Maple Bacon Mille Fuille FTW!

I made a Maple Bacon Mille Fuille for this past Sunday's Superbowl Party.  I think it was a great success, but you will have to try it out and see.

I guess I should start with a definition of a mille fuille, or napoleon.  A napoleon is a layered dessert that came from France (but with the vast knowledge of the world at your fingertips, google helped).  Traditionally it is 3 layers of puff pastry and 2 layers of pastry cream, but of course there are lots of different variations now.  My version had a Maple diplomat cream and some caramelized bacon with the 3 layers of puff pastry.

I made a Maple Diplomat Cream, or a Maple pastry cream that was folded into some whipped cream and some caramelized bacon to make the dessert.  The diplomat cream had just enough sweetness with the maple flavor to make it a dessert.  But the best part was the bacon.  I essentially made a bacon candy.  It was coated with sugar and then baked in the oven until the bacon was coated with a nice layer of candy.  It was sweet and bacon-y.  But I do have to say that I did cheat a little.  I used frozen puff pastry that I bought at the store instead of making my own.  Of course, making puff pastry can be done at home, but with all the layering of the butter and the dough, it takes some time.  But if the dough is made at home, I will say that the end result tastes a lot better than just using the store-bought stuff.

For the Diplomat Cream:

5 egg yolks
1 oz. corn starch
4 oz. sugar
16 oz milk
2 Tablespoon maple flavoring
2 cups heavy whipping cream

Scald the milk over medium heat, you should heat the milk until it starts to steam.  Mix the cornstarch and the sugar together to get the lumps out of the cornstarch and the sugar.  Then add the yolks to the mix and whisk.  Do not let the sugar sit on top of the yolks, or it will burn the yolks.  Once the milk is warmed, ladle some of the milk into the yolk mixture while whisking.  You want to temper the milk into the yolks without curdling the egg yolks.  Keep adding the milk into the egg yolks until about half has been added.  Then pour the mixture back into the pot and cook while stirring constantly, until thick.  It should end up at the consistency of pudding.  Add the extract last and mix until combined.  Place in a bowl with plastic wrap directly on top of the cream and refrigerate.  Meanwhile whip the cream until stiff, when the pastry cream is cooled all the way through, about 30 minutes, fold it into the whipped cream.


Caramelized Bacon:
Take the bacon and cover with sugar, then place bacon on a sheet tray with a sil-pat and bake until it is almost cooked through.  At this point take the tray out of the oven and sprinkle sugar onto the bacon.  Make sure that the bacon is covered on that side.  Bake until the sugar is melted and the bacon is crisp.
Chop up the bacon into small pieces so that you can put it into the Mille Fuille.

Mille Fuille
Take the puff pastry and thaw it, then take a fork and poke it all over evenly.  Take the puff pastry, and bake it until golden and flaky.  Then cut it into 3 equal sized portions.  Take two and place them on the plate, then pipe the diplomat cream over it, make sure to cover the both pieces, and it can be decorative or just lines, but make it even.  Sprinkle the caramelized bacon onto it then place one piece of the puff over the other.  Then cover with the last piece of puff pastry and dust with powdered sugar.  Freeze or refrigerate to stabilize the cream and serve.  Of course, the puff pastry pieces can be cut into individual serving sizes and then assembled, but the procedure should still be similar.

So that was my dessert for the weekend, and I felt like they were fighting over the 10 pieces that I could cut out of it.  I think I only have pictures of this dessert as it is being devoured or the empty plates that had held these desserts just a few minutes before.  Then I had an idea, since my friend was just eating the diplomat cream from the piping bag, I should just topped off all the pieces with even more of it.  As you can see in the picture above, we were using paper plates, and though it is a bit messy, it was delicious.  But I hope it is a dessert that everyone can enjoy.

Happy chomps and nibbles!