Pain au Raisin
 
 
Buttery, flaky pastry. Delicious, rich vanilla custard. Soused raisins and prunes. Delicious.
Author:
Ingredients
For the custard:
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tsp plain flour
  • ½ cup milk
  • vanilla bean or vanilla extract
For the fruit:
  • ¾ cup dried fruit (I used half prunes, half raisins, but any combo is awesome)
For the pastry:
  • ¼ cup (65ml) warm water
  • ½ cup (125ml) milk
  • 1 large egg
  • 2¼ cups (375g) plain flour
  • 2 tsp active dried yeast
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 2 sticks (250g) butter, cold, cut into small (1/2 inch/1 cm)
Instructions
  1. To make the custard, whisk together all the ingredients in a small saucepan. Place the pan on a medium heat and bring up to a simmer, whisking constantly. Once the mixture is bubbling, keep cooking, stirring constantly for about a minute, and then scrape into a small bowl, cover with plastic and chill in the fridge.
  2. To make the fruit, place the fruit in a bowl and cover with hot water. Leave to steep in the fridge overnight.
  3. To make the pastry, whisk together the water, milk and egg. Place the flour, yeast, salt and sugar into a large bowl and toss in the cold cubed butter.
  4. Add the liquid to the flour, and stir everything together, until the flour is absorbed and the butter evenly distributed. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
  5. The next morning, generously flour your work surface, and roll out the pastry, flattening out the butter cubes as you roll, into a large 13x9inch (33x22cm) rectangle. Fold the pastry in thirds, like a letter, so the bottom edge comes up and the top edge comes down, and then roll the rectangle back out the same size. Repeat this process 3 more times.
  6. Roll the pastry out one final time, and spread with the chilled custard. Scatter over the soaked fruit (discarding any remaining liquid). Roll the rectangle up tightly, starting from the short edge.
  7. Cut the log into 10 rounds, laying them onto a lined baking sheet. Set the pastries aside to rise for 15 minutes, while the oven preheats to 190C.
  8. When the 15 minutes is up, bake the pastries for 20-25 minutes, or until dark golden brown. Leave to cool for at least 10 minutes, and then have at 'em!
Recipe by The Sugar Hit at http://www.thesugarhit.com/dev/2014/09/pain-au-raisin-recipe.html