Vanilla Slice

Submitted by: Rachel Smuts

Ingredients

• 2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 1 cup caster sugar (King Arthur’s Baker’s Special Sugar)
• 1 cup corn flour
• 1/2 cup custard powder (King Arthur’s Quick and Easy Pastry Cream Mix)
• 3 cup milk
• 1 1/4 c. thickened cream
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425°. Lightly grease a 9 in. square cake pan and line with baking paper.
2. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Bake pastry sheets for 10-12 minutes until golden. Gently flatten pastry with hand. Trim pastry sheets to fit base of prepared cake pan. Lay 1 sheet in pan.
3. In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, corn flour and custard powder. Combine milk and cream in a bowl. Add a little to the sugar mixture to form a paste. Blend remaining milk mixture into sugar mixture, stirring until smooth.
4. Add butter and bring to the boil on medium, stirring. Reduce heat to very low and simmer, stirring, for 4-5 minutes until mixture is thick and smooth. Remove from heat. Add egg yolks and vanilla bean paste. Pour over pastry sheet. Top with remaining sheet. Chill for 1 hour.

Icing

• 2 1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 1/2 Tablespoons butter
• 3 Tablespoon passion fruit pulp

Combine powdered sugar and butter in a small heatproof bowl. Stir in enough passion fruit pulp to make a smooth paste. Place over a saucepan of simmering water, and heat gently, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until mixture is a spreadable consistency. Spread over pastry. Chill for 30 minutes until set. Cut into squares to serve.

This slice is best made the day before serving. Line base and 2 sides of cake pan with 1 piece of baking paper. Repeat with remaining 2 slides. These will act as levers when removing slice.