How to make a simple French style vanilla slice in 30 minutes

Learn how to make a simple but delicious French style vanilla slice using home made pastry cream with this video tutorial.
Get the written recipe here: https://bit.ly/3h6qYUM

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Get the written recipe here: https://www.thefrenchcookingacademy.com/recipes/easy-vanilla-slice

🧅🥕INGREDIENTS🥕🧅
500 ml / 2 cups full cream milk ( not fat reduced)
130 grams / 4.6 oz caster sugar (fine white sugar)
6 egg yolks
1 vanilla bean (fresh) seeds scraped
1 or 2 tablespoons of rhum or liquor of your choice like grand marnier(optional)
40 grams / 1.4 oz plain all purpose white flour
30 grams /1 oz corn starch (also called corn flour)
1 roll of store bought (or home made) puff pastry sheet
a bit of icing sugar to decorate at the end

Preheat your oven before starting and ideally pre cut your pastry rectangle as well.
Cooking time for the pastry around 15 minutes
at 200 degrees Celsius around 400 degrees Fahrenheit

Start by making the pastry cream then let it cool immediately while you cook the pastry . you can use the pastry cream soon as it is below room temperature .

if you want, you can cook the pastry sheet and make the pastry cream beforehand and do the assembly later. pastry cream loses its flavor quickly within 24 hours maximum.

