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Creme Patissiere

Welcome back! 
Today, we have a recipe for a baking essential: Creme Patissiere, aka Pastry Cream! Creme Patissiere is a type of custard that is used in a wide variety of delectable desserts, like Fruit Tarts or Cream Puffs. It's a technique that you'll want to develop in order to broaden your repertoire of baked goods, but thankfully, it's not hard at all to master.

Creme Patissiere

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups milk
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup cake flour
  • 2 tablespoons corn starch
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/2 vanilla bean

Directions:

  1. Take the cake flour, corn starch, and 1/2 cup of milk and mix until there are no specks of flour left. The mixture should be very smooth.
  2. Put the egg yolks into this mixture and mix them in smoothly.
  3. Put the rest of the milk (1 1/2 cup) and the sugar in another pot. If you're using vanilla bean, scrape the seeds into the pot, adding the pod in as well. Heat this on a stove and mix. 
  4. Once the milk is bubbling slightly at the edges, but not yet boiling, pour the milk into the first bowl and whisk it while pouring. Pay special attention to this step to avoid scrambling the eggs.
  5. Put the entire mixture over the stove again on low heat and mix continuously until it becomes thick and custardy. Make sure it does not stick to the bottom or burn.
  6. Remove the pot from the heat. Add the butter and, if you used it, the vanilla extract and mix.

This recipe tends to be a crucial components for desserts, so you want to have the best ingredients that make it really shine. That's why we like to use vanilla beans instead of extract for this. Also, this recipe makes creme patissiere in specific but the technique is very similar for other custards - including creme anglaise, which is used for ice cream and creme brulee. When using this for tarts, you could also add in some gelatin to help the tart retain its structure when served.

-Chefpo

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