Mille-feuille

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A mille-feuille pastry

A mille-feuille pastry that has combed glazing

Italian Millefoglie with filled with pastry cream and garnished with strawberries and powdered sugar

The Mille-feuille (French pronunciation: [mil fœj], "thousand-leaf"), Napoleon (U.S.), vanilla slice, cream slice or custard slice (Commonwealth countries) is a pastry made of several layers of puff pastry alternating with a sweet filling, typically pastry cream, but sometimes whipped cream, or jam. It is usually glazed with icing or fondant in alternating white and brown (chocolate) strips, and combed. The name is also written as "millefeuille" and "mille feuille".

There are also savory mille-feuilles with cheese and spinach or other fillings.

Variant names and forms

In Australia, it is called a "vanilla slice" and is filled with vanilla custard. It usually has only a top and bottom pastry layer. The sweet is often dusted with icing sugar, or topped with a plain or passionfruit flavoured icing.

In Italy, it is called mille foglie and contains similar fillings. A savory Italian version consists of puff pastry filled with spinach, cheese or pesto, among other things.

In the Commonwealth (Canada excepted), mille-feuille is known as ‘vanilla slice’, ‘cream slice’ or "snot block" and usually has only a top and bottom pastry layer. The filling is often flavored with chocolate. Other popular icings include vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, raspberry, and passionfruit. In New Zealand, it is usually called a ‘custard square.’ In Canada, mille-feuille is the more common name, as well as "Napoleon", due to the country's long French history. In South Africa it is called a "custard slice".

In Sweden as well as in Finland the Napoleonbakelse (Napoleon pastry) is a mille-feuille filled with whipped cream, custard, and jam. The top of the pastry is glazed with icing and currant jelly. In Denmark and Norway it is simply called Napoleon-cake. ^[1]

The Netherlands and Belgium eat the tompoes or tompouce. Several variations exist in Belgium, but in the Netherlands, it is iconic and the market allows preciously little variation in form, size, ingredients and colour. See tompouce.

In Spain the puff pastry is thin and crunchy and the filling is only crème fraîche. It separates the puff pastry layers several times. They can reach up to half foot tall and can be found in most pastries. They are called milhojas.

History

The origin of the mille-feuille is unknown. François Pierre de La Varenne described it in his book "Cuisinier françois" in 1651. It was improved later by Marie-Antoine Carême. Carême (writing at the end of the 18th century) considered it of 'ancient origin'. It was earlier called "gâteau de mille-feuilles" 'cake of a thousand leaves'.

Origin of the name 'Napoleon'

The cake was first prepared in Russia in 1912 around the anniversary of the failed attempt by Napoleon to invade Russia. The Russians, well known for their dark sense of humour, named the cake 'Napoleon': it was made in the shape of a triangle to represent Napoleon's hat, a bicorne.

In France, a Napoléon is a kind of mille-feuille filled with almond paste.

Competitions

An annual competition for the best vanilla slice baker is the Great Australian Vanilla Slice Triumph held in Ouyen in western Victoria (Australia). Judging criteria include "when tasted, should reveal a custard with a creamy smooth texture and a balance of vanilla taste with a crisp, crunchy pastry topped with a smooth and shiny glaze/fondant". ^[2]

Popular culture

• In the popular Disney release of Ratatouille, Emile is seen jumping out of a mille feuille pastry in the beginning scene of the movie.

• The time-travel card game Early American Chrononauts includes a tongue-in-cheek card called Napoleon's Napoleon which players can symbolically acquire from the year 1815.

• On the cd label for the 1998 Sonic Youth album A Thousand Leaves the phrase "mille feuille" is crossed out and "a thousand leaves" is written under it.

• Milfeulle Sakuraba is a character in the anime Galaxy Angel. She is highly skilled in cooking, but especially enjoys making pastries and other desserts.

• In the Woody Allen film Love and Death, Napoleon berated his chefs for a pastry attempt at a Napoleon (they'd included raisins, among other things). Napoleon declared himself in competition with Wellington, who was "inventing" Beef Wellington.

• In the Brian De Palma film Dressed To Kill, Angie Dickinson's character explains to her son (played by Keith Gordon) the (apocryphal) origin of the Napoleon pastry's name—that Napoleon baked as a hobby when he wasn't fighting and named the pastry he invented after himself.

• In the video game Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, the cake is the most expensive one when found in the hidden bakery of the City of Haze, at $50 per single payment. It will reappear on sale once the player consumes it, but is also found again in another hidden bakery later on in 13th Street.

• In the video game For the Frog the Bell Tolls, The Princess Tiramisu lives in the Mille-Feuille kingdom.

• In the Korean drama My Lovely Sam Soon, the main character Kim Sam Soon makes a Mille-Feuille pastry with raspberries in Episode 8.

• In Azumanga Daioh Episode 25, Chiyo serves millefeuille to her classmates who are in the main cast.

• In the Dead or Alive video game series, Kasumi's favorite food is listed as Strawberry Mille-Feuille.

• "Thousand Leaves" is also the name of a book by Kevin Frane.

Alternative names

A mille-feuille pastry (Photo taken in Japan)

Names for the mille-feuille pastry in other languages:

• In Arabic "ميل فى" [mīlfī]
• In Bulgarian "Наполеон" ('Napoleon')
• In Chinese "拿破侖" ('Napoleon')
• In Dutch "tompoes", (or En:Tompouce) and in Belgium, near the French-Dutch language boundary also "mille-feuille", pronounced [meˈfəj].
• In Danish Napoleonsterte ('Napoleons Cake')
• In New Zealand "Custard square"
• In English (Australia) "Vanilla slice"
• In English (Australian Slang) "Snot Block" ^[3]
• In English (U.K.) "Vanilla slice" or "Cream slice"
• In English (U.S.) "Napoleon"
• In Estonian "Napoleoni kook" or "napoleonikook" ('Napoleon's cake')
• In Filipino "Napoleones" is a similar pastry made in the western Visayas region of the country
• In Finnish "Napoleonin leivos"
• In French "Mille-feuille" ('Thousand sheets')^[4]
• In German "Cremeschnitte" ('cream slice'); the dough is "Blätterteig" ('sheet dough'); also "Napoleonschnitte"
• In Yiddish "קרם שניט" [kremʃnitte]
• In Hungarian "Francia krémes"
• In Italian "Millefoglie" ('Thousand sheets')
• In Japanese "ミルフィーユ" [mirɯfījɯ]
• In Lithuanian "Napoleono tortas" ('Napoleon's cake')
• In Norwegian "Napoleonskake" ('Napoleon's cake')
• In Polish "Napoleonka"
• In Portuguese "Mil-folhas" ('Thousand-sheets')
• In Romanian "Cremsnit" (from the German "Cremeschnitte")
• In Russian "Наполеон" ('Napoleon').
• In Spanish "Milhojas"
• In Swedish "Napoleonbakelse" ('Napoleon pastry')
• In Turkish "Milföy"

Sources

• Oxford Companion to Food
• Food Timeline, on the origin of the name Napoleon

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mille-feuille

1. ^ http://www.napoleonskake.com/Site/Napoleonskake.com.html
2. ^ "Travel news - The Great Australian Vanilla Slice Triumph". Ninemsn. 2006-07-20. http://travel.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=115656&n=0#headline1. Retrieved 2007-01-06. 
3. ^ Ordering a sanger? Word is there's a snag for the unwary - National - smh.com.au
4. ^ http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mille-feuille