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welcome back everyone this is Stefan on
the French cooking Academia last weekend
I went to see some friends and uh they
got a milk farm okay and they have their
own milk and the neighbors give them
plenty of eggs oh we are crawling on the
milk and eggs and so you know what
perfect time to make a vanilla slices
I don’t know how to do that this is too
complicated it’s like
it occurred to me that actually as many
people out there that don’t know that
you can make an easy version of the
vanilla slice in about 30 minutes and
I’m not talking about the trick we’re
going to be making in this video a
French style of inner slice with the
pastry cream made by hand except that
we’re gonna use pre-roll puff pastry and
only two sheets instead of three and
that dessert is that simple so if you
love vanilla slice this is it you’re
gonna start making it and enjoying it
anytime you want let’s go
[Music]
so let’s demystify the vanilla slice
because honestly it is such a dead
simple dessert what is a vanilla slice
it is basically aluminum two layer of
puff pastry within the middle a layer of
pastry cream that’s it okay a pastry
cream
is basically a custard that is thickened
with flour to make a pastry cream what
you need is milk eggs sugar
and some flavoring here is going to be a
vanilla bean and for the thickening you
have the choice you can use a mix of
normal flour and corn flour only corn
flour if you’re gluten intolerant and
you can use only flour if you don’t have
corn flour so it’s really up to you so
the first thing you’re going to do here
because we’re going to have to cook the
puff pastry we’re going to preheat your
oven at 200 degrees Celsius which is
about 400 degrees Fahrenheit okay and
make sure you measure all the
ingredients everything’s going to be
listed in the video description next all
what you have to do is take a medium
sized saucepan the heat is not on I’m
going to take half a liter of milk okay
and put everything in you’re gonna add
about one or two tablespoons of sugar in
there
next we’re going to put the vanilla
flavoring in so the big question I get
all the time can I use vanilla essence
to make that sort of dessert yes you can
but let me tell you nothing beats the
pure simple vanilla bean and that is the
key to having a great tasting vanilla
slice okay so vanilla Parts you’re going
to flatten it first the knife
once it’s flattened or what you’re going
to do you’re going to take your knife
because it’s nice and flat you’re gonna
cut the whole bin
in half like that okay and then you’re
gonna split both off
up two pieces then
look at this when it’s in half you see
this this kind of shiny little things in
there these are the seeds from the
vanilla pot and all what we want is this
the inside so we’re gonna take the knife
we’re going to flatten here and we’re
just gonna go across and extract oh
of the gold of the vanilla pot so once
you’ve got the seeds extracted you’re
gonna put
the part of the bin here and these seeds
in your pan of the milk and you repeat
the same with the other half and that’s
it you’ve done your flavored milk or
what needs to happen now is a medium
heat and you’re gonna bring this barely
to a boil so just before you do make
sure you take a spoon you mix the sugar
that you have in here and I don’t use
the two high heat because we need some
time to prepare the rest of the custard
okay I’m Gonna Leave This
to warm up next for the custard you’re
only going to need egg yolks you’re
going to take your eggs and you’re going
to separate the white from the yolks
right now this is one of the drawback
people think what I’m gonna do with the
white the egg white you can keep them
covered in an airtight container in the
fridge for up to two weeks to make
meringues a very very old egg white
makes the best meringue so keep this in
mind for the custard large bowl all of
the egg yolks and even if you have a bit
of white in there it does not matter
break everything
sugar in
a new mix
now this whisking action is called in
French
which means to whiten the eggs and as
you can see here what’s happening
basically we are dissolving the sugar
with the egg yolks
so you’re gonna do this like for one or
two minutes maximum and you’re gonna see
your mix it’s gonna become a little bit
paler and paler
okay I’m all done next step we need to
have something that’s going to be thick
okay because the pastry cream has to be
cooked it has to be thick to hold in
between your layers of pastry so we’re
going to take the flour first always use
a sieve and sift everything over
once you’re done you’re going to start
to mix that in and gently and don’t put
flour everywhere if possible
beautiful and to add a little bit of
elasticity in the mix we’re going to add
some corn flour as well same thing
password receive and incorporate
hold on so by the time you do this most
likely your milk is going to be ready so
you’re going to take receiver remove the
excess of flour you’re gonna start by
pouring some of the milk maybe half of
it
and then slowly same thing
you incorporate
when everything is mixed in you’re gonna
take the rest of the milk
all in boom
and you mix
and once you’re done guess what we’re
gonna do we’re gonna pour everything
back in that same pan using that same
sieve okay and everything at once and
make sure to grab these little seeds at
the bottom so all the ones like that
boom
beautiful take your wigs make sure
there’s no seeds and the precious
vanilla seeds in there put them back in
and back on the stove all right we’re
back on the stove and this is where a
lot of people when we talk custard gets
really scared because the normal liquid
type of custard and the sweet custard is
with desserts you cannot cook the egg so
it’s that gentle line between oh how far
can I go with the heat pastry cream you
don’t have that problem
heat on medium and we’re gonna cook the
heck out of this until it boils because
we have to actually cook the egg in here
so it’s that easy so what we’re gonna do
medium heat and You’re Gonna Keep on
whisking this very slowly until it
thickens
okay so after four and a half minutes
look at this
everything is nice and thick so you’re
going to want to reduce your heat and
wait for the boil to appear and that is
going to be let me show you
if they appear it’s like a little
volcano little bubble that pops up at
the top here
that’s it so from here you keep on
whisking for one and a half minutes and
we’re done
and that’s it I’ve turned my heat off
and this is the consistency we have
it is fake because it has to hold okay
and your pastry if it’s too liquid it’s
going to fall apart so we want it fixed
so now I’m going to reserve this and let
it cool down so what do I mean by
Reserve basically you take all of the
cream
and you’re going to pour it in a cold
tray
now cling wrap
okay it has to touch
