Berry Cream Pastry Stack

by Barry Lewis

Ingredients

4 sheets puff pastry
1 litre double cream
2 vanilla pods
2 tbsp icing sugar
600g mixed berries
100ml apple juice
2tbsp icing sugar (for fruit in pan)
Extra icing sugar to dust

An absolutely gorgeous, yet simple dessert for you to try combining layers of puff pastry with vanilla cream and mixed berries topped with more berries and a good dusting of icing sugar, so simple yet very impressive!

Start off by rolling out your pastry into rectangles, use a small baking tin as a template and cut around it. Place the pastry on a lined larger baking sheet, cover with another sheet of pastry, then place the baking tin on top of the baking parchment that you used for a template (sounds weird, stick with it). Bake for 20 minutes at 200c/gas6/400f, remove from the oven, flip the pastry over and bake for 5 minutes more with the tray on top again. Remove and allow to cool.

Meanwhile whip the cream with an electric whisk until thickened, add in the seeds of a vanilla pod and 50g icing sugar, whisk through until the cream is very thick, place in the fridge for the moment.

In a saucepan combine the majority of your fruit, leaving a little to top the stack at the end. Cook on a low heat, adding in a dusting of icing sugar (about 2 tablespoons) and the apple juice, let this simmer down and soften the fruit. Remove from the heat and mash with a potato masher. Allow to cool.

Stack the sheets of pastry one at a time with a layer of cream and the berry mixture cooled from the saucepan, repeat until you have one pastry sheet remaining. Leave this one cream free and decorate the tops with the leftover fruit and another dusting of icing sugar. Delicious!