Custard Cream Pastry

I have been procrastinating to bake millefeuille, meaning thousand leaves, because I was afraid that I’d get disappointed if the puff pastry didn’t rise, also I was more interested in playing tennis in the sun than to stay in-door to bake ;). Well, I think I have put it off long enough, it’s time to confront it!
Millefeuille, is a traditional French pastry (also known as Napoleon) made of 3 layers of puff pastry filled with pastry cream, glazed with fondant in alternate white icing and brown chocolate strips. I cut out the puff pastry that I’d prepared the night before into the shapes that I wanted and put it in the pre-heated oven, and prayed… yes, it rose! I was happy but it wasn’t perfect, part of the sides were sticking together even though I was careful not to press the pastry down when cutting it. But the layers inside were beautiful. In fact, it puffed up so high in the middle that I thought rather than layering it, I’d cut it open and put the pastry cream inside instead. Then I dribbled some lemon syrup cooked with a touch of balsamic vinegar on top, and garnished with pineapple on the side. Well, I started with the intention of making millefeuille but I ended up with a different dessert! It’s all an impromptu mix and match using whatever ingredients I could find in my fridge. I would have used figs or berries if I’d had them, but pineapple was fine too, the combination worked and it was refreshing and light! Thought it was too early to have dessert at 10AM we still ended up having 3 pieces each! Oh well, it’s Sunday, normal rules don’t apply ;)