Blackberry mille-feuille

My other half and I love going for long walks comes rain or shine. Mid summer I spotted loads of bramble heaped with blackberries. That in essence was not surprising to me, bramble bushes are 10 a penny around here, you even find them by the roundabout near my parents’ house, but I have always found that the “city” berries did not taste as good as the ones you buy in the supermarket, which is what I often resort to, reluctanlty paying £2 per 150g. But as our walks go deep in the New Forest and with all the sun that we had this year they were here early. So after a walk armed with an empty sandwich tub I started to pick them and in 5 minutes I had about 100g.

I was never going back to the supermarket. How can they charge so much for something that is widely found for free in the British Isles?

We got greedy, we soon realized that the really juicy ones were right at the back of the bushes. And that was when I realized why they charge so much for them: thorns. And not just one type of thorn. Big ones and then little needle pin thin ones barely visible but immensely painful. Not to mention the neetles surrounding them. “This is their evolutionary defense” my biologist fiancee says “so that only the evolutionary strong are able to be clever enoug to take their fruit and disseminate somewhere else.”

It then became a matter of pride to me, I was going to prove I could zigzag all around those nettles and disseminate good and proper cheesecake.

We filled up the tub, got over 300g and only used half on the cheesecake. As I licked my wounds and stings I felt those berries were special and I wanted to use them on a special bake.

Mille-feuille is one of my top patisserie picks, it’s a tough bake however James Martin made it less complicated and I fell in love with this recipe when I first tried it a couple years ago. As I have done it quite a few times the recipe has evolved a little from its original version. It can be made in very little time and it looks like a showstopper.

The pastry is homemade and, trust me guys, it is not hard. I made a big batch and froze the rest for a winter filled with mille-feuilles and pies.

Blackberry mille-feuille (makes 4 small)

For the flaky pastry (makes about 500g)

200g plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

100g lard, softened

100g butter, softened

150ml water

1 egg, beaten

For the filling:

150ml double cream

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp icing sugar

75ml custard (I used the little Ambrosia pot)

100g blackberries

Blackberry jam

Icing sugar to dust

1. For the pastry sieve the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Rub 25g of butter and 25g of lard into the flour and mix to a soft dough with the water.

2. Roll this pastry into a rectangle, dot another 25g of butter and 25g of lard on the top half of the rectangle, fold the bottom on top of this and roll the pastry out again. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes then repeat the process until all the fat is used up. Once finished cover and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. I only used about 200g of the pastry to make the mille-feuille.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Roll the pastry on a lightly floured surface and cut out 8 rectangles around 12x7cm and 0.25cm thick. Place them on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, and brush the top with egg wash. Bake in the over for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

3. Add the icing sugar and vanilla extract to the cream and beat until stiff, stir in the custard. Add a thin layer of jam on the cooled pastry slices and then a couple of tablespoons of the cream to 4 of the cooled pastry slices, carefully place the blackberries on top of the cream, sandwich with another pastry slice. Garnish with blackberries and dust generously with icing sugar.