There’s no need to trek to the bakery when you can make this old-school beauty at home. Flaky pastry is filled with thick and creamy custard and then topped with passionfruit icing. This slice will be popular – better hide some for yourself at the back of the fridge!
How to make vanilla custard slice: key tips
Always try to avoid letting your pastry sheets sit around at room temperature or they will just get all sticky and hard to work with. It won’t take long for the puff pastry to thaw, so place the frozen sheets on baking paper lined trays and brush with egg while the oven heats up and you won’t have to worry about handling thawed pastry.
The custard for a vanilla slice needs to be thick so that it doesn’t ooze out of the pastry top and bottom. It may seem like this recipe uses a lot of custard powder, but you’ll need every bit of it to achieve your desired result.
Following step 9, let the custard cool somewhat before placing the final puff pastry sheet on top. This will prevent the hot custard from steaming and softening the pastry.
Key ingredients in this vanilla custard slice recipe
Using ready rolled puff pastry makes it easy to achieve that lovely flaky pastry that custard slices are known for. If you have the time (and can be bothered!), you can make your own puff pastry.
The custard is made easy for this slice, as it’s made with store-bought custard powder. However, the cook has added vanilla essence, sugar and cream to help enrich the flavour and add sweetness, plus gelatin powder to make the custard lovely and firm.
Fresh passionfruit pulp is ideal for this icing so that it has that undeniable tang, but feel free to use canned pulp when passionfruit isn’t in season. If you don’t like the seeds, then you can always strain them out, but I love those little pops of black on the ‘vanilla’ background.
You might also like to try this golden syrup vanilla slice twist, as well as a lovely Venetian vanilla slice made with Venetian biscuits.
This recipe was originally submitted by notsobendywendy, a member of the Australia’s Best Recipe community. Introduction and additional recipe notes by Natasha Shaw.
Ingredients
- 2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry
- 1 egg beaten
Filling
- 3 cups milk
- 1/2 cup custard powder
- 1 cup cream
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1 tbs vanilla essence
- 1 tbs gelatine powder
- 1/4 cup hot water
Icing
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 3 tbs passionfruit pulp fresh
Method
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Step 1Preheat oven to 230C. Place pastry sheets onto a baking tray and brush with egg and bake for 10 minutes.
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Step 2Cool and set aside.
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Step 3Mix milk slowly into the custard powder.
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Step 4Add cream and sugar, and stir over a medium heat until thick.
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Step 5Stir in the vanilla.
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Step 6Dissolve gelatine in hot water and then add to custard mix. Mix well.
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Step 7Trim one pastry sheet to fit the base of a 16 x 26 x 3cm tin.
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Step 8Line the tin and then place pastry into the base.
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Step 9Pour the custard mix over the pastry.
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Step 10Trim the other sheet of pastry and place on top of custard mix.
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Step 11Cover with Glad Wrap and refrigerate until firm.
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Step 12Turn the slice onto a board.
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Step 13Mix the icing sugar and passionfruit pulp to make a stiff icing.
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Step 14Spread over the slice and cut into squares.
Equipment
- 1 baking tray
- 1 pastry brush
Recipe Notes
How long should I keep vanilla custard slice?
This vanilla custard slice is best eaten on the day it's made because the custard will end up softening the pastry. However, you can keep it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days, if you wish.
How do I cut vanilla custard slice?
There are many ways that people say are the ‘best way’ but I find just using a large serrated knife does the job. Gently saw through the vanilla slice at an angle until you reach the bottom layer of pastry and then apply a bit more pressure to cut through the base and separate the pieces.
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