Custard between layers of flaky golden pastry, what’s not to like? The classic custard slice is just that, decorated with a good dose of icing sugar, or a drizzle icing on top - either passionfruit icing, or a plain icing with a chocolate swirl. Also known as the vanilla slice, this cake-shop-staple has become ingrained in Australian food history, and for good reason, it’s simply delicious. The origins are most likely linked to the French Mille-Feuille, or gâteaux Napoléon, where three layers of puff pastry is filled with layers of crème pâtissière in between. The Australian version just using one thick layer of custard and two sheets of puff pastry. The custard itself is more of a set custard, unlike the French version which uses pastry cream, sometimes lightened with whipped Chantilly cream.

Sidenote: Another classic, the custard-filled tart has leant itself to many versions worldwide; the Portuguese have their pastel de nata tarts, in turn influencing the Chinese custard egg tart, while the French version flans pâtissier is a French custard tart very similar to the English and Australian versions.

While slice in itself seems to have become a very baffling Australian fixture - something sweet (sometimes savoury) made complete in a tray and cut up to snack-size portions - the custard slice does tick the right boxes for us, particularly when we can put our own spin on it and add a splash of citrus-y yuzu juice to the glaze. Yes, there are bad versions everywhere that are made simply with custard powder, but as with everything in good cooking, if you start with the best quality ingredients, you’ll have the best result. For this, we say, search out a good all-butter puff pastry, such as Careme, or Pepe Saya, then make the custard from scratch with quality milk and eggs - we add cream to ramp up the indulgence.

This recipe originally appeared in the Home Grown edition of Eatable magazine, on sale here in print and digital.