Raspberry and Orange Mille Feuille with Passion Fruit Curd

You've seen before how my attempts at fine and elegant French sweets turn out, which is why I was very pleased with how these turned out. I like how they look overstuffed, I like how they look like they're about to topple over and I like how they don't look rigid and perfect, they look home-made and welcoming. I also kept my expectations low, because expectation versus reality is painful, so its das Leben.

Mille Feuille itself is a type of French Patisserie, literally 'thousand leaves' made of (shop-bought #thug life) puff pastry and layers of whatever you like, I used an orangey cream, raspberries and an amazing passion fruit curd which makes plenty of leftovers.

1)Prepare the passion fruit curd. At this time of year, passion fruits are tart and dry, so this is a great way of using them up. I found lots are on offer because they are poorer quality now. Scoop out the seeds of 6-8 passion fruit, and drop them into a blender with the juice of about half an orange. Blend them to loosen them, but don't break up the seeds too much. Combine this pulp with 60g of cornflour to a paste. Boil 600ml water, then pour into the paste. It will go really thick right away. Return to the pan and add 4 egg yolks and 175g caster sugar. Stir while heating gently and add more sugar to taste. Leave to cool.

2)Roll out some puff pastry, I use jus-rol because they have a good buttery tast,  that's come to room temperature, to about 3mm rectangle, and then cut the long side into 4, and the short side three so you have 12 small rectangles. Pile them into 4 piles of 3, and trim the edges to make them more even, then place on a baking sheet dusted with icing sugar and then prick gently with a fork and dust with more sugar. Bake at 200 degrees until golden brown and very puffed up. Leave to cool.

4)Whisk 150ml double cream with a tablespoon of icing sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and the zest of one orange, where all the flavour is. Whip until quite thick, but not dry. Place in a piping bag fitted with whatever nozzle you fancy.

5)To assemble, take a pastry layer and gently press it down with the palm of your hand to flatten, which seems a dreadful shame but necessary nonetheless. Blob it with tall blobs of cream, about 6 per sheet and put three raspberries in-between each blob. Place with another sheet and spread thickly with the curd, then pop some more raspberries on and fix the top layer on. Dust with more icing sugar to finish.