Light Vanilla Mille-feuille

📝 Ingredients

• 1 sheet of ready-rolled rectangular puff pastry (about 230 g)
• 400 ml semi-skimmed milk
• 2 eggs
• 40 g cornflour
• 60 g caster sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 200 g plain 0% skyr
• 15 g icing sugar

🍴 Utensils

• 2 baking trays + baking paper
• Saucepan
• Mixing bowl
• Whisk
• Piping bag
• Serrated knife

📖 Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C. Unroll the puff pastry onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, prick it all over with a fork, then cut it lengthways into 3 strips of equal width. Space them 2 cm apart.
2. Cover the strips with a second sheet of baking paper, then the second baking tray: the weight stops the pastry from puffing up and keeps it thin. Bake for 15 min, remove the top tray and bake for another 5 to 8 min, until the pastry is golden and dry. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
3. Meanwhile, make the cream: heat the milk with the vanilla extract over a medium heat until it just starts to simmer. In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the caster sugar and cornflour for 1 min, until smooth and lump-free.
4. Pour the hot milk in a thin stream over the mixture, whisking constantly, then pour everything back into the saucepan. Cook over a medium heat, whisking continuously and scraping the bottom and sides: the cream thickens suddenly after 2 to 3 min. Let it bubble for 1 more min to cook the cornflour properly.
5. Immediately transfer the cream to a cold dish, cover with cling film touching the surface (the film must touch the cream, or a skin will form) and leave to cool in the fridge for 1 h. It must be well chilled before adding the skyr, or it will turn runny.
6. Whisk the cold cream for 30 seconds to make it smooth, then fold in the skyr with a spatula until evenly combined. Fill the piping bag (or, failing that, a freezer bag with one corner snipped off).
7. Place one pastry strip on the serving dish and cover it with half the cream, piped in small, tightly packed dots. Add the second strip, the rest of the cream, then the last strip, keeping the nicest one for the top. Dust with icing sugar through a small sieve.
8. Chill in the fridge for 30 min so the cream firms up, then cut into 6 slices with a serrated knife, sawing gently without pressing down, so you don't crush the pastry. Eat the same day: the pastry softens in contact with the cream.