Most people think they have never had Creme patissiere or pastry cream, but you most likely have! It's the light custard filling often used for things like eclairs, profiteroles and tarts.
My boyfriend asked me to bake him something "with custard in it but not too custardy". After several attempts to understand what he meant, we discovered he wanted something with a pastry cream filling! He was very happy and absolutely devoured the Strawberry Custard Tarts I made. If you have a hankering for custard but you're not sure how to incorporate it, give this recipe a try!
Creme Patissiere (Pastry Cream)
The delicious light custard filling used in eclairs, profiteroles and many desserts
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Sieve
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups Whole Milk 600g
- 6 tablespoon Unsalted Butter 85g
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup White Sugar 100g
- 5 Egg Yolks
- 3 tablespoon Corn starch
- 1.5 tablespoon All-purpose Flour
Instructions
- Take two tablespoons of the sugar and put into a bowl along with the egg yolks, flour and cornflour - whisk to combine.½ cup White Sugar, 5 Egg Yolks, 1.5 tablespoon All-purpose Flour, 3 tablespoon Corn starch
- Put the remaining sugar into a suacepan with the milk and vanilla, slowly warm over a medium-low heat2 ½ cups Whole Milk, 2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- When it begins to get warm, drizzle a small amount of warm milk into the egg yolk mixture and whisk, then add a little more, repeat until everything is together in the bowl, then pour the whole mixture back into the saucepan. It's important to do this slowly and gradually so you don't scramble the eggs
- Keep heating the mixture, whisking constantly until it begins to boil. Boil for one minute or until you see thick bubbles bursting on the surface. Remove from the heat
- Pass the pastry cream through a sieve into a bowl to make sure there are no lumps
- Whisk in the butter one small piece at a time, making sure it melts into the mixture completely before adding the next piece
- Cover with cling wrap (make sure the cling wrap is touching the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin forming) and refrigerate for at least two hours. I like to make this the day before and let it sit overnight, but it can be used after 2 hours.
Notes
Make sure you whisk constantly while your custard is on the heat - if you let it sit you will end up with lumps of egg or burnt pastry cream!
When your pastry cream is ready, you will be able to coat the back of a spoon and run your finger through it to make a line - the line will not fill in, it should stay visible. This means your pastry cream is cooked enough.
If left to develop overnight, the custard has a much richer flavour - if you have time I highly recommend this!
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Kelly
We are in Canada, by corn flour do you mean corn starch the thickening agent?
Jules
Hi Kelly, Yes! Sorry, someone pointed out to me recently that a lot of North Americans are confused when I write 'corn flour' so I'm trying to write corn starch from now on and slowly changing my older recipes!
LavDev
Oh thank you for this recipe. I made this for my daughter's 6th birthday as she loves a good Vanilla pudding and she wanted a vanilla cake. If only I could share the pic. She and her friends LOVED the cake and the pastry inside. So a million thanks!