Pastry: Thankfully dark and flaky, but too much of it 9/10
Presentation: Triple layer, crumbly pastry everywhere, bit of a mess 5/10
Value for money: $6.50 - Huge portion, filling but greatly overpriced 6/10
Overall score: 6.5/10
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Filling: Subtle vanilla flavoured custard 6/10
Pastry: Thankfully dark and flaky, but too much of it 9/10 Presentation: Triple layer, crumbly pastry everywhere, bit of a mess 5/10 Value for money: $6.50 - Huge portion, filling but greatly overpriced 6/10 Overall score: 6.5/10
Sneakily hiding in a quiet back street of Moonee Ponds lurks an Artisan Bakery, only today discovered. With a wallet full of cash I inspected the vanilla slice and was undecided about the outcome. The pastry looked extremely flaky, but I wasn’t certain it was fresh. At a colossal $6.50, I’m pleased to inform that the portion was in keeping with the price tag. Nevertheless, I took the beast home and sat it down with a knife in hand. Thankfully, when turned on to its side, with a sharp blade resting on the pastry, resistance was immediately felt and my anxiety subsided. The pastry in fact was excellent; super rich, salty, baked dark brown and a very worthy addition to the slice. The custard was somewhat average in comparison. With notably less custard to pastry, it almost got lost between the dominant layers of the good stuff. There was undoubtedly a hint of vanilla, but little else. Artisan in name, Artisan in price, but not really Artisan in vanilla slices.
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Filling: Deliciously sweet, creamy vanilla custard 9/10
Pastry: Thin with excellent biscuity crunch 9/10 Presentation: Run of the mill , square shaped with glossy white icing 7.5/10 Value for money: $4.60 - Medium portion, fresh and satisfying 8/10 Overall score: 8.4/10
With Horsham being a good half way pit stop between Adelaide and Melbourne, I fancied a late afternoon vanilla slice after the somewhat disappointing effort from Keith earlier in the day, Conways popped up on Google as having an excellent slice, so I drove through the town in search of greatness, I was not disappointed either. The slice sells for $4.60, which is slightly higher than most country towns selling similar sized and presented products. It’s presentation is typically Victorian, having now seen many insane varieties in neighbouring states. It was refreshing to have a flaky, crispy crunch from each bite. The delicately thin layers proved sturdy, functional and easy to chow down on. The custard too was very well constructed; sweet, creamy, vanilla flavoured and a nice, smooth, sticky viscosity. The icing was thin, simple and offset the pastry well, while not leaving sticky finger prints for my efforts. Overall a very good vanilla slice, potentially just a little overpriced.
Filling: Heavily set, discoloured edges but oddly nice 7.5/10
Pastry: Woefully inadequate 0.5/10 Presentation: Homemade, lacking style 3/10 Value for money: $5.50 - Medium portion, stale and parts inedible 2/10 Overall score: 3.25/10
Heading back to Melbourne, the 2 year old needed a park break to let off some steam. We pulled into Keith and sat in the sun whilst Mrs B went to a nearby cafe. She returned with a focaccia for me and a “quite good” looking vanilla slice according to her. Good is not how I would describe its aesthetics; instantly noticeable was the discoloured custard edge, the pale and wet looking pastry sheets and the light, patchy dusting of icing sugar on top.
Nevertheless, always grateful, I used my wooden cutlery to take it apart and taste each element. One 5 cent piece of pastry is all I needed to know that I wouldn’t eat any more. Tasting exactly how it looks, it’s wet, oily, soft texture put me right off. Instead I chose to eat the custard from between the two limp layers. The custard was not a good texture either; set with gelatine and resembling more of a custard jelly. It was however, surprisingly tasty with notable vanilla bean speckles running through. It was creamy and sweet and although somewhat confusing in texture I enjoyed the flavour. Excellent park in Keith by the way. The train track ride on was so much fun for the 2 year old and the rest of the family!
Filling: Lots of fresh, creamy custard 7.5/10
Pastry: White as a ghost and no crunch 3/10 Presentation: Rudimentary, but good proportion of custard 7/10 Value for money: $4.60 - Large portion, fresh but no mind blowing 6/10 Overall score: 5.9/10
Many in this neck of the woods consider Dulwich to have the best vanilla slices. I also read that they smashed the world record in 2016 for the biggest vanilla slice, weighing in at over 800kg. With most place shut due to the Labour Day public holiday, Dulwich remained open and were ideal candidates for a visit en route to the zoo.
My first thoughts were that that the slice could swing either way. Though large and proportionally good, the pastry looked rather anemic and the icing potentially too thick. My suspicions rang true when picking up the beast for the first time, I immediately felt a soft and disappointingly pale pastry. It allowed for pick up, but little else. It lacked crunch and really should have been better for a bakery chain with a big rep. The custard was pretty good; sweet, creamy and lots of it. I admit that I did drop some on the floor with a few messy bites. The icing was excellent to end on a positive. Though quite thick, it was super melty and required some a serious wipes to remove from each holding finger. |
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January 2022
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