What Is a Pistachio Mille-Feuille? Anatomy of Our Most-Filmed Pastry

Three layers of caramelised puff pastry, two of pistachio cream, and a crown of crushed nuts. Why the pistachio mille-feuille became the pastry Alexandria cannot stop filming, and how to eat one properly.

Mille-feuille means a thousand leaves. The name describes the pastry: puff dough folded and rolled until it bakes into hundreds of paper-thin, shattering layers. At Délices the classic vanilla version has been on the counter for a century. The pistachio version is the one that travels on phones.

The three parts

First, the pastry. Puff dough is laminated with butter, rested, baked between trays so it rises evenly, then dusted with sugar and returned to the oven until the top caramelises to a deep amber. Done well, it is crisp enough to crack when you press it. Second, the cream: a pastry cream folded with pistachio paste, pale green and nutty rather than sweet. Third, the finish: chopped pistachio on top, nothing else.

Why pistachio

Pistachio has always belonged to this coast. It is the nut of baklava and of Greek and Levantine sweets, so a pistachio cream inside a French pastry is not a fusion so much as a homecoming. The green against the amber is also, frankly, why it films so well.

How to eat one

Not with a fork from the top; it will collapse. Turn it on its side and cut down through the layers with a knife, or simply pick it up. It is best within a few hours of assembly, while the pastry is still crisp, which is why we assemble through the day rather than in the morning.

A thousand leaves, two creams, one afternoon in Alexandria.

For occasions

For weddings and galas we build the mille-feuille into the dessert pavilion as individual portions, assembled on site so each one is crisp. Ask about it when you plan an occasion with us.