When I was a child my mother used to buy frozen 'Danishes' for dessert sometimes - the ones that contained custard and fruit. As I'd been making a lot of Danishes with different fillings I thought I give a custard & blueberry one a try. I'm happy to say it met my expectations.  

 This recipe uses ~1/2 quantity of Yeasted GF Puff Pastry.

I either freeze the remaining pastry or use it to make Cheese Sticks or a savoury 'Danish'. 

 

This recipe was designed specifically to be made with Bakers' Magic gluten free flour. The finished baked product will not be the same if you use another gluten free flour and you will need to adjust the recipe, particularly if the flour you're using contains rice flour. 

 

Ingredients

Filling

Custard (see below)

Approximately 200 g Blueberries

40 g Caster sugar

10 g Maize starch 

 

Egg wash

1 Egg

pinch of salt

  

Custard

150 g Thickened cream

300 g Milk (full fat)

30 g Maize starch 

60 g Sugar

3 Whole eggs

1 Egg yolk

10 g Vanilla essence

 

A few tips:

Maize starch: Different flours/starches change the sweetness of the custard & the consistency. The custard is sweetest & sets better when maize starch is used. Maize starch can be substituted with potato starch however you will need to add more than 30 g & the sweetness may need to be adjusted.

Sugar: Will the custard be sufficiently sweet for you? Test a little of the custard near the end of the cooking period & adjust if necessary.

Eggs: Egg yolks make the custard beautifully rich. I use 700 g/dozen sized eggs & the size of the eggs makes a huge difference to whether the custard will set or not.  

  

And top with

Demerara sugar

A little icing sugar

 

Method

Pastry

Make the yeasted puff pastry following the instructions in the recipe.

Egg wash

Whisk together the egg & salt in a small container. Leave it on the bench until it is needed.

Filling 

Make the custard (see below). 

In a container mix together the blueberries, caster sugar & maize starch. 

Making the custard

Put the cream & milk together in a container.

Thermomix

Put ingredients into the TM bowl.

Cook at 90 C for 10 mins at speed 4. 

Set aside to cool slightly.

Stove Top

On the stove top the custard can be made in a saucepan or in a double boiler. There is more control of the temperature in a double boiler & the custard is usually very smooth. If making the custard in a saucepan have on hand a stab blender. If the custard is lumpy blitz it with the stab blender.  

Mix a little of the cream/milk with the maize starch to make a paste in the saucepan or top of a double boiler.

Add the remaining cream/milk, sugar, vanilla essence, eggs (whole & yolks). 

Stir over low/medium heat until it starts to thicken. Turn off the heat or lower the heat & stir the custard at this temperature for ~4 mins. 

Set aside to cool.

Assembling 

Turn oven on to 180 C (fan forced). 

Line a rectangular cake tin with baking paper. Mine is 27 cm x 12 cm. 

Roll out approximately 1/2 quantity of the puff pastry dough into a rectangle that is approximately 35 cm by 36 - 40 cm on baking paper. The actual size will depend on the size of your tin. If your tin is smaller than mine roll out the dough to a size that is approximately 8 cm longer and a bit over 3 times as wide. 

Make cuts into the dough using the pattern in the following photo. The number of side cuts will depend how thin you want the pieces. Remove the cut away pieces. 

Brush the surface of the dough with egg wash. The egg wash will help the dough stick together during baking.

Transfer the dough (& baking paper) to the lined tin. Don't worry if the sides are a bit messy. Arrange the cut strips to hang over the sides of the tin and the end strips to sit up at the ends.  

Pour the custard onto the middle of the dough.

Top the custard with the blueberry mix.   

Fold the end flaps up over the blueberries. 

Drape the top strip of one side over the blueberries. 

Repeat with the top strip from the other side. 

Repeat overlapping the strips from each side.

Tuck the last strips under the end (if necessary).  

Brush the top with egg wash.

Sprinkle the top with demerara sugar.

Bake for approximately 20 - 35 mins. It will depend on how much filling there is, the size of the Danish & your oven. Turn the Danish half way through baking if your oven has a hot spot.

Allow to cool for approximately 10 mins before serving.

Sprinkle with a bit of icing sugar and serve with cream and/or ice-cream.

Simply enjoy!