Custard squares

48 5x5cm Custard squares.
pastry
3 cups of plain flour, 1 & 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 12 ozs of cold butter, or vegelable fat, chopped up small. . mix with 1 & 1/2 cups of milk with 3 teaspoons of vinegar added. roll out to aprox 40 x 80 cm oblong... , give 4 or 5 book folds. . , You can still just see little bits of fat, that is ok. , rest in the fridge for 45 minutes. Turn oven on to 220 deg c. roll out 1/2 to completely cover a baking tray, prick well, leave in a cool place resting untill oven is rising to temp. Bake 10 minutes, cool.
cook two whole trays of pastry, one at a time. when you take them from the oven put another tray on top and push down. leave to go cold.
If your pastry has risen heaps, your pastry could have had another book fold before resting. Have a pencil and paper near by, and use it.
A lot of people are put of making pastry, once you have got your eye in, you will never buy pastry again.

Custard.
mix 2 cups of sugar, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, 1 & 1/2 cups of corn flour, 1 cup custard powder. mix with liquid taken from 7 cups of milk & 3 cups of water... . , put remaining milk/water, 2 ozs of butter on to heat. Pour hot liquid into cold to start, cook 3 minutes after it thickens... spread onto pastry while hot, Work quickly so custard dose not skin over, put other pastry on top, may have to smooth out custrd arround the edges a bit... . and weigh down with a baking tray to make it all flat, leave to go cold. ice with vanilla icing. Keep in the fridge.

This time of year with break up parties at work etc. Custard squares go down well... I just made up 4 whole baking trays of custard squares for two functions... . All done but for the icing. I only put 1 cup of sugar into the custard, it is still very nice... .

Try this for the custard too easy. 1 bottle of cream and 1 packet of vanilla instant pudding. Mix together. Yum

wouldn't set firm enough I don't think, I am up to trying it though, thanks...

hey pickles7, it does set firm enough. Thats what I use for my custard squares. use the next size up from the small bottle of cream.

pickles have you tried using Huntley & Palmers Cream Crackers for the pastry? Apparently they work great.

I have they are a little large, and hard to cut. . would be a bit costly compared to pastry... I did 4 whole baking trays up on the weekend, the H&P crackers would have blown the budget. . Shame as making pastry, without a pastry-brake is no joke... . I wish there was an alternative... . suie... .

I may try your recipe then ... . rarogirl1... . I will say the custard powder is not as good as it used to be... . My custard did not set as firm as it usually did, the only diff. was the custard powder... . grrrr, another product, being tampered with... .

Bumping back to the top, because they are my favourite slice.

Does anyone know what else could be used to make the custard squares in, with the cream crackers please? I used to make them in a Tupperware Cracker Keeper, but I threw it out years ago. I need something that the crackers will fit into perfectly. Thanks.

my mum used to just make them in a lamington/slice sized tin. i know she had to cut the side crackers to fit the tin though. yum... . haven't had them for years!

Pastry:
Cut in half 175 gm of flaky pastry, roll each piece each very thin, place on two buttered trays, prick all over with a fork. Bake for about 8-9 mins 200°C swaping over in oven half way through cooking.

Custard:
Beat 2 egg yolks
Melt in pot 100 g butter
add to it
5 tblsp cornflour
3 tablespoon sugar
1 t vanilla essence
mix in
300ml cream
400ml milk

Stir over low heat till luke warm, add egg yolks while stirring vigorously.
Continue stirring till thick and bubbling.
Spread custard over one sheet of pastry while pastry is still warm. Lay the other pastry sheet on top. Ice with vanilla icing and sprinkle with coconut.
By adding the warm custard to the warm pastry, and then icing while still warm the pastry sweats and softens. It isn’t so crunchy, yet the flavours blend together so well.

Vanilla icing
2 cups icing sugar (chelsea, not a store brand)
2 tblsp warm milk (or thereabouts)
1 tblsp butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Heat milk and butter together, add vanilla then icing sugar till a good but not too thick consistency.

Mine is enough for a baking tray full , there is no need for an edge... I just keep at the edges untill it sets and trim a thin strip off at serving time... . I will say the last time I made the custard up it was a bit loose... . . I will be putting an extra 1/2 cup of custard powder in next time... . If you are wanting to make a smaller lot , you could quarter my recipe or try the above recipe... I wouldn't use eggs in mine as I have to make sure of a good set, with the quantities I make up... May be tempted, one day , for a smaller lot... .

Will give custard squares a go for once, dh will be rapt to have homemade on hand being his favourite.