CHEF TONY SAYS: This week I’m whipping up a mouth-watering and melt-in-the-mouth mille-feuille.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Mille-feuille

Ingredients

400g white chocolate
600ml double cream
50g icing sugar
Ready rolled puff pastry cut into what ever shape you fancy
400g raspberries
100g castor sugar

50g dark/milk chocolate for decoration if you want

Instructions

You can do these two steps in advance earlier in the day or up to two days before if you want – just make sure you leave both to cool fully before placing compote in fridge and putting your pastry in an air tight container.

Preheat oven to 200c or the temperature suggested on your puff pastry packet. Cut your pastry into circles/squares/love hearts, whatever takes your fancy, I used rectangles for mine. You need two per serving, one top one, one bottom one.

Using two baking sheets that fit inside each other, layer one tray with baking paper. Add your pastry then another layer of baking paper then place the second baking tray on top. Cook in the oven for around 10-12 minutes. Check after 10 minutes and cook more if needed till golden brown.

While your pastry is cooking make your raspberry compote.

Use your own recipe if you have one or use a cookery book, up to you.

In a saucepan, heat up your raspberries (reserving some for garnishing) and your sugar. You may need a little more sugar depending on your raspberries/your sweet tooth. I’d start with about 75g and add more to taste.

Once the pastry is cooked and cooled down, melt 50g of white chocolate over simmering water. Once melted put in a piping bag with a tiny hole (I use disposable plastic ones that I can cut to requirement). Pipe over half the pastry slices in zigzags. You can repeat with dark/milk chocolate if you want the colour difference (you can do this in advance but the chocolate might go greyish, I’d do it as fresh as possible). Use the best-looking pastry slices for the decorated ones as they go on top.

Melt the rest of your white chocolate with 50g of cream over simmering water. While melting, whisk up the rest of the cream with the icing sugar till it forms soft peaks.

As your chocolate is melting if you keep taking it off the heat and stirring the chocolate won’t get to hot. You want to try to get it to finger temp and keep it there till melted (finger temp = if you can put finger in without it being too hot). If it’s to hot, leave to cool.

Add your chocolate mix to your whipped cream and whisk back to soft peaks. Taste for sweetness and add more icing sugar if needed (or, if you’re a complete chocoholic, melt and add more chocolate). Place in a piping bag with a star nozzle or plain if you don’t have one

Pipe cream around the edge of the bottom pastry slices, leaving a hole in he middle. In the hole put 1/2 raspberries and fill with compote. Place your decorated pastry slice on top, pipe a little of the cream on top and a few raspberries.

Present on a plate with some more whipped cream, raspberries and compote or raspberry couli.

 

Next week: Chef Tony reviews afternoon tea for kids at the DoubleTree Hilton in Manchester

 

PROPER FOOD FOR PROPER APPETITES
Each week, discover recipes to nourish the soul, all compiled and concocted by Chef Tony, a gastronome with 15 years’ of experience cooking across the North West. Chef Tony has worked in some of the region’s best kitchens, including the award-winning Nutters in Rochdale and The Lowry at Salford Quays.