Vegan Mille Feuille

Directions

• Puff Pastry
• The night before you plan to make the puff pastry, place 142g of vegan butter in the freezer.
• The next day, shred the frozen vegan butter onto a plate using a grater. Place the plate of shredded butter in the freezer while you prepare the dough.
• In a large bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Cut 60g of vegan butter into cubes, then add butter cubes into the flour mix. Cut the butter into the flour using a dough cutter or a fork. Mix until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Now, add in the cold water gradually. Continue mixing until all the flour starts to come together. Using your hand, keep pressing the dough together until it forms a dough.
• Place the dough into the bowl of a stand mixer and mix at low speed for 3 minutes. Shape into a ball and cover with plastic wrap. Rest in the freezer for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes, on a floured surface, roll the dough out into a rectangle with approximately a 5mm thickness. Remove the vegan butter shreds from the freezer. Lightly dust your fingertips with flour and add half of the butter shreds to the bottom 2/3 of the dough. Then place the remaining butter shreds back into the freezer.
• Fold over the top 1/3 of the dough (without any butter shreds) then fold the bottom third, forming a wallet fold. Seal the sides with your fingertips.
• Rotate the dough 90° clockwise. Roll the dough again to the shape of a rectangle about 5mm thick. Add the remaining vegan butter shreds to the bottom 2/3 of the dough and repeat the wallet folding step. Remember to seal the sides with your fingertips.
• Cover with plastic wrap. Place the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes, then place it in the fridge for at least 30 more minutes or overnight.
• Repeat the rolling and folding step twice to create more layers in the puff pastry. Then wrap the dough with plastic wrap and rest in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.
• When you are ready to bake the pastry, roll the dough again to the shape of a rectangle about 5mm thick.
• Preheat your oven to 200°C (390°F).
• Place the puff pastry on a lined baking tray. Pierce it with a fork to avoid bubbles when it bakes. Place another piece of parchment paper on top of the puff pastry, then place another baking tray on top of the puff pastry in order to make sure it stays as flat and bakes as evenly as possible.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the baking tray and parchment paper on top of the pastry. Bake for another 5 minutes until it turns golden brown.
• When it’s baked, take it out and cut the puff pastry into three equal size pieces.
• Place the pieces on a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely.
• Vanilla Custard
• Place all ingredients in a pot. Over medium-low heat, stir mixture until it thickens. Mine took about 5-6 minutes.
• Transfer to a heat proof container, place a piece of cling wrap directly on top of the custard while cooling down.
• Icing
• Add 1 cup of icing sugar, 1 tbsp of plant-based milk, 1 tsp of lemon juice and 1 tsp of vanilla extract to a bowl and mix together until there are no lumps.
• Chocolate Paste
• In a small bowl, mix cacao powder and milk until there are no lumps.
• Assembling the Mille Feuille
• Spread the icing onto one of the puff pastry piece, then pipe stripes of chocolate onto it. Using a toothpick, create the chevron pattern by dragging the tool across the chocolate stripes in alternating directions. Set aside to set.
• Now, pick up one of the two remaining puff pastry pieces, pipe the custard to it. Then add another layer of puff pastry (with no icing) on top.
• Repeat step 2, and place the puff pastry with icing on top.