I just had to make some fun pink peach desserts whenever white peach season rolls around. It’s so fun to take the peach peels, turn those into a simple syrup, and then simmering white peaches in those until they take on the pink color from the syrup itself. They are such a pretty garnish, and one that I wanted to feature in the form of a mille feuille! A mille feuille, French for “thousand leaves” or “layers”, is a French pastry that consists of layers of baked puff pastry and usually a sweet cream. Fruit, typically berries, is also used as a garnish throughout the layers, just to add color and freshness. In this case, I went with the pink peach as my fruit of choice, just to add a pleasant color. Whenever Pinktober rolls around, I always want to bring my Pink dessert game whichever way I can, in honor of my mom being a breast cancer survivor. I also strongly associate white peaches with my mom, because she would pick them for us from our backyard during the summer, when white peaches are usually in season!

For this recipe, it really is all about the puff pastry and the peaches. The puff pastry, I made from scratch, with a rough puff method. Traditional puff pastry requires you to make a block of butter, and gently and repeatedly fold that into a flour dough to laminate it, creating the flaky layers. With a rough puff, you start with giant chunks of butter into a flour dough, and still gently fold it. It is a slightly faster progress(1 1/2 hours vs 2 to 3), but it gets generally similar results. With the pink peaches, those do also take a bit of time to make too; I marinated the simmered peaches in the syrup overnight, just to guarantee that they took on a gorgeous pink color – the peaches honestly looked like guava or grapefruit in color! I layered up the mille feuille with a creme fraiche bavarois, or a set egg custard that is lightened with cream. In this case, I went with creme fraiche, or French sour cream, just because it adds a tang to keep the whole dessert from being too sweet.

Makes 4 mille feuille:
For the rough puff pastry:
2 sticks unsalted butter, cubed and frozen solid
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups + 2 tbsp cold water
2 tbsp white or apple cider vinegar
a pinch of salt
1 egg
roughly 1/4 cup confectioner’s/powdered sugar

In a bowl, toss the butter with flour, just making sure that every cube is coated in flour. In another container, mix the water, vinegar, and salt together. Pour the vinegar-water mixture into the flour, and stir until the flour begins to form a dough that has large chunks of butter in it – you do NOT want the dough to be fully smooth. Refrigerate this dough for 20 minutes. Then on a floured surface, roll out the dough to be roughly 12 inches by 4 inches in size. Fold the dough brochure style (so in thirds), and rotate it 90 degrees. Freeze for another 30 minutes, and then repeat the rolling out, folding, and freezing steps one more time. Roll out the dough to be roughly 12 inches by 18 inches and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, covered. On a floured surface, cut out 3-inch squares – for half of these, I cut out 1-inch squares to be a little cut out. Place the pieces of pastry onto a lined sheet tray. Place a sheet of parchment/silpat on top of the pastry, as well as another sheet tray. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes. Then remove the sheet tray and top layer of parchment. Brush the tops of the pastry with egg yolk and dust on top of that some powdered sugar. Then return to the oven for another 10 minutes, still at 375 degrees F. Allow the pastry to fully cool before attempting to use.

For the pink peaches:
1 white peach, peeled(reserve peels), pitted, and sliced
1/4 cup water, plus more for storing the raw white peaches
a pinch of salt, plus more for storing the raw white peaches
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

Start by cooking down your peach peels with sugar, water, salt, and lemon juice until the liquid is cooked down by half. Gently simmer the peach slices in the pink syrup for 10 seconds, storing the slices in an airtight container and allow them to cool down in the syrup as well.

For the creme fraiche bavarois:
1/4 cup whole milk
2 egg yolks
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp gelatin powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
4oz creme fraiche

In a pot, heat up the whole milk to a simmer. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and gelatin first. Pour half of the milk into the egg yolks, while whisking. Then pour the egg yolks back into the milk and whisk everything until the solids are all dissolved into the milk. Pour the egg mixture through a sieve to remove lumps, and fold into that the creme fraiche. Allow the mixture to refrigerate for 1 hour before attempting to transfer to a piping bag.