Custard Fruit Flans

Ingredients:
1 pack of sweet short pastry (you can make it yourself but I prefer to buy it premade - it tastes just as good and is much faster!)

Custard fruit flans (top and middle tier of the cake stand)

Custard Cream
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
1/3 cup cream, whipped

1. Grease two 12-hole mini muffin tins. Roll out half the pastry between sheets of baking paper or on a lightly floured bench. Cut out rounds to fit the mini muffin tins and press into pans. (My Mum always recommends using a small ball of pastry to push it into the tin to avoid stretching or poking holes in the pastry). Repeat with the remaining pastry. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celcius.
3. Bake cases about 12 minutes (different ovens will take different lengths of time, just keep an eye on them). Cool on a wire rack. (I made these the day before I needed them to save some time - store them in an air tight container).
4. Custard cream: Combine milk and extract in a small saucepan; bring to the boil. Meanwhile, beat egg yolks, sugar and cornflour  in a small bowl with an electric mixer until thick. While still beating, gradually beat the hot milk mixture in. Return custard to pan and stir over heat until the mixture boils and thickens. Cover the surface of the custard with Gladwrap and refrigerate for one hour. Fold cream into custard in two batches.
5. Spoon the custard into the pastry cases and top with fresh fruit - raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, kiwifruit, mandarin segments, grapes, etc.

These are really good! The custard cream isn't too heavy and has just the right balance of vanilla and custard flavouring.

This recipe was taken from The Australian Women's Weekly Afternoon Tea recipe book.