Smooth, silky custard based filling for pastries and desserts.
Prep Time25 minutesmins
Total Time25 minutesmins
Servings: 900g
Ingredients
2 ½cupsWhole Milk600g
5Egg Yolks
2teaspoonVanilla Extract
½cupWhite Sugar100g
3tablespoonCorn starch
1.5tablespoonAll-purpose Flour
½teaspoonSalt
4sticksButter450g *see notes
Instructions
Make the Pastry Cream (custard)
Take two tablespoons of the total sugar and put it into a bowl along with the egg yolks, flour, cornstarch and salt - whisk to combine and then set aside.
5 Egg Yolks, ½ cup White Sugar, 3 tablespoon Corn starch, 1.5 tablespoon All-purpose Flour, ½ teaspoon Salt
Put the remaining sugar into a saucepan with the milk and vanilla, slowly warm over a medium heat.
2 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 thicken and boil. Boil for one minute. When it's ready you should be able to coat the back of a spoon and draw a line in it with your finger.. Remove from the heat.
Pass the pastry cream through a sieve into a bowl to make sure there are no lumps. At this point, if you want to be precise, you can weigh your pastry cream to calculate how much butter to add for different uses (see notes or blog post above). But for a firm creme mousseline that sets like mousse, the quantities in the recipe card should work great.
Cover with cling wrap (make sure the cling wrap is touching the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin forming) and let it cool completely. Don't place in the fridge at this point, just let it come to room temperature.
Make Crème Mousseline
Remove butter from the fridge about an hour before using. It should be room temperature but not too soft. Your pastry cream should also be at room temperature, it should not be warm any more from cooking, but you shouldn't have placed it in the fridge yet, so it will be perfectly room temp.
Whip the butter on high speed until very pale and creamy - about 3 minutes.
4 sticks Butter
Add the pastry cream 1 tablespoon at a time, whipping on medium speed for 20 seconds in between each addition.
Once all the pastry cream is incorporated, turn the mixer on high again and whip for a further minute.
If you are pouring into a mould or pastry ring, do so right away before the crème mousseline has a chance to set.
Notes
*The amount of butter used should typically be calculated based on how much pastry cream you are left with after cooking. You should weigh the pastry cream and then add equal amounts of butter. If you don't have a scale, this recipe should make roughly 450g pastry cream (4 sticks or 2 cups of butter). This recipe will make a thick creme mousseline that will set firm in the fridge - perfect to use for mousse cakes or molded desserts. If you would like a softer consistency of creme mousseline, use half of the butter.For more info see section above in blog post about using different ratios to get various thicknesses and uses.