Pastry cream

Pastry cream or crème pâtissière belongs to the custard family and is widely used in pastry as a filling, for decoration but also as a base for other types of cream and desserts. It has a rich, thick and creamy texture and it can be flavored in different ways.

 

Ingredients

•  500ml milk
• 120g egg yolk (6 yolks)
• 125 sugar
• 55g flour, sifted
• 1 vanilla pod or the zest of 1 lemon
• (120g dark chocolate for chocolate pastry cream)

Pour the milk into a saucepan and add the zest of one lemon or a vanilla pod cut open lengthways. Set it over a medium heat and bring it to a simmer. Take the pan off the stove and leave the zest or the vanilla pod to infuse in the milk for some minutes.

In the meantime, put the egg yolk into a bowl and add the sugar, whisking them together. Then whisk in the flour you have already sifted to avoid lumps.

Remove the vanilla pod or the lemon zest from the milk using a skimmer or a sieve, then set the pan on a medium heat and bring the milk to the boil. As soon as the it comes to the boil, pour it onto the mixture in the bowl while stirring with the whisk. Then pour the mixture into the pan and bring it to boil over a medium heat while stirring with a wooden spoon or a maryse spatula. Let it bubble for a couple of minutes, then put it into a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. The plastic wrap should be touching the cream surface to prevent the skin forming. 

Pastry cream can ne kept in the fridge for up to three days. 

(To make chocolate pastry cream, add 120g finely chopped dark chocolate to the pastry cream and stir thoroughly before cooling)