John Paul II's Favourite Cream Cakes

Dough: 250g flour; 250g unsalted butter or margarine; 500 ml water; 1 egg yolk; 1 tbsp vinegar; pinch of salt
Filling: 500 ml milk; 100g sugar; 100 g package of vanilla pudding; 4 eggs; 1 package of vanilla sugar or 1/5 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Combine one-third of sifted flour with butter. When well mixed, form into a cube and store in a cool place.

To the remainder of flour add egg yolk, vinegar, water and salt, and kneed into elastic, non-sticky dough. Place in a cool place for at least 15 minutes. Then roll it to form a square, place the cooled shortbread cube in the middle, and wrap it in the rolled dough.

Roll the wrapped cube to 1 cm (0.4 in) thickness, fold three times, roll again, and repeat this 3 - 4 times, in 20-minutes intervals.

Attention: to save time and effort you can simply purchase ready to bake French dough.

Divide the dough into two parts and roll to 1/2 cm (0.2 in) thickness. Place two identical rectangles on a rectangular baking sheet (ungreased, rinced in cold water), pierce with fork and bake in approx. 400F (205C)until golden in colour and double in quantity.

Prepare filling: small quantity of milk combine with yolks, pudding powder and half of the sugar. Pour into boiling milk while mixing. add vanilla sugar or extract. Cook into heavy pudding.

Beat egg whites with the remaining sugar untill stiff, add gradually to the hot pudding.

Remove baked pastry from the oven. Spread hot filling on one of the rectangles, cover with the second, making sure to have a smooth surface on the top. Cut into squares with a very sharp, thin knife. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

For a French version of this recipe cover the cooked filling with a layer of whipped cream (whipped with a bit of sugar) before covering with the second rectangle of French pastry.