Prep: 15 mins | Cook: 5mins | Total: 20 mins | Serving: 8 | Yield: 2 1/2 cups
My grandmother described pastry cream as “the most outrageously decadent pudding you’ll ever eat” — and she’s right. Although I could eat it from the spoonful, pastry cream is meant to fill items like cream puffs, éclairs, and Boston cream cupcakes. Pastry Cream (or Creme Patissiere) is a classic aspect of pastry making, so learning it is an essential skill whether you want to bake, pastry, and dessert. Essentially cream patisserie is a sweet, warm, creamy thickened with starch and eggs. In many desserts, this is an essential aspect.
And this is the formula for producing pastry cream: a formula. There are little specific tweaks — some recipes use cornstarch instead of flour, and some people prefer using milk over heavy cream — but all come down to the same basic formula and the same basic method.
Ingredients:
2 cups of milk
¼ cup white sugar
(2) large egg yolks
(1) egg
¼ cup cornstarch
⅓ cup white sugar
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
In a heavy saucepan, add and stir milk and 1/4 cup of sugar. Bring to a boil over medium heat.
In a medium bowl, add and whisk the egg yolks and egg. Stir together the remaining sugar and cornstarch, and then stir them into the egg until smooth. Then drizzle it into the bowl in a thin stream when the milk comes to a boil while mixing so that you do not cook the eggs. Return the mixture to the saucepan and let it simmer gradually, to make sure the eggs on the bottom do not curdle or scorch you must stir constantly.
When the mixture comes to a boil and thickens, remove from the heat. Add and stir in the butter and vanilla, mixing until the butter is completely blended in. Put it into a heat-proof container and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled before using.
Nutrition Facts:
Per Serving: 151.3 calories; 87 mg cholesterol; 56.6 mg sodium; 3.5 g protein; 21.4 g carbohydrates.
