Flaky pastry squares are oven baked and sandwiched together with vanilla flavored butter cream. The tops of each pastry square is decorated with a mixture of sugar and freshly sliced hazelnuts.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg defrosted ready made puff pastry (shop purchased)
  • 1 cup finely chopped hazelnuts
  • 1/2 cup sugar

For the icing

  • 50g butter or margarine
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla essence
  • 1 cup icing sugar

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
  2.  Unroll the defrosted puff pastry onto a flat, floured surface.
  3. In a bowl, combine the sugar and hazelnuts together.
  4. Sprinkle the hazelnut and sugar mixture generously on the entire surface of the pastry.
  5. Ensure that the mixture is evenly dispersed.
  6. Lightly flatten the sugar and hazelnut mixture to prevent it from falling when cut.
  7. Cut the pastry into 5cm squares and place on a greased oven proof tray.
  8. Bake the hazelnut pastry squares for 8-10 minutes or until puffed and golden brown underneath.
  9. Remove the baked pastry from the oven and set it aside.
  10. In a medium sized bowl add in the butter or margarine.
  11. Stir in the icing sugar and mix until the mixture resembles a creamy consistency.
  12. Add in the vanilla essence and mix well.
  13. If the butter icing tastes a little buttery, additional icing sugar can be added.
  14. The icing should not be over sweet and should have a good balance of the vanilla flavour.
  15. Using a sharp knife, carefully separate the pastry squares in the middle. The pastry should have a top half and a bottom half.
  16. Place 1/2 a teaspoon of the vanilla flavoured icing on the bottom half of each pastry square.
  17. Careful sandwich the top’s of each pastry onto the bottom half of the pastry square.