I resurrected this one recently as having returned from holidays, there wasn't too much in the pantry or freezer that was terribly exciting for snacks and of course, during school holidays, my daughter does little other than 'snack'.
Frozen puff pastry was discovered in the bottom of the freezer and powdered milk and cornflour found at the back of the pantry, and we were in business.
This is so easy, you'll wonder why you ever bothered buying one of those mass produced, vivid yellow blobby things with bright pink icing at the local café. And everyone loves a good old fashioned Vanilla Slice.
Ingredients:
2 sheets frozen puff pastry
1 1/2 cups milk powder
1 litre water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons cornflour
2 cups icing sugar
4 tablespoons water
Yellow food colouring
Pink food colouring
Then just:
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Place the frozen puff pastry sheets on lined trays and bake until puffed and golden.
Allow them to cool, then with clean hands, flatten them down well.
Line a lightly greased 30cm x 30cm baking dish or lasagne dish with one of the puff pastry sheets, trimming it to size if necessary.
Add 1 litre of boiling water to a microwave safe jug and add 1 1/2 cups milk powder, whisking well. Add the sugar and vanilla and stir.
Mix the cornflour to a paste with a little water, and add to the liquid in the jug, whisking to combine. Add a few drops to tint the custard a delicate shade of yellow.
Microwave on HIGH, stirring every 10 seconds until the mixture thickens.
Pour the custard over the puff pastry lining the dish, and allow to cool and firm slightly.
Prepare the icing by mixing the icing sugar with the water, one tablespoon at a time. You want it thick enough to spread, and not too runny.
Remove a little of the icing to a smaller bowl, and add a little food colouring (use a toothpick to add in incremental amounts) to tint it a delicate shade of pink.
Spread the white icing over the second puff pastry sheet BEFORE you sit it on top of the slice. Chill it slightly to firm the icing a little. Then drizzle stripes of pink icing across, about 3 cms apart. Use a small ziplock bag, with a teeny corner snipped away to do this. Run a toothpick or skewer through the stripes crosswise, to create the pretty ripples.
Using a large, sharp knife, cut the iced puff pastry into nine equal squares, three across, and three down. Set these squares on top of the slice. This allows you to cut the slice once chilled, without messing up your pretty top layer.
Chill the slice well for at least an hour, then cut through the custard and base, using your top layer squares as your guide.
Done. Yum.
Mine is just chilling now, so I'll photograph it shortly :)
