napoleon pastry) is a mille-feuille filled with whipped cream, custard, and jam. The top of the pastry is glazed with icing and currant jelly. In Denmark it is called napoleonskage and in Norway napoleonskake, both meaning "Napoleon cake".
United Kingdom
the British cuisine, the pastry is most often called a vanilla slice, cream slice, or a custard slice, but can, on occasion, be named mille-feuille or Napoleon on branded products. It is common in the UK to only use two slices of pastry with a single, thick layer of filling between them, and the filling may be pastry cream or sometimes whipped cream.
United States
In the American cuisine, the pastry is most often called a Napoleon. It typically includes three layers of pastry, is filled with pastry cream, and is glazed with icing sugar in a feathered or marbled pattern.
Other
In Latin American milhojas, various layers of puff pastry are layered with confectioner's sugar on top. A Colombian version of milhoja has various layers of puff pastry and pastry cream. It is topped with arequipe ( dulce de leche).
See also
-
List of custard desserts
-
List of French desserts
Notes
External links
