A Luxurios Teatime Treat


  • Light flaky layers with some surprises between!

  • Serves 10-12

    • INGREDIENTS


    2tsp/10ml margarine
    1 lb/450g puff pastry
    little flour
    2oz/50g g cornflour
    1 pint/600ml milk
    1 vanilla pod
    4oz/125g caster sugar
    4 egg yolks
    4 oz/125g raspberry jam
    2 oz/50g raspberries
    8oz/225g icing sugar


    METHOD



    Preheat the oven to Mark 7/425'F/220'C, Grease 2 baking trays with margarine then sprinkle the trays with little water
    Roll out the pastry on lightly floured surface thin sheet, approximately 8 x 5in/20 x 15cm, Trim the edges and prick the pastry all over with a fork.
    to achieve neat sized pieces of pastry, a cardboard template is useful when culling out
    cut the pastry into 14 pieces each 4 x 2½in/10 x 6cm
    Place on prepared trays, close but not touching, to ensure even cooking. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden in colour.
    carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool
    when cold split each pastry slice horizontally through the middle into 2 or even 3 layers if the pastry is very well risen and flaky
    Dissolve cornflour in a little milk heat with vanilla and sugar bring to the boil turn off the heat and leave for 5 minutes to infuse, remove vanilla
    whisk together the cornflour milk and egg yolks. return to the pan and bring back to the boil cook gently stirring all the time, for about 2-3 minutes, or until thick
    cool custard throughly whisking occasionally to avoid a too thick, solid custard if necessary sieve the custard before use
    warm the jam slightly and mix in the raspberries halved cool the mixture
    slightly and spread over the bottom layer of pastry
    (reserve 1-2 tbsp/ 15-30 ml for the topping) if you have only 2 layers of pastry spread the cold custard over the jam and then top with a final layer of pastry, if you have 3 layers spread the second pastry layer with custard and place on top of the first, top with the final pastry layer
    blend the icing sugar with sufficient water to give spreading consistency spread icing over the top layer of pastry
    sieve reserved jam and place in a very small paper piping bag,snip a little off the corner of the bag to give a small hole
    pipe the jam across the top of the pastry slices in 2 or 3 lines
    Gently pull a knife across these lines from end to end twice this will give the pretty feathered or pulled effect
    if you are not intending to serve the slices immediately store in a cool but not chilled place, or the pastry will go soggy


  • Puff pastry can be difficult to work with so:

  • Keep hands and cooking equipment cool.
  • Don't handle too much, Roll out very evenly
  • Don't use too much flour during rolling out
  • Don't open oven early
  • If you use 2 packets of puff pastry you can get extra flaky layers by placing one on top of the other, with melted butter between, before rolling it out
  • lf you are in a hurry, use stiffly whipped cream instead of the custard

    		•

    Email

    BERNICE



    Back