The Australian version of the vanilla slice is essentially custard between two sheets of puff pastry, with the top sheet covered in passionfruit icing. My experience of the vanilla slice has only been with the store-bought variety, which usually comprises canary yellow custard of a glue-like consistency, dense pastry, and a thick layer of white icing dotted with a few token passionfruit seeds. It is the solid bright yellow custard that earned the vanilla slice a certain nickname used by my compatriots in Victoria. I think if I had known about this nickname when I was growing up, vanilla slices would have been more cool. Instead, they were the afternoon tea choice of people who had difficulty chewing.
I know I'm not painting a particularly good picture here, but a homemade vanilla slice is a different experience altogether. A light creme patissiere between two sheets of flaky puff pastry and topped with a thin layer of passionfruit icing makes you believe again.
I sort of made this recipe up as I was going along, so it is a bit more rustic looking than I expected. I've used custard powder to give a hint of yellow but if this brings back unpleasant childhood memories, substitute with cornflour.
Vanilla Slice recipe
2 sheets ready rolled frozen puff pastry sheets
Custard
1 cup whipping cream
1 1/2 cups full cream milk
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup plain flour
1/3 cup custard powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg, lightly beaten
Icing
125g pure icing sugar, sifted
1/4 can passionfruit pulp in syrup (or use 1 passionfruit)
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
Grease and line a 23x23cm baking tin.
Put the pastry sheets on an oven tray lined with baking paper and prick with a fork. Put them in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the pastry is a golden colour. When ready, take out of the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
Put the cream, milk and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the other ingredients and stir constantly over a medium heat until custard thickens and comes to the boil. Take it off the heat and continue to stir for a bit longer until you are sure the custard is smooth. Well, you can never be sure so I always strain custard. Cover the surface of the custard with cling film to prevent a skin from forming, and put the bowl into the fridge until cool.
When ready to assemble, make the icing first by sifting the icing sugar into a bowl and adding the passionfruit. You get pulp and all so if you merely want passionfruit flavour, then strain. I kind of got a bit distracted (I blame the weather) and used an entire tin of passionfruit pulp so had to use about 400g of icing sugar to get the right consistency.
Wrestle one of the puff pastry sheets into the tin, trimming and/or squashing if you need to. I abandoned the baking tin as the puff pastry sheets, which I had cut to size, shrunk during the cooking process and were too small for the tin. Therefore, if you decide to make this recipe, trim the pastry sheets after they have cooked. In hindsight, I should have placed another tin over the top of the pastry sheets during the cooking process as the look I have ended up with is more country kitchen than high tea.
Continue assembling by placing the custard on top of the pastry bottom, spreading evenly. Top with the second layer of pastry, and then spread the icing over the top. Cut into slices using a serrated knife.
Despite the trials and tribulations in making this vanilla slice, I can definitely vouch for the flavour. The custard is light and vanilla-y, the pastry melts, and the passionfruit icing adds a sweet-sour note. Be careful when you eat it though as the custard will spurt out the sides, which is the only similarity between a store- bought vanilla slice and the homemade variety.
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