Rhubarb and vanilla custard hand pies

Makes 4-6

Ingredients:

Pastry Dough:

Please use 1/2 recipe of dough called for in the “greens pie” recipe

Custard:

250ml full cream milk

1 vanilla bean or 1.5 tsp. vanilla bean paste or essence

60g sugar

3 egg yolks

20g corn flour (starch)

1/4 tsp. salt

20g butter

Rhubarb:

2-3 stalks rhubarb, sliced thin and cut into 2-3 cm lengths (approximately 150g)

1 tbls. caster sugar + more for sprinkling

1 tsp. orange zest

pinch salt

1 tbls. plain flour

1 egg for egg wash

Method:

First, make your pastry and chill it down for at least an hour. Roll it out on a lightly floured bench into a rectangle or square about 2-3mm in thickness. Cut the sides so they are nice and straight. Cut 4-6 even squares. Keep them cold until you are ready to assemble.

Preheat your oven to 200C with fan (if applicable)

To make the custard, place the milk in a small saucepan on the stove over medium heat. If you are using a vanilla bean, split it, scrape the seeds and add both the seeds and the pod into the milk. Bring the milk up to scalding (small bubbles appearing on the side of the pan and beginning to steam). Mix together the egg yolks, sugar, salt and corn flour and if you are using vanilla essence or paste, add it here. Remove the vanilla pod once milk is scalded. Place the bowl on top of a tea towel so it doesn’t slide around and while whisking continuously, pour half of the hot milk into the egg mixture. Then, pour the egg mixture back into the remaining milk in the pot (over low heat) and keep whisking. It will thicken quickly. Once you start to see bubbles escaping continue cooking for 1.5-2 minutes, whisking the whole time. Then remove from heat and add in the butter. Mix until it has completely melted in. Empty the custard into a small bowl and cover with baking paper touching the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Allow to cool completely before using. You can speed this up by placing it in the refrigerator.

Mix together the rhubarb ingredients and set aside.

Place a heaped tablespoon of cold custard in the centre of each square and then lay approx 30-40g of the rhubarb on top of the custard. Note: You will probably have a spoonful of custard remaining after assembling them all.

Whisk your egg together with a teaspoon of water and brush 2 edges of the hand pies and then fold the unbrushed sides over the filling and line up the edges to form a triangle. Press them together and use a fork to crimp the edge. Brush the top of the pies entirely with egg wash and then sprinkle with sugar. Make 3 small cuts through the pastry on top to allow steam to escape while baking. Do this with all the hand pies and then place them onto a clean sheet of baking paper on a tray.

Place into the preheated oven for 7 minutes and then turn the heat down to 180 for a further 20-30 minutes until deeply golden and crispy.

Allow to cool a bit before serving.