Matt’s First Mille-feuille

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When I reread my journal entries from my high school European vacation, I can see a common theme throughout all of them: food. (It runs in the family.) I wrote about it more than I wrote about boys, which, for a 15-year-old girl, is saying something. In fact, I believe I wrote about almost every meal I had — every breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even some mid-day snacks. European food took my American taste buds for a joy ride.

Matt at the pâtisserie

My boyfriend Matt can confirm that my enthusiasm for describing the things I eat, in great detail, is still alive and well. Fortunately, he was able to get a taste of what I’ve been shamelessly raving about during his visit to Aix this weekend.

For my last blog post, I went to La Boutique du Glacier to photograph my favorite mille-feuille. I took Matt there with a little anticipation, as if he were meeting an old friend of mine who I talk about all the time, because, really, I talk about the mille-feuille all the time. What if they didn’t like each other?

According to the mille-feuille Wikipedia page:

Traditionally, a mille-feuille is made up of three layers of puff pastry (pâte feuilletée), alternating with two layers of pastry cream (crème pâtissière), but sometimes whipped cream, or jam are substituted. The top pastry layer is dusted with confectioner’s sugar, and sometimes cocoa, or pulverized nuts (e.g. roasted almonds). Alternatively the top is glazed with icing or fondant in alternating white (icing) and brown (chocolate) stripes, and combed.

Um … yes, please. Merci beaucoup.

Right there in the middle. That's the stuff.

I suppose I really had nothing to worry about. After seeing this, he was as happy as a kid in a candy … well, pastry shop.

The full mille-feuille

Preparing for demolition.

There's no way to stop after the first bite.

Happily stuffed with sugar

And the result? Even with all my hype, he still thought it was fantastic. Another mille-feuille believer in my happy cult of French pastry lovers.