• Imagine a Christmas dessert that’s bursting with festive flavour and vegan-friendly! This vegan pistachio and lemon curd mille feuille with raspberries and toasted meringue has it all. Even those not on special diets will be begging for a piece. 

    Vegan pistachio and lemon curd mille feuille with raspberries and toasted meringue

    Serves: 6
    Cooking Time: 45 mins

    Ingredients

    • Vegan lemon curd

    • 60ml (4 tbsp) cornflour
    • 125ml (½ cup) coconut milk
    • 375ml (1½ cups) fresh lemon juice
    • 90ml castor sugar
    • zest of 2 lemons
    • drop yellow food colouring (optional)
    • Pastry

    • 400g frozen store-bought puff pastry, defrosted (Today’s puff pastry is vegan-friendly)
    • cake flour, to roll
    • icing sugar, to dust
    • Vegan meringue

    • 180ml (¾ cup) chickpea brine (from 1 tin)
    • 2 pinches (¼ tsp) cream of tartar
    • 2 pinches (¼ tsp) vanilla extract
    • 125ml (½ cup) icing sugar, sieved
    • To serve

    • 200g raspberry jam
    • 200g fresh raspberries, to garnish
    • 100g pistachios, chopped

    Instructions

    1

    For the lemon curd, dissolve the cornflour in 45ml (3 tbsp) coconut milk. In a small pot, whisk together the fresh lemon juice, the remaining coconut milk and the castor sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, 6 minutes. Add the lemon zest and cornflour mixture and stir continuously while simmering until it thickens, 2 – 3 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Tint the curd yellow, if desired. Spoon into a piping bag.

    2

    Preheat the oven to 220˚C (or 200˚C for fan-assisted ovens). Line 3 large baking trays with baking paper. Roll the pastry out on a floured surface and cut into 3 equal pieces.

    3

    Place each pastry rectangle on a lined baking tray. Dust heavily with icing sugar. Place a sheet of baking paper over each pastry rectangle and place a large baking sheet on top. Bake the pastry sheets, 15 – 20 minutes, or until crisp and golden brown. Set aside to cool. Once the pastry has cooled, cut 6 rectangles (12cm x 5cm) from each sheet of baked puff pastry, so as to be left with 18 pastry rectangles.

    4

    For the meringue, place the chickpea brine in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Reduce the brine until left with 125ml (½ cup) liquid, about 10 minutes. Set aside to cool down completely.

    5

    To assemble, place the cooled brine in the bowl of an electric stand mixer with the cream of tartar and vanilla extract. Beat until the mixture turns foamy and starts to form soft peaks. At this point, slowly add the 70g icing sugar, 60ml (4 tbsp) at a time. Continue to whip the mixture until it reaches stiff peaks. Place in a piping bag fitted with a star- or plain nozzle. Set aside 6 pastry rectangles (these will be the tops).

    6

    Spread a thin layer of raspberry jam over the remaining pastry rectangles. Snip the end off the piping bag with the lemon curd and pipe a blob in a corner of one of the pastry rectangles. Alternate the curd blobs with raspberries and continue piping curd with alternating raspberries until the pastry is covered. Sprinkle with the chopped pistachios. Repeat these steps with the remaining pastry rectangles.

    7

    Stack the rectangles on top of one another to have 6, double-layered pastries, topped with raspberries and lemon curd. Pipe the meringue onto the top layer of your mille-feuille. Toast the meringue with a kitchen blowtorch until golden (or briefly place it under a preheated grill, set on the highest setting if a blowtorch is not available).

    Notes

    Storage: The lemon curd and puff pastry rectangles can be made 2 – 3 days ahead of time. Whip the meringue just before your guests arrive and add to a piping bag.

    View more make-ahead Christmas desserts here:

    Gingerbread waffle ice-cream sandwiches with eggnog ice cream and maple syrup

    Frozen tiramisu mousse cake

    Milk tart éclair trifle with pinotage jelly and naartjie syrup

    Recipe, styling and photography by Katelyn Williams