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.

Tips and Tools Tuesday: Vanilla Beans

I've been baking for quite awhile but I always avoided using real vanilla beans because those little suckers are EXPENSIVE! I used to hate recipes that would call for expensive and exotic ingredients because the whole benefit of cooking and baking at home is to cut the cost down. I didn't like the idea of finding one particular ingredient for just one recipe so I either didn't use the recipe or found a reasonable substitute. Just about everywhere I looked for vanilla beans it was about $7-10 for 2 beans. In my mind they either need to be filled with liquid gold or vanilla extract would just have to be a good enough substitute.

When planning out my sisters wedding cake I decided that I need to splurge and buy vanilla beans for her vanilla raspberry cake layer. While compiling resources and doing extensive research I discovered that Costco has amazing prices on vanilla beans. I was nearly brought to tears as I read the sign. 10 beans for $12. You better believe that I stocked up and that the cashier thought I was absolutely nuts. The best part (aside from the price) about the Costco vanilla beans is that they come in glass tubes (5 in a tube). When you uncork them the smell is absolutely heavenly. They do have expiration dates on them but they can be frozen.

So, the question that is begging to be asked; is it worth it? In my humble opinion - for just a little over a dollar per bean, completely and absolutely 100% yes. I am still pretty stingy with the vanilla beans but always use them when the vanilla flavor is being showcased such as in pastry cream (vanilla custard) and in vanilla cakes. There is such a difference and I really don't think I'll make pastry cream again without using them. To make it even more valuable; vanilla beans can be used in 2 ways. The most common is to split the bean and scrape out the seeds and incorporate that into the recipe. But, if you save the emptied pod you can add it the milk you're going to use for the pastry cream and let it soak. I even take it a step further and leave the pod in while boiling the milk in preparation to make the pastry cream. People also put their emptied pods to their sugar supply to allow the flavor to be soaked into the sugar. Either way, the vanilla bean definitely performs double duty.

For the next tips and tools tuesday I'll post a recipe for pastry cream and provide some awesome ideas for how to use it.