French vanilla slice

Photos by Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra Times 28 August 2013.  

An oozy, vanilla custard cream layer, that squeezes out as you bite down, sandwiched between thin sheets of crispy, golden pastry topped with a dusting of icing sugar. That slab of heaven is my ideal vanilla slice.

With the jury still out after intense debate on what constitutes the real thing, I strive to match the quality of the finest French vanilla slice I’ve had in a long time. This accolade is not bestowed on a trendy patisserie in Melbourne or Sydney, but goes to Barnetts Bakery, nestled in the picturesque NSW north coast surfing village of Crescent Head.

While holidaying in Crescent with the extended family in November last year, we rapidly develop a morning ritual based around our collective need for a decent coffee heart starter and a shared, growingly insatiable appetite for Barnett’s fabulous vanilla slice. Our morning scouts are sent down the hill each day to forage for these freshly baked pastry delights and half a dozen strong flat whites, with strict instructions to return post haste with the goodies and the day’s surf report.

As the debate rages between enthusiasts of the French creamy, custard variety, versus the yellow rubber Aussie icon, my Napoleonic allegiance does not miss a beat - a heart beat that is.

 

Makes 10 large slices.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

400ml fresh cream (not thickened)

350ml milk

2 sheets of ready rolled frozen puff pastry, thawed

50g butter

2 tspn vanilla paste or extract

6 egg yolks, separated from whites

½ cup caster sugar

½ cup water

½ cup cornflour

Icing sugar for dusting

Trim both sheets of puff pastry to fit a rectangle slice tin, measuring twenty centimetres by thirty centimetres. Line the tin with non-stick baking paper, greasing lightly to hold the paper in place. Allow some overhang of the paper to provide a handle to lift out the slice when set.

Place the two trimmed pastry sheets on a paper lined baking tray side by side. Leave a small gap between the two pastry sheets to allow room for spreading. Top with another layer of baking paper and place a tray on top of the baking paper to provide a weight on the pastry when cooking to reduce the pastry from rising and bubbling.

Bake the pastry for fifteen minutes, checking for colour. They should be cooked to a light golden colour.

Cool on wire racks and make the vanilla custard filling. Place the cream, milk, sugar, butter and vanilla in a saucepan over a medium heat. Cook until the mixture is hot, but not quite boiling and remove from the heat. Mix the water and cornflour to a smooth paste, then whisk into the hot milk mixture. Add the beaten egg yolks and stir briskly. Return to a low heat, stirring continuously until the mixture thickens.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Place one of the cooked pastry sheets into the base of the lined slice tin, it should fit snugly. If the pastry sheet is too big, place on a flat board and trim carefully with a sharp knife to fit. Return to the tin and spread the cooled custard over the pastry. Top with the remaining pastry sheet, trimming to fit again if necessary.

Fold the overhanging baking paper back over the top to enclose. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least two hours until set. To remove, carefully lift the overhanging baking paper and place on a board ready to slice. Peel away the paper.

To successfully slice this without squashing the custard from the middle, the trick is, to  

use a small sharp knife and cut only through the top layer of pastry, marking out ten, even sized slices. Then go back and slice the rest of the way down through the initial cut in the pastry, with a large, sharp knife until you hit the bottom layer of pastry and then push down to cut.

Paschal Lamb Cake

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Paschal Lamb       Photo by Steve Shanahan

First published Canberra Times 27 March 2013.

Cool and dark mornings announce the onset of Autumn and the approach of Easter. My dog and I have a close personal relationship with these crispish mornings, as we determinedly shed our Christmas kilos, jogging the tracks of the Majura nature park.

With this cooler weather, I inevitably begin to plan our Easter family feast. It’s an odd, uncoordinated combination of Easter and school holidays this year, but we will still manage to corral friends and family to feast on a beast, slow roasted in the outdoor oven. 

With a nod to body health and fitness, I avoid the obligatory Easter chocolate overdose, and choose a cake that is not only sans cocoa bean, but has traditional French significance. It is in the shape of a lamb, which represents rebirth and beginnings. Most of all I choose it because it’s so very cute.

During our last visit to France, I bought some Paschal lamb pottery moulds, from the little town of Soufflenheim in Alsace, which, incredibly, has been an  identified pottery region since the Bronze Age. 

Paschal Lamb Pottery Mould - Photo by Steve Shanahan

The mould consists of two lamb shaped sides joined together with a wire clamp. The cake mixture is poured into the greased mould and baked for forty minutes. When cooked it is removed from the mould and coated with a thick layer of icing sugar while still hot, ready to sit centre stage on the Easter table.

This unusual little cake is suitable for people on a dairy free diet as it contains no milk or butter. The texture of the cake is similar to that of Italian sponge finger biscuits and goes particularly well with a sticky dessert wine.

Any moulded or round cake pan can be used. Double the recipe to make a two-layer cake using two round twenty centimetre cake tins. Ensure you grease and line the cake tins well with baking paper to prevent the cake from sticking.  If making the cake this way, serve it layered with jam and whipped cream, similar to a sponge and dust liberally with icing sugar. The undecorated cake layers will keep for a week in an airtight container.

3 eggs

90g sugar

100g sifted plain flour

½ tsp baking powder

1 tbsp lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon

1 tbsp Kirsch

Preheat the oven to 180C. If using a shaped cake tin or ceramic mould, grease and flour the tin well. For two rounded cake tins, grease the sides well and line the bases with baking paper.

Whisk the eggs and sugar in an electric mixer for ten minutes, until the mixture is very pale.

Sift the flour and baking powder together in a small bowl.

In the bowl of the electric mixer, add the lemon juice, zest and Kirsch to the egg and sugar mixture. Then fold in the sifted flour and baking powder, very gently.

If using a shaped or moulded cake tin, place half the mixture into the tin, tapping gently on the kitchen bench, to drive the batter into the details of the mould. Then fill with the rest of the batter.

If using two round twenty centimetre cake tins, fill each tin equally and tap on the kitchen bench to ensure an even spread of batter.

Bake for 20 minutes for the cake tins and 30 minutes for a moulded tin. Remove the cake gently from the tin while still hot and cool on a wire rack.

Dust liberally with icing sugar.