This is a super delicious recipe which I have tweaked to my liking. It is the classic pastry cream recipe you will find in most publications, however, the quantities I use makes this pastry cream not too rich and thick. This was done by reducing the amount of cornstarch, egg yolk and sugar.
The cornstarch is used to thicken the pastry cream. The egg yolks will add richness and also help thicken. The sugar is purely for sweetness, but too much will make it super rich. My recipe will detail the quantities if you want to adjust these.
I find the published recipe below has the perfect consistency for fruit tarts, however, for using in mille feuille, I would go slightly thicker. I have also reduced the sugar which, believe me, is still sweet enough. This pastry can be used in flans, mille feuille, doughnuts and anything else you can think of.
Check out my Instagram @food.bysaba for ideas on how to use in fruit tarts.
Pastry Cream
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Whisk
- Measuring Cup
- Kitchen Scales
Ingredients
- 500 ml milk
- 5 g vanilla bean paste or 1 vanilla pod, split length-ways (see Notes)
- 4 egg yolks (approx 62 g sized egg with shell. Add extra yolk for richer pastry cream)
- 1 egg (approx 62 g sized egg with shell)
- 80 g castor sugar
- 10 g plain flour
- 30 g cornflour (use 35 g for thicker pastry cream)
- 1-2 g salt
Instructions
- List of ingredients…
- Sift the flours and sugar together with a pinch of salt in a medium bowl.
- Place the milk and vanilla bean in a saucepan and heat over medium heat to a simmer, just before boiling (see Notes).
- While the milk is being heated, add the egg yolks to the bowl of flour/sugar and whisk until it is light in colour (see Notes).
- Remove saucepan from heat and remove the vanilla pod (if used).
- Pour half the milk very slowly into the egg yolk mixture, constantly whisking but not too fast (see Notes).
- Pour the egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan that contains the other half of the milk.
- Return the saucepan to a low-medium heat, while whisking at normal speed.
- Eventually the mixture will thicken after about 1-2 min (forming clumps, which is normal), however keep whisking.
- Keep whisking as the custard comes to a boil and keep doing this for about 2 min to keep cooking the flour out.
- Remove from heat and spread the pastry cream on a tray to cool quickly or eat hot (yum!).
- Cover the surface of the custard with baking paper or plastic wrap so a skin doesn’t form.
- Leave to cool down to room temperature before chilling in the fridge.
- Use as needed (see Notes).
Notes
- I use good quality vanilla bean paste as it’s easier than splitting vanilla beans and scraping seeds.
- I slowly stir milk from time to time so that milk doesn’t stick to the bottom of the saucepan.
- Use a wet cloth to put the bowl on so that when you whisk, it keeps it steady and stops it from slipping/spinning.
- I put half the milk mixture in a milk pouring jug so that when I mix with the yolks, it’s easier to pour slowly without making a mess.
- If you fridge the pastry cream, it will firm up. I will whisk it to make it soft and fluffy again before using. It may contain small lumps throughout it, but that’s OK. If you can beat out the lumps, then even better.
- If you are making a thicker pastry cream, it will firm up considerably after chilling. I use a stick blender to make it soft and fluffy again.
- Also, if you want, whip up some cream and fold it through for a lighter texture.