• Pastry Cream
• In a saucepan, add the milk (1000 ml) and vanilla essence (2 tsp), and bring it to a boil.
• While the milk is heating, add the egg yolks (200 gs), caster sugar (240 gs), and cornstarch/corn flour (100 gs) in a bowl , and whisk until everything is well combined. This process is called blanching.
• Once the milk has boiled, temper the eggs* by adding 1/2 of the hot milk into the egg mixture and whisk continuously for 2 minutes. If you don’t whisk properly, the heat of the milk will cook and scramble the eggs.
• Once the eggs have been tempered, return the milk saucepan to the heat on a medium flame and pour the egg mixture into the saucepan while whisking continuously.* Keep whisking the mixture continuously to stop the eggs from scrambling. Let the mixture come to a boil, then keep whisking* until it becomes thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. This usually takes about 3 minutes of mixing after the cream has come to a boil.
• Once thickened, tale the cream off the heat and add the cold butter (50 gs). Whisk the butter into the cream, then transfer it to a heat-proof bowl and cover it with cling film to let it cool. Make sure that the cling film is touching the surface of the cream to avoid the formation of a milk skin on the cream.
• Let the cream cool in the fridge for 2-3 hours before using. I would recommend making it a day before and letting it set overnight.

Baklava Layers

• Make the filling: Grind dark chocolate (200 gs) and pistachios (100 gs) until they are crushed but now powdered, you want them to maintain a little crunchiness of the nuts.
• If you want to make round baklava layers, cut the defrosted filo pastry into rounds using any dish or cookie. If you don’t have a big enough cutter, you can use any round dish to line it and cut using knife, it doesn’t have to be perfect! You can also skip this step and use the filo pastry as it is in rectangle shape. You can cut it as per your liking, they taste the same either way!
• Place a layer of the filo pastry, then spread melted butter on it using a pastry brush. Make sure to properly cover every corner of the pastry, but don’t drench it in butter. Spread a thin layer of butter across the pastry.
• Place the second layer of pastry on top of the butter. The butter will help the two layers of filo stick to each other. Try to align each layer of pastry as much as possible, and remove any air bubbles in the process. Repeat the process → filo → butter → filo until you reach 7 filo pastry layers.
• On the 7th filo pastry layer, spread another thin layer of melted butter, then sprinkle a layer of the chocolate and pistachio nut filling on top, about 2-3 tbsps.
• Then follow the same process of filo → melted butter → filo for 7 more layers of pastry. Make sure that the top layer of pastry is also covered with melted butter.
• Bake the baklava for 12-15 minutes, until it’s golden brown. Turn the baklava mid-way while baking to make sure it browns evenly.
• Pour sugar syrup on the baklava as soon as it comes out of the oven (recipe below).
• This process will make one layer of baklava. Repeat the process for the remaining layers. I have made 4 total layers of baklava for this dessert as I wanted to make it party size. However, you can reduce the number of layers as per your liking.

Sugar Syrup

• In a saucepan, add the sugar (300 gs) and water (200 gs) and mix it until the sugar is slightly dissolved.
• Put the saucepan on high heat and bring the sugar water to a boil, then reduce the heat and cook for 10-15 minutes, until the syrup becomes thick and sticky.

Assembly

• Take the pastry cream out of the fridge and give it a quick whisk to smoothen it out, then transfer it into a piping bag with a piping tip of your choice.
• To assemble the baklava mille feuille, place a layer of the sugar syrup-soaked baklava, then pipe a layer of the pastry cream. Top the pastry cream layer with the next layer of baklava, then repeat the process until all the baklava layers have been placed.
• Top the final baklava layer with pastry cream in a decorative way, then sprinkle some pistachios on top and decorate it any way you like!