Torta della Nonna Puff Pastry Turnovers

Method

1. Thick custard: separate the eggs and keep one white for brushing. Warm the milk with strips of lemon peel (cut with a vegetable peeler) over medium heat for 3 min, until it bubbles at the edge, then turn off the heat. Mix the yolks, sugar and cornflour in a bowl, pour in the hot milk a little at a time while whisking, remove the peel and return everything to the pan. Cook over medium-low heat for 2 min, whisking non-stop and scraping the bottom, until it bubbles and is so thick it holds its shape on a spoon. Take off the heat and stir in the vanilla. It has more cornflour than the tart custard so it won't leak in the oven.

   Add in this stepWhole milk 200 mlUnwaxed lemon ½Eggs (yolks for the custard, white for brushing) 2Caster sugar 50 gCornflour 20 gVanilla extract ½ tsp

   medium heat→medium-low heat

2. Spread the custard thinly in a wide dish, press cling film onto the surface and chill for 30 min until cold. Cold custard holds its shape and won't melt the pastry.

3. Preheat the oven to 200 °C for 15 min and line a baking tray with baking paper. Unroll the pastry and cut it into 4 squares of 12 cm (two per serving). Keep the cut squares in the fridge until you use them.

   Add in this stepReady-rolled puff pastry 160 g

   oven

4. Spoon about a heaped tablespoon of cold custard into the centre of each square, dampen a 1 cm border with water and fold corner to corner into a triangle. Seal the edges firmly with a fork. Brush the tops with the beaten reserved egg white, scatter over the pine nuts and press them in lightly, then cut one small slit in the top with the tip of a knife to let steam out.

   Add in this stepPine nuts 20 g

5. Space them out on the tray and bake in the oven for 16 min, until well puffed, deep golden and browned underneath. Pale pastry stays soggy inside, so give them enough colour.

   oven

6. Cool on a wire rack for 10 min; the custard inside is very hot, so don't bite straight in. Dust with icing sugar through a sieve and serve warm.

   Add in this stepIcing sugar 2 tsp