Custard jam slice

Name: Custard jam slice
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: Makes 12 slices
Ingredients: 2 x 320g sheets puff pastry; 5 tbsp smooth strawberry jam; 375ml whole milk; 375ml single cream; 60g unsalted butter, chopped; 2 tsp vanilla paste; 150g caster sugar; 100g cornflour; 6 medium egg yolks; Icing sugar to dust; Specialist kit; 20cm square tin

Portion size: Makes 12 slices
Prep time 20 min, plus at least 5 hours setting. Cook time 30 min
Difficulty: easy

Recipe by: The Exploding Bakery

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Fancy a proper custard slice with layers of flaky pastry and silky custard? Oliver and Tom of Exeter’s The Exploding Bakery show you how to make the timeless treat.

Oliver and Tom say: “The custard slice is an architecturally perfect piece of pastry. The crisp flakiness sandwiches the silky custard in just the right way, adding the ideal amount of texture. The jam brings some fun to the party, injecting a layer of colour into your otherwise beige masterpiece. If you’re looking for a bit more sophistication, the next-level addition to this would be to use finely sliced fresh strawberries, when in season, instead of jam.”

Oliver Coysh and Tom Oxford started the Exploding Bakery in Exeter back in 2011, fuelled by their love of cake. If you’re not lucky enough to live in the Devon city and visit their café, you can order traybakes, letterbox brownies and more for delivery at explodingbakery.com. Their cakes are also available in London’s Fortnum & Mason, as well as cafés, delis and farmshops across the UK. See what they get up to on Instagram @explodingcafe

Recipe taken from Bake It Easy by Oliver Coysh and Tom Oxford (Quadrille £16.99) and tested by delicious.

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Ingredients

2 x 320g sheets puff pastry
5 tbsp smooth strawberry jam
375ml whole milk
375ml single cream
60g unsalted butter, chopped
2 tsp vanilla paste
150g caster sugar
100g cornflour
6 medium egg yolks
Icing sugar to dust

Specialist kit

20cm square tin

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Method

Heat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas 7 and line the square tin with baking paper, ensuring there’s plenty of overhang. Take 2 baking trays big enough to fit the puff pastry sheets. Lay a sheet of pastry (still on the baking paper it comes with) on each tray, then top the pastry with another sheet of baking paper and stack another baking tray on top. (Alternatively, if you don’t have 4 baking trays, you can bake the 2 pastry sheets separately.) Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and crisp, then set aside to cool.
Using the base of the square baking tin as a guide, trim the cooled pastry sheets to size to give you 2 x 20cm square sheets. A very sharp serrated knife will work best for this. Put a pastry square in your lined square tin and top with the strawberry jam, spreading it evenly. Set aside while you prepare the custard.
Add the milk, cream, butter, vanilla and sugar to a large pan and set over a medium heat. Allow the ingredients to almost come to the boil, then remove from the heat. In a separate bowl, whisk together the cornflour and 125ml water until smooth, then add this to the milk mixture followed by your egg yolks. Put the pan back over a medium heat and bring to the boil, whisking continuously. Once the custard begins to boil it will become very thick but keep whisking vigorously for around 1 minute to cook out the cornflour, then remove from the heat. Immediately pass the custard through a sieve into a jug.
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Pour the custard over the jam-covered pastry layer, spreading it evenly into the corners, then lay the other square of pastry on top of the custard and press down gently. Put the tin in the fridge to set for a minimum of 5 hours. 5 Once set, gently lift the custard slice from the tin, holding onto the baking paper for support, and place on a chopping board. Dust with icing sugar and cut into portions with a very sharp serrated knife.