Sunday spoil: Tamboesies

Makes at least 24

You’ll need: For the pastry squares – 1 roll of frozen puff pastry.

For the custard – 500ml Clover Full Cream Fresh Milk; 60ml sugar; 30ml custard powder; 30ml cornflour; 5ml Vanilla essence; pinch of salt.

For the topping – 1 cup icing sugar, sifted; 15ml lemon juice; 5ml almond essence; fresh lemon rind; boiling water.

How to:

For the pastry squares:

Defrost the puff pastry in the refrigerator overnight. Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Unroll the puff pastry on a floured surface and gently run over it with a rolling pin to smooth out the top. Do not roll it out too thinly.

Cut the dough into 4 x 4 cm squares. Arrange squares on a greased baking tray a few centimetres apart. Bake for about 12 minutes or until golden brown and puffy. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

For the custard:

Keep a tablespoon or two of the milk aside and heat the rest of the milk until it comes to a boil.

Mix the sugar, custard powder, cornflour and salt with the reserved milk. Add a splash of boiling milk to the mixture, stir well and then add the custard mix to the rest of the boiling milk in the pot.

Cook until thickened, stirring constantly, remove from the heat and set aside. Add the vanilla essence and cover with a wet cloth to prevent the skin from forming. Set aside to cool.

For the topping:

Mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice and a little bit of boiling water to form a thick paste.

Add the almond essence. It should be a spreadable paste. Immediately compile the tamboesies so that the icing does not dry out.

To compile:

Using a sharp knife, separate the baked squares. Spoon a dollop of the custard mix onto the bottom part of the pastry squares and top with the other half of the pastry. Pour a small amount of the icing mix over each filled square. Garnish with fresh lemon rind.

Serve once the icing has been set.

Recipe courtesy of Clover Mama Afrika:

Clover Mama Afrika Recipe Book – I cook, because we eat! has in part been subsidized by Clover because we believe that good food and great memories shouldn’t be limited by price. Also, by purchasing the cookbook, you will be actively helping ladies around South Africa achieve their small business dreams through the Clover Mama Afrika project, which aims to identify women who are already agents of change in their communities and helps train them to become self-sustaining women with skills which they can use to derive an income from, to support orphaned and abused children and the elderly and infirm. Buy the cookbook from Lapa Publishers for R230.