Custard Squares
Author: 
Recipe type: Cakes/Slice
Cuisine: New Zealand/Australian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 16
 
Custard Squares - puff pastry sandwiched with vanilla custard and topped with passionfruit icing.
Ingredients
  • 500g (1lb) puff pastry, thawed
  • 1½ cups thickened cream
  • 1½ cups full-cream milk
  • ⅔ cup castor (superfine) sugar
  • 60g unsalted butter, chopped
  • 2 vanilla beans, scraped
  • ⅓ cup cornflour
  • ½ cup water
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 3 tsps powdered gelatine
  • For the Icing:
  • 2 cups icing sugar
  • pulp from 2 passionfruit (or 1 large panama passionfruit)
  • 2 tsp softened butter
Instructions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 180C (375F).
  2. Grease and line a 23cm square tin, making sure the paper sits high enough over the sides to easily remove the slice from the tin.
  3. Divide pastry in two then roll until around 3mms thickness. Pastry needs to be around 26cm square because it shrinks during the cooking process - you need it to end up at least 23cm square.
  4. Place pastry on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Prod with the tines of a fork to prevent pastry from puffing too much.
  5. Weight down the pastry with another baking tray to stop the pastry puffing too much.
  6. Place in the oven for 15 minutes then remove extra baking tray and return to oven for 5 more minutes or until pastry becomes golden.
  7. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Cut each sheet of pastry into 23cm squares so they fit perfectly into the cake tin.
  8. For the Custard:
  9. Place cream, milk, sugar, butter and vanilla beans into a medium-sized saucepan. Bring to the boil then remove from heat. Combine cornflour and water and stir to make a paste. Add to the saucepan with the egg yolks and whisk until smooth.
  10. Mix the gelatine with a little water. When it becomes a paste, add to the saucepan.
  11. Return saucepan to the heat and return to the boil and continue to stir until custard thickens - about 1 minute.
  12. Remove from heat.
  13. For the Icing:
  14. Combine icing sugar, passionfruit pulp and butter in a small bowl and stir until well combined.
  15. To Assemble:
  16. Place 1 square of pastry into the bottom of the prepared tin. Pour custard over the top. Top with second pastry sheet. Use a spatula to spread icing over the top of the top layer of pastry. Place in fridge overnight or four at least four hours to give custard time to harden.
  17. Cut into 16 squares.
  18. Serve all by itself.
Recipe by Hotly Spiced at https://hotlyspiced.com/custard-squares/