Australia’s best vanilla slice bakery is doing something controversial to the beloved pastry

The bakery that was won Australia’s best vanilla slice is doing something wildly unusual to their snot blocks. And people are divided.

Some things are sacred to Australians.

The two-finger salute as you drive past another car on country roads; Not having to pay to go to the beach (and being able to get a stretch of sand all to yourself); Singing ‘You’re the Voice’ and ‘Horses’ loudly and off-key any time it comes on in a pub.

Our country-style bakeries are also sacred, and in particular, the pastry that seems to delight fans right across this sprawling land. The vanilla slice. Or “snot block”, as kids still call it in the school playground.

There is no doubting its popularity.

A while back I wrote about the cult vanilla slice in Alice Springs that is made with Sao biscuits instead of the traditional pastry base.

I can confirm, it’s not only a genius timesaving hack. It’s delicious. It’s why the often sell out.

The vanilla slice from Banana Boogie Bakery in SA was just named the best in all the land.

So I’m not opposed to tinkering with the vanilla slice recipe, but I must admit I did audibly gasp when I discovered what the bakery that just won the title of Australia’s best vanilla slice is doing to theirs.

In case you missed it, an Adelaide bakery was just crowned nation’s best vanilla slice makers.

Banana Boogie Bakery in Belair, South Australia took out the top gong at the Great Australian Vanilla Slice Triumph competition.

It is the first time a South Australian bakery has won the award.

Banana Boogie owner Jason Spencer told The Adelaide Advertiser the award was “incredible” after entering the vanilla slice competition six previous times without a win.

Spencer said the secret to the award-winning vanilla slice is “perfectly baked pastry and a nice cream custard”.

The Bridgewater Bakehouse in Victoria has one numerous prizes for their vanilla slice.

“We’ve been known as the vanilla slice bakery for a long time but to get that recognition from the industry is just amazing,” he said.

As a card-carrying member of The Best Vanilla Slices In Australia Facebook group (which has 120,000 members), the name of the bakery rang a bell.

Because somebody recently posted about the very same bakery doing deep fried vanilla slices.

While some people were intrigued and were keen to sample it, others thought it might be unnecessarily messing with perfection.

“I thought crimes like this were only committed in Scotland,” one person wrote.

The deep fried vanilla slice is served with ice cream, cream cheese, and chocolate ganache. It’s a cardiologist’s nightmare.

he deep fried vanilla slice at Banana Boogie Bakery. Image: @imhungrymax / Instagram

Adelaide food blogger @imhungrymax sampled the creation and wrote about Banana Boogie’s deep fried biscoff vanilla slice on Instagram.

“This is a creamy, crunchy happiness … a sweet treat you don’t want to miss out on, trust me,” they wrote.

So while we might be slightly dubious about deep frying a beloved national treasure, the fact is you can still get them in their original form at this bakery, and by all reports – and their new ‘best in the country’ title – they’re worth the road trip.

This article originally appeared on Escape and has been republished with permission