Mother's Day Dessert Recipe for Vanilla Slices

Mother's Day brunch is not complete without giving her that special homemade treat straight from your kitchen. Load her gift basket with a small bouquet of flowers, an item of jewelry, some perfume and a tin of freshly made vanilla slices.

Making vanilla slices is a simple process. Everyone will remember you for this, why not share the recipe? We're going to make the vanilla custard from scratch just like my mother did. You may also use a packet mixture, but the end result is never quite as delicious.

Ingredients:

1 packet frozen puff pastry sheets, set out to thaw

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup of cornstarch

1/2 cup custard powder

4 cups of milk

2 egg yolks

1 tbs vanilla essence

Method:

-Pre heat oven to 400 degrees

-Line a 10 in. square baking dish with foil. Gently place the room temperature puff pastry sheet into it. It is not necessary to bring them up the sides of the pan.

-Trim away any excess pastry. Be sure the pastry is only a single layer thickness or it will not cook properly.

-Place the pastry lined dish into the oven for 10 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked to a golden brown color.

-Remove and cool. Set aside.

How To Make Vanilla Custard:

-In a small saucepan and over a low heat, place the cornstarch, custard powder, sugar, and 1 cup of milk

-Stir vigorously and add one cup of milk at a time as the mixture blends together.

-Once all of the milk is added, continue stirring quickly until the custard begins to boil. Custard can lump in just a few seconds so it is extremely important not to leave it unattended even for one moment. If it turns lumpy it is almost impossible to get the mixture back to a smooth consistency. Adding more milk to attempt this will only mean the custard will not thicken and set later as it will be too diluted.

-Once you see bubbles indicating the boiling stage, reduce the heat and continue to stir for a further 30 seconds.

-Remove the custard from the heat and quickly add the 2 egg yolks and 1 tbs of vanilla essence. Boiled custard holds it's temperature for quite a long time after being removed from the stove, so do not be alarmed at the thought of undercooked eggs.

Assembly:

Having already cooled the pastry lined pan, and while the custard is still piping hot, pour the mixture into the pan and spread evenly into all corners.

-Place into the refrigerator until the custard is chilled and quite stiff. Pressing it gently with the back of a spoon is a good way to check that it is set properly.

Icing:

1 cup of icing sugar

1 tsp of butter

1 tsp of water

-Prepare some plain icing using the above ingredients and add to it the juice of 1 lemon and 1 sprinkle of cinnamon. If no lemons are available, add ¼ tsp of citric acid.

-Ice the top of the set custard, cut into squares and serve.

Speedy alternative to using the oven:

Sometimes mum and I took a shortcut making this delicious slice. Rather than using pastry we would place unsalted crackers into the baking pan to use as a base. Once the custard was poured in, another layer of crackers were placed on top, followed by the icing. This is a great alternative to having a 400 degree oven burning if the weather is warm. It was also easier to cut into individual servings, just follow the crackers.

Happy Mother's Day!