Vanilla Slices

Another spur of the moment thing – just to see if they would work.  I used unsweetened puff pastry as that’s what I had in…next time I will make a sweetened flaky pastry as the puff pastry was okay but not 100% perfect…flaky would be a definite improvement.

Recipe as follows:-

Ingredients (makes 4 slices)

1 Block vegan puff pastry (approx 500g)

Vanilla Custard (filling)
1/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1-1/2 cups vegan milk
1 tbsp. margarine
1 teas. vanilla

Icing
roughly 200g Icing Sugar
about 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
Water (only enough to make a thick, but still spreadable, icing)
Few squares of dark chocolate, melted.

Roll the pastry out to about 15inch x 15 inch, mark 8 rectangles off prior to baking (makes it easier to get a clean cut when cooked), prick well with a fork and bake at gas mark 5 until just starting to turn light golden brown. Cut rectangles out of pastry and put on a cooling rack to cool.

To make the vanilla filling, combine sugar, salt and cornstarch in a saucepan. Add milk and whisk together. Bring the mixture to a light boil over medium heat while whisking constantly. Lower to a simmer and whisk until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add margarine and vanilla. Pour into a bowl and let cool, stirring every few minutes. Filling will continue to thicken as it cools. Leave until cold.

Assemble pastry slices with custard filling in middle.

Put icing sugar, vanilla essence in bowl, add in cold water a bit at time until you’ve got a smooth, thick, icing. Spread icing on top of vanilla slice.

Drizzle chocolate in lines across top of icing and ‘feather’ using cocktail stick or skewer.

Chill for a while and then eat!