One of my favourite crepe filling combinations is Nutella, custard and fresh strawberries.
I think it is absolutely delicious. The Nutella and the custard swirl and marry together making a thick chocolatey filling that isn’t too rich. The strawberries then cut through all the sweetness with their fresh fruitiness.
I love it and wanted to make it in a pie version when I was in Poland. However, it was winter and about zero degrees and there were no strawberries to be found, so I used a jar of raspberries that my uncle had preserved at the end of summer.
The raspberries worked just as well as strawberries, cutting through all the sweetness and balancing these little pies perfectly.
Oh, and I used packet custard (the powdered version you cook with milk) in this recipe, because I am lazy. But if you want to make custard from scratch, then feel free.
It was also really grey and wintery in Poland, and it got dark at 3:30 every afternoon, so photographing these was difficult! The pictures don’t do them justice – these pies were fantastic. I ate them for breakfast.
LITTLE NUTELLA, CUSTARD AND RASPBERRY PIES
For the pastry
1 2/3 cups plain flour
2/3 cup icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp salt
125g cold unsalted butter, cubed
2 egg yolks
For the filling
1 jar Nutella (you won’t need the whole thing)
250ml jar of raspberry preserves, or fresh or frozen raspberries
1 tsp cornflour
1 cup custard
If you are using raspberry preserves, drain them well. If you are using frozen raspberries, defrost them first and drain them well. Mix 1 teaspoon of cornflour into either the preserves or frozen raspberries.
To make the pastry, combine the flour, icing sugar, vanilla sugar and salt in a large bowl. Using your fingertips, crumble in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Add the egg yolks and bring the mixture together, kneading lightly, to form a dough. If it is still a little dry you can add 1-2 teaspoons of cold water.
Take a third of the dough, and form it into a disc. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Form the remaining two-thirds of the dough into another disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180 C and grease a 12-hole muffin tin.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the large disc of dough until it is about 3mm (1/8 inch) thick. Use a large upside-down glass or cookie cutter (about 10cm in diameter) to cut out 12 large circles.
Line the muffin pans with the circles of dough. Fill each pastry case with 2 tablespoons of custard, 1 tablespoon of Nutella, a few raspberries and then a little more custard.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the small disc of dough until it is about 3mm (1/8 inch) thick. Use an upside-down glass or cookie cutter (about 6cm in diameter) to cut out 12 small circles.
Place the smaller pastry circles over the filled pies. Pres down around the edges and cut three little openings into the top of each pie.