Custard fruit slice

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (250ml) milk
• ⅓ cup (67g) castor sugar + extra for dusting
• 3 egg yolks
• 5 Tbsp (75ml) cornflour
• 3 Tbsp (45ml) soft butter
• 1 tsp (5ml) vanilla essence
• 1 roll (400g) puff pastry, defrosted
• 6-8 stone fruit of your choice, quartered
• 1 whisked egg, for brushing
• Toasted flaked almonds, icing sugar and mint leaves, for serving (optional)

Method:

1. Heat milk and ¼ cup (60ml) sugar gently in a saucepan until sugar dissolves completely.
2. Whisk together yolks, remaining sugar and cornflour until smooth.
3. Add ¼ cup (60ml) warmed milk to egg mixture while stirring vigorously (this warms the egg up slowly so you don’t get a lumpy custard).
4. Add egg mixture in a thin stream back into saucepan while stirring.
5. Add butter and vanilla essence and boil for 3 minutes.
6. Set custard aside to cool completely. Cover the surface with clingfilm to prevent a ‘skin’ forming.
7. Preheat oven to 200˚C.
8. Roll pastry out on a floured surface to 4mm thick. Do not roll over the edge of the pastry or it will seal.
9. Cut pastry into a neat rectangle, and score a 2-3cm border with a sharp knife.
10. Prick the inside of the rectangle all over.
11. Brush the scored border with whisked egg and sprinkle with castor sugar.
12. Blind bake for about 25 minutes or until golden.
13. Spread custard over pastry base and top with fruit.
14. Serve with a sprinkle of almond flakes, a dusting of icing/castor sugar and fresh mint.