Pastry Cream or Crème Pâtissière

Did you end up with too many egg yolks after baking and frosting cakes? I say…

Keep Calm and Make some Custard

Avoid Wastage and Make some Custard

Earn extra income and Make some Custard

Indulge and Make some Custard

First thing that comes to mind when custard is mentioned creamy and egg yolks. In French culinary, the term custard or crème moulée refer to egg-thickened (custard), while the starch-thickened refer to pudding preparation. In general, custard is a variety of cooking preparation of egg yolk and milk or cream mixture, from thin sauce of crème anglaise to thick dessert filling of crème pâtissière. As Alton Brown implied the higher the egg to dairy ratio the stiffer and thicker the custard, which could be applied to any cooking or heating methods, like boiling, steaming, baking to even pressurizing. The endgame for this dessert foundation is creaminess without the eggy, pasty or over whelming vanilla flavor.

This is my basic custard recipes, the culmination of collections of crème pâtissière recipes that suit my discriminating taste.

My Basic Custard 1: Crème Pâtissière

Ingredients:

4 large                                egg yolks

1 teaspoon                         kosher salt*

½ cup                                 granulated white sugar

¼ cup                                 corn starch* 

2 cups                                milk

1/3 pod                               vanilla bean*

4 tablespoons                     cold butter, cubed

Procedures:

1.  In a mixing bowl, combine egg yolks (or 1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks), kosher salt (or ½ teaspoon of fine salt), white sugar and corn starch (or 2 tablespoons of cake flour and 2 tablespoons of corn starch, shifted and added last). Beat with a French whisk until pale yellow in color and thickens to a point the drip will stay on top of the mixture before disappearing. Then, set aside.

2.  Prepare the vanilla pod, split the pod and scrap the bean with the back of a paring knife and add to milk. Note to self: Save the scraped vanilla pod and stick it in the sugar container.

3.   In a heavy duty 2-3 qt sauce pan, scald the milk by adding a pinch of sugar and heating under medium-high, stirring occasionally, until it is about to simmer. When bubbles appear remove milk from the heat and slowly incorporate to the egg mixture.

4.  Stabilize the egg mixture bowl with a towel, slowly splash a small amount of milk mixture into the egg mixture while whisking, to temper. Once tempered, slowly add while whisking the rest of the milk into the egg mixture. Once incorporated give it a mix for a full minute then transfer back the mixture into the heavy-duty sauce pan while passing through a fine strainer or sieve with mesh size of 1/32 to strain fibers of vanilla seed and other impurities.

5.  Place in a medium-low heat (or medium heat if you are brave enough) and whisk until mixture thickens enough that it coats the back of the spoon.

6.  Turn off and remove from the heat. (If not using a vanilla pod this is the time to add 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and mix). Sit for 5 minutes before whisking the butter for rich and glossy texture.

7.  Then transfer the warm pastry cream to a chilled bowl or pan, cover with plastic wrap right down to the cream to avoid skin formation and chill thoroughly.

 

This is a simple crème pâtissière recipe that could be use as fillings for crème puffs, pies, tarts and layered cakes. I hope you will give this try and share your thoughts down below. And watch out for the Lemon-flavored of crème pâtissière and Orange-flavored crème anglaise recipes, by following so you would not missed it. Do you find this recipe lacking? Please feel free to post your reactions, suggestions, and corrections as it would help cook better dessert and create better content for this blog. Thank you!

As always enjoy cooking!

Reference and Inspired by

1.  Brown, Alton. (2009). Goods Eats: The Early Years (Book 1). USA: Stewart, Tabori & Chang.

2.  Chef John. (2016, December 2). Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream Recipe – How to Make Pastry Cream Filling [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2016/12/my-dream-vanilla-bean-pastry-cream.html

3.  BakeLikeAPro. (2012, May 4). Easy, Authentic French Pastry Cream Recipe. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SPmmRRX4_I

4.  Cooking with Dog. (2013, June 9). Cream Puffs with Exquisite Cream Recipe (Crispy Choux Crème). [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYHGO4rvelo.