A crème patissière is used very frequently in french patisseries and is present in so many classic french desserts. In most desserts, it is flavoured with vanilla but is also commonly flavoured with chocolate or coffee-like in éclairs for example.
I have made lots of crèmes patissières and used failed most of them. It's only recently that I have established a few tips and tricks to get a recipe that works every time.
Most of the problems with the crèmes patissières that I had made was either that it had lumps or that it hadn't thickened up in the pan. Now I realize what I had done wrong and if you also sometimes get the same disappointing results, these tips should help you along with the list and measurements of the ingredients.
So many examples of recipes can be made using crèmes patissière, for example, these chocolate and vanilla eclairs with caramelised hazelnuts.
Tips
This might sound very basic but it is very important to get all your ingredients ready and your mixtures ready to not have problems.
In most recipes, the first step you do is heat the milk until it boils and then move on to whisk the egg yolks but for me, that never gives me enough time to do what I need to do. So the first step to do is to get your egg yolk mixture ready.
Whisk your egg yolks very energetically with the sugar before adding the cornflour and flour. You want to whisk your egg yolks until they become really pale in colour and become thicker.
Once your egg yolk mixture is combined with the milk and it is in a saucepan on the hob, whisk energetically without stopping once. In most recipes, they tell you to simply whisk in a circular motion but they don't say to whisk energetically. When you whisk energetically, your mixture will be ready much quicker and become very elastic.
Your pastry cream is ready when it is detaching itself from the sides and bottom of the saucepan.
To make sure your milk doesn't burn and stick to your saucepan, coat the bottom of your saucepan with part of your caster sugar.
If your pastry cream isn't thickening after you have done all that, it probably means that your ratio of egg yolks to milk isn't good, to have a perfect pastry cream every time, follow this recipe.
To ensure extra smoothness and silkiness, add in a little butter at the end and blitz the cream with a stick blender.
Ingredient
4 egg yolks
60 grams caster sugar (of which some of it you will use to coat your saucepan)
1/2 tsp of salt
25 grams cornflour
25 grams plain flour
450 ml milk (full-fat or semi-skimmed)
1 teaspoon vanilla powder (this is something really nice to add, it gives a sweet but light flavour of vanilla).
30 g butter
For coffee-flavoured crème patissière:
2 teaspoons of instant coffee granules
For vanilla-flavoured crème patissière:
1 vanilla pod's worth of seed OR 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste
Recipe
Coat the bottom of your medium-size saucepan with some of your caster sugar and set aside. (this step will prevent your milk from burning and sticking to your saucepan.
Put the rest of your sugar in a bowl with your egg yolks and whisk for about 2 minutes, until the mixture is pale and forms a ribbon.
Then sift in your flour and cornflour and whisk until combined.
Place your milk and vanilla seeds (if you are making a vanilla flavoured-pastry cream) or instant coffee granules (if you are making a coffee-flavoured pastry cream) into your prepared saucepan and place on the hob on low heat.
Once the milk is at a simmer and is nearly boiling, pour half of it into the egg yolk mixture and whisk thoroughly until combined.
Pour your mixture back into the saucepan where the other half of milk is and place back onto the hob.
Whisk very quickly without stopping until the mixture thickens, this usually takes 30 seconds.
Once the mixture starts detaching itself from the bottom and sides of the saucepan, take off the heat and add in the butter. Mix until melted.
If you want to ensure extra smoothness, blitz your pastry cream with a stick blender.
Storing tip: To store this pastry cream in the fridge, make sure you contact film it with cling-film, meaning the clingfilm must touch the pastry cream or else a skin will develop.
Now your pastry cream is ready to be used in whatever you like.
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