Crème Pâtissière

Creme patissiere, or pastry cream, is an egg-thickened sweet custard, commonly flavoured with vanilla. Made from just a handful of ingredients, it is one of the basic component a chef patissier has to learn. Pastry cream is used across a wide range of desserts so once you've mastered it, the options are limitless.

Crème Pâtissière (makes about 2 cups)
(recipe from Ladurée: Sucré The Recipes)

 400g     Milk, full fat
      1     Vanilla Bean (or 5g Vanilla Extract)
      4     Egg yolks
   80g     Caster Sugar
   15g     Cornstarch (aka corn flour)
   25g     Butter, unsalted

1. Slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise, and scrape out the seeds. Pour the milk in a saucepan and add the vanilla pod and seeds. Bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, and cover immediately. Allow to infuse for 15 minutes.

2. In a large bowl whisk the egg yolk and sugar until slightly pale. Incorporate the cornstarch. 

3. Remove the vanilla pod from the milk, and bring to a simmer. Pour 1/3 of the milk over the egg yolk mixture (to temper the egg yolks) , and whisk together. Pour the egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan. Bring to a boil while stirring constantly with a whisk, until thickened.

4. Remove the creme patisserie from the heat and pour into a clean bowl. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, and then incorporate the butter. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool and set. 

Thoughts: Creme patissiere is smooