Ask a Chef reveals the secrets of those superb dishes you ate in cafes and restaurants and wanted to try yourself.
Topiary Cafe's custard square
Ingredients
2 sheets ready-rolled flaky pastry
Custard
2 Tbsp custard powder
3 Tbsp cornflour
500ml milk (keep 200ml aside for mixing with the custard powder, cornflour and eggs)
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
125g butter, cubed
½ tsp vanilla essence
130g sugar
Icing
30g butter, softened
2-3 cups icing sugar
splash vanilla essence
warm milk as needed
To decorate
Melted chocolate
Method
Cut each pastry sheet slightly bigger than the size of the tin you are using (a slice tin or cake tin for a deeper custard square). Score the pastry with a fork to control how it puffs. Put them on a baking tray lined with baking paper, put another sheet of baking paper and then another tray on top.
Bake at 200degC for approximately 20 minutes or until golden. Cool until you can handle them then place one sheet in a lined tin ready for the custard. Put the milk, except for about 200ml, butter, sugar and vanilla into a pot to start heating.
Whisk the eggs, yolks, custard powder and cornflour with the 200ml of milk until smooth. Pour into the heated milk mixture and whisk continuously over medium heat until it starts to simmer and thicken. Whisk until thick then pour over the pastry in the tin.
Place the other cooked sheet of pastry on top, cover with baking paper and if you wish, place a few small tins (something not too heavy) on top to help the pastry and custard meld to each other. Cool in the fridge for at least four hours or overnight if possible.
To make the icing, put the butter, vanilla essence and icing sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer. Add milk slowly until you get a spreading consistency. Spread over the cold custard square. Drizzle with chocolate to decorate.
Use a serrated knife to cut into slices.
Requested by Sharon Sutton, of Mosgiel.
This recipe comes from Topiary Cafe in Bush Rd, Mosgiel.
• If you have enjoyed a dish in an Otago cafe or restaurant and would like the recipe, write to Ask a Chef, Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin, fax 474-7422, or email odt.features@odt.co.nz, including your name, address and a daytime telephone number, and we will request it.
