tips and Tools Tuesday: Pastry Cream!

Ok, first things first, what the heck is this stuff? To simplify, pastry cream is the best tasting vanilla pudding you'll have. It's basically just a custard. Here's a fabulous recipe from Epicurious:

• 2 1/4 cups whole milk
• 6 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
  

preparation

In medium bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup milk, egg yolks, 1/3 cup sugar, and cornstarch.

Transfer remaining 1 3/4 cups milk to heavy medium saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add pod. Sprinkle remaining 1/3 cup sugar over, letting sugar sink undisturbed to bottom. Set pan over moderate heat and bring to simmer without stirring.

Whisk hot milk mixture, then gradually whisk into egg yolk mixture. Return to saucepan over moderate heat and cook, whisking constantly, until pastry cream simmers and thickens, about 1 minute. Remove from heat, discard vanilla pod, and whisk cream until smooth. Transfer to bowl and press plastic wrap directly onto surface. Chill until cold, about 4 hours. (Pastry cream can be made ahead and refrigerated, wrapped well with plastic wrap on surface, up to 3 days.)

I wouldn't change a thing except maybe use potato starch instead of corn starch. When heated a lot or overcooked the corn starch can give off a slightly metallic taste so I like to use potato starch just in case.

Ok, so now you have a fabulous bowl of pastry cream. What to do?

Puff pastry fresh fruit tarts or even just mini pies will pastry cream filling and fresh fruit on top

Eclairs/Cream Puffs

Filling of a cake

Parfait cups

Trifle cake

Don't forget to mess around with the flavoring! The last batch of pastry cream I made I added just a hint of almond extract and it blew my socks off.