 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
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