Mil Hojas a Father’s Day Dessert

June 10, 2019 SouthAmerica

Mil Hojas (One Thousand sheets) pastry dessert

Mil hojas pastry dessert is something that Peruvians are very familiar with. This delicious dessert goes perfect with a cappuccino or a regular cup of coffee. When we were living in Huancayo it was always a treat to go to a bakery and enjoy a fresh Mil Hojas with a cappuccino topped with fresh Chantilly cream. Years later we remember those days and although I don’t consider even trying to get down to how they made that original Mil Hojas. My husband kept telling me that he wanted to see the hojas as he used to back in Peru. This is not easy task.

Finally, I decided to try a quicker and simpler way of making the dessert- after all we can always find “puff pastry” at any supermarket. I tried what they suggested on the package and the puff pastry exploded! I was having problems trying to keep the pastry DE-puffed. After several tries, I noticed that after certain time of 8 to 10 minutes to be precise I did not want the pastry to puff any more. Then I remembered how when baking a pie crust its best to add some weight to it. Luckily for me I have two baking sheets that are the same size and weight. I used one to bake the pastry first and once it reached the size I wanted, I put the second baking sheet on top to prevent it from expanding more, and Voila! It worked.

The final steps are relatively easy, we are using Dulce de Leche as filling and top it off with some powder sugar to make it look the way we like. This recipe is easy enough and fun to make.

Ingredients:

1 package of puff pastry

Dulce de leche

Powder sugar

Fruit as garnish (optional)

Preparation:

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Lay the puff pastry over a cutting board and cut rectangles of about 2 inches by 3 inches in size. We are going to layer three rectangles per serving. Arrange the rectangles on a cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Then place the second cookie sheet on top and bake for another 10 minutes. Finally remove the top cookie sheet and bake for 5 more minutes paying close attention to it because they can burn very easily.

Transfer to a board, let them cool a bit, grab one rectangle and top it off with Dulce de leche, spreading it evenly across the surface. Place pastry rectangle on top of this and repeat. Finally, top it off with powder sugar. This Mil Hojas goes very well with raspberries.

Happy Father’s Day!