Wilfully Mille Feuilly
An achievable, multi-layered strawberry and tahini pud...
Some months ago I added “strawberry and tahini” to the Google Keep note on my phone on which I scrawl down recipe ideas. I didn’t know what it would mean yet, but I had got it in my head that the combination would work a treat. So today I offer up: Strawberry Tahini Mille Feuille. It’s made with shop-bought puff pastry and doesn’t take anywhere near as long as you might think to make. Hope you like it!
Obviously I am not a pastry expert. I am as sure of that as I am that Superstar by The Carpenters has the greatest key-change of all time. Which is to say: certain. But with each passing month, I seem to develop a higher tolerance for sugar, and that has lead to some experimenting in the dessert department.
Some recipes come to you in the moment, out of necessity, or a scarcity of ingredients. Others are the result of a good old-fashioned brainstorm. This is one of those. I sadly can’t remember where I was when I decided strawberry and tahini are made to be together, but I now know it to be true.
How I would combine summer’s largest berry with that sticky sesame paste was all I needed to work out. A cake could work, or my latest obsession: pannacotta? But I wanted more texture. Maybe a roulade was what was in order? But I didn’t want the tahini to get lost in a sponge, or play a supporting role. The idea of something billowing, like tahini mousse or custard got me excited, but tahini is rich, so the quantities of such a substance needed to make sense.
I recalled an epic mille feuille I’d seen in Nicola Lamb’s Kitchen Projects:
A mille feuille could stand tall and high, with dollops of strawberry coulis, tahini custard, whipped cream, and slices of strawberry bringing the whole thing freshness. It could house many and varied elements. And if I used my old friend agar agar, then the custard wouldn’t need to rely on hours of setting. I’d never made a mille feuille, and I’m sure as hell no Nicola Lamb, but that didn’t matter! Those who know me might know that I have tried to own a catchphrase, and that catchphrase is: I’m not scared. I’m not scared of recipes I’ve never made before. And I hope you won’t be either!