the pastry cream because really pastry
cream’s got a bad tendency of really
crusting it dries and makes a nasty
crust so you want to have this
everything touching everywhere and
that’s it we’re gonna cool this down
until we are making the puff pastry it’s
very important that your pastry cream is
really really cold so first I’m going to
put this a little bit in the freezer and
then straight into the fridge and now
for the puff pastry so important you
need a square or rectangle and you can
use any size you want I’m using two
large sheets in here that I’m gonna cut
after a Wednesday cook but it’s up to
you we don’t want this to rise at all
which is the great thing about that
recipe because you don’t have to you
know Wonder oh is this going to work is
it not gonna work so what you’re going
to do first
pastry here you’re going to take a fork
and you’re gonna make these holes in
there
to prevent the pastry
from puffing
hold on the holes are ready what you’re
gonna do next is to take some sugar and
your very fine sprinkle of fine sugar
caster sugar on top and now for the
final step so this is what you’ve done
you’ve got your pastry ready little
holes you get the sugar and to make
absolutely sure it’s not gonna rise
we’re gonna take this a cooling where I
can use another baking tray I’m gonna
put this on top I’m going to put some
weight on here one
and then two and I’m gonna cook this
like that in the oven for 15-20 minutes
until the pastry is nice and golden
that’s it we’re done hold on my pastry
is cooked so let’s reveal boom this is
what you should have so what we have
basically here is these two Thin layers
of pastry you know not very thick but
just enough for the vanilla slice now
that the pastry is cooling down the
Final Touch for the pastry cream which
is now called we’re gonna put everything
in a bowl and this is the same Bowl I’ve
used before it’s nice and gooey and what
we need to do here is to add some
flavoring this is optional but I like to
use a little bit of rum you can use like
a Cointreau so a little bit in here I
like to have lots of rum it’s up to you
but I think rum adds a nice flavor and
then we’re just gonna whisk the whole
lot
wow this Aromas of Rome is just insane
you know what
I cannot resist I need to try that
um
delicious
okay so now we’ve got everything we need
basically we’ve got the bottom part here
and we’ve got another part that we’re
going to be placing afterwards just on
top like this so if you want you can
turn it on the other side it’s really up
to you doesn’t really matter so what you
need to do here is simply put as much as
little
pastry cream as you want so if you want
something that’s going to be like the
master thick vanilla slice you put
plenty of Cream if you want something
thinner
it’s up to you but you know what I kind
of like something that is nice and thick
plenty of Cream in there
so I’m hold on so what you need to try
to do is try to get something pretty
even but it does not have to be perfect
at all and look at my side here there’s
no cream here no cream there and tell
you what there’s a little trick to it so
I’m gonna take my top here
I’m just going to put this on top like
that okay I’m going to slightly apply
pressure down too much you don’t want to
crack
your pastry
and then for the grand finale we’re just
gonna trim the edges you have that
picture perfect vanilla slice and now
for the best parts as you can see if it
hasn’t been done perfectly it’s a bit
everywhere there’s cream pouring out etc
etc so in France what’s being done in a
lot of the the bakery in The Patisserie
or what you have to do to make this
clear you’re going to trim off with a
knife you can go as deep as it will as
you want
and you’re gonna cut through
to really just
keep
yeah
that bit here and that makes you that
perfect Edge so yes it can be a bit of a
messy business to try to do this on a
silicone mat or something and as you can
see I’ve done the two edges here and it
starts to look really really nice and
now it’s perfect there’s no gaps and
you’ve got cream absolutely everywhere
so I’m gonna go around and do all the
Four Corners finally when you’re done
with all the edges it is up to this side
how wide the slice should be do you want
something like this like this like this
like that so here is enough for about
three so I think I’m gonna cut around
something like that I think this looks
pretty right
and there we have it so once it’s cut
this starts to look like a proper
vanilla slice we’ve got this nice layer
of cream on there a nice thickness or
what’s needed here is a Sprinkle of
sugar you put your stuff on your cooling
rack is best and then from above you’re
gonna basically sprinkle the whole thing
with a nice layer of sugar okay no icing
and that’s it look at
look at them there we have it so as soon
as you put the sugar you need to eat
your vanilla slice if you want to keep
it longer you can keep it in the fridge
without the sugar until you’re ready to
eat it do cool there do better but
honestly how does that look such a
simple lizard to make so it’s not a
fancy version we only have two layers of
puff pastry and in silver icing we just
got a Sprinkle of sugar but honestly you
know what that does the job so as always
if you have any questions use the
comment section if you want to make this
and show your picture when uh putting
this into our Instagram feed everything
you make is gonna be on how stories so
do make the vanilla slice and share it
on Instagram hashtag frenchcook Academy
and now to finish up the video and
before I go there’s a big announcement
that I want to make there is a brand new
course coming out in a few weeks time on
her online school and this is the course
you’ve been asking for and waiting for
which is of course fully dedicated to
French sauce making that’s right we’ve
been working on this for a month and
month and month and we really wanted to
bring something truly special and I’m so
excited because this is now
almost done and we’re going to raise the
course very soon for the release
we are running a special early bird
price meaning it’s a discounted price
for a limited period for people that are
part of the newsletter that we have so
if you want
to get the discount you’re going to use
the link in the video description you’re
going to join the newsletter just giving
you an email and when the time comes
you’re going to receive an email saying
yes the course is live you can join and
you’re going to basically get that offer
with the discounted price now there
would be a video that I’m going to be
making with all the details and the
content of the course what we’ve made
plus the world’s first trailer that
we’ve created as well coming with the
course or what I say is get ready
because it’s gonna rock the boat okay as
you will next time for another video on
the French Cooking Academy take care bye
foreign
[Music]