Home > Croatian Kremšnite Recipe (Croatian Custard Slice)
December 1, 2022September 30, 2023 | SJ
Written by our local expert SJ
Sarah-Jane has lived in Croatia for 10+ years. SJ, as she is known, has been traveling the Balkans & beyond since 2000. She now shares her passion for traveling with her husband & kids.
Crispy pastry and custard. Yes, please….!
Kremšnite is also known as krempite – which is a mix of crispy pastry and a wobbly type of custard. I have been known to eat way too big a serving of this sweet treat. Regularly. And by that, I mean my behind is wobbly for a reason. But let’s move on.
This type of custard dessert is popular in Croatian cooking and in many other European countries. Within Croatia, the regional recipe variations are many. However, two things stay the same. They all include a puff pastry base with custard inside.
Some have a layer of cream added to the top; others have two layers of pastry, and so on. No matter how you pronounce it or in what variation it comes, they’re all rather complicated to say no to. Trust me on this…
One of my food goals (yes, fat people have goals about food) was to learn how to make this as soon as I arrived here in Croatia. I can’t say that I make Croatian food without knowing how to make this custard slice of heaven.
I had no idea that making Kremšnite could be so simple, and now that I know, I wanted to share it with you.
Croatian Kremšnite Recipe (Custard Slice)
Here is how to make Croatian Kremšnite. This recipe has a crispy pastry and soft custard.
Ingredients
- 500 gram puff pastry sheets (we buy them, but you can make them fresh if you have time)
- 485 ml fresh milk
- 50 gram all-purpose flour
- 2 eggs + 2 egg yolks
- 100 gram white sugar
- 30 gram vanilla sugar
- 10 ml rum
- 395 ml whipping cream
- Icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
- Place the puff pastry on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and prick with a fork a few times and bake for 10 minutes - see the notes for more detail about the size
- Use a blender to mix eggs, yolks, flour, 250 ml of milk, 70 gr sugar, and 15 gr of vanilla sugar, and set aside
- Into a saucepan, pour 235 ml milk, 15 gr vanilla sugar, and rum and heat until boiling. Add the above mixture, stir and then cook over medium heat for about 15 minutes, constantly stirringly until the mixture is thick as a pudding - make sure it doesn't burn
- Place the first slice of puff pastry in a serving dish (we used one 25x25cm) and pour in the hot mixture. Refrigerate for 15 minutes
- Add 30 grams of sugar to the cream and whip till light and fluffy
- Remove the dish from the fridge and arrange a thin layer of whipped cream on top of the cream
- Place the second baked puff pastry on top and sprinkle with icing sugar to taste
- Cut the kremsnite into your desired-sized slices. We made them big and sliced them into six pieces - of course; you can make them much smaller
Notes
- When baking the pastry, we find it easier to precut the puff pastry to the size of the final serving dish. In the photos, we used a dish that was 25x25 cm. So we baked two pieces 24x24cm.
MORE CROATIAN & BALKAN RECIPES
- Meat and Cheese Burek
- Stuffed Peppers {Punjene Paprike}
- Klipići {rolls}
- Under the bell {Ispod čripnje}
- Pasticada Recipe
- Octopus Salad
- Prezgana Soup (Brown Roux Soup)
- Lazy Apple Pie {Lijena Pita s Jabukama}
- Stuffed Vine Leaves (Japrak)
- Zagorje Cheese Strukli
- Juha Od Rajčice s Taranom (Tomato Soup With Grated Dough)
- Slavonian Freshwater Fish Stew
- Gulaš (Traditional Goulash)
I’m a chef and caterer, but I tell clients to keep puff pastry in their freezers at all times. It’s so handy and easy to use, I’ve probably lost jobs by spreading this advice.
Reply
Tina, do you have a Croatian recipe you’d like to share?
Reply
I’ve never heard of this, but the idea of being able to make my own is very tempting. I can never say no to a good custard.
Reply
Ohhh Jess, the other version that have cream would be MUCH more to your liking.
Reply
Wow that sounds so yummy! I love good recipes, even if it is safer if I just don’t try to cook them…
Reply
Be brave…. you can’t burn the kitchen making custard…. wait, can you?
Reply
Custard slices are quite popular in England too but that looks yummy!! I’m looking forward to seeing your photos of the home-made version ;)
Reply
Mmm, I LOVE a good custard slice. I made some creme patisserie for a recipe the other day and did wonder if I could get it thick enough to use in a recipe like this. Looks great.
If you’d like, I’d love you to pop over and link this up to my weekly food linky, #recipeoftheweek. You’ll find it under ‘Food’ on my menu bar x
Reply
Thanks for the invite Emily. I added it, and will come and link up again this weekend and say hi over at your blog xx
Reply
Pinned! Thanks so much for linking up to #recipeoftheweek. There’s a new linky live now, so I do hope you’ll pop over and join in :)
Reply
Thanks, I did again this week. So many great recipes…YUM
Reply
Mmmmmmm! Voooolim kremšnite!
Reply
Oh these look lovely
Reply
Hvala {thanks} for stopping by Alison.
Reply
No? What do they put in it?
Reply
hee hee i think my bottom would be wobbly if i ate some of this but hey i would enjoy trying it! x
Reply
This looks good. I might have to try to make it some time.
Reply
Yes, do and blog about it as a guest on my site… wanna?
Reply
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
