Chocolate bramble mille-feuille recipe

This chocolate bramble mille-feuille recipe takes its cue from the dessert Ruth Hansom served to win National Chef of the Year 2026: dark chocolate, olive oil and foraged bramble, built on crisp puff pastry.

Hansom's version was judged live at Le Cordon Bleu London; this is Amuse Kitchen's own reading of the idea for a home kitchen, not her recipe reproduced. The technical thread worth borrowing is the olive oil: whisked into chocolate ganache, it keeps the filling soft enough to pipe and eat cold, instead of setting hard the way a butter ganache does.

Bramble is simply the old English word for blackberry, and here it is cooked down hard and fast, so some berries hold their shape against the rich chocolate.

The olive oil keeps the ganache soft enough to pipe and eat cold, instead of setting hard.

Ingredients

• 320 g all-butter puff pastry, ready-rolled
• 3 tbsp icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
• 200 g dark chocolate (70%), finely chopped
• 200 ml double cream
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 250 g blackberries
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• A pinch of sea salt flakes

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan). Roll the pastry to 3mm if needed, prick it all over, then sandwich it between two sheets of baking paper and two baking trays. The weight stops it puffing unevenly, so you get thin, crisp sheets rather than one tall pillow of dough.
2. Bake for 20-25 minutes until deep golden. Dust generously with icing sugar and return to the oven, or a hot grill, for 2-3 minutes to caramelise the surface, which gives the top layer its shine and snap. Cool completely.
3. Cut into 12 even rectangles, about 4cm by 8cm, using a serrated knife in one firm stroke rather than sawing, which would shatter the layers.
4. Heat the cream to a simmer and pour it over the chopped chocolate. Leave for 2 minutes, then whisk in the olive oil a little at a time until glossy. Chill for 30 minutes, until firm enough to pipe.
5. Simmer the blackberries, caster sugar and lemon juice for 8-10 minutes until jammy, crushing gently with a fork partway through so some berries stay whole. Cool, then add the salt.
6. Pipe dots of ganache over a pastry rectangle, add small spoonfuls of bramble between them, then top with a second rectangle and repeat. Finish with a pastry lid dusted with icing sugar, and chill for 15 minutes before slicing so the layers hold together.

A technique worth keeping

The olive oil ganache is the part to remember beyond this one dessert: it works the same way folded through any dark chocolate mousse or tart filling that needs to stay soft under refrigeration. Read more on Ruth Hansom's winning menu at National Chef of the Year 2026.

A fruity, peppery olive oil, used both in the ganache and as a last-minute drizzle, does more for the dish than a neutral one. Serve with a small glass of Pedro Ximénez sherry, whose raisined sweetness matches the cooked bramble without fighting the chocolate.

Can the layers be made ahead? Bake and caramelise the pastry up to two days ahead and store it airtight at room temperature; make the ganache and bramble compote a day ahead and chill separately, then assemble no more than an hour before serving so the pastry stays crisp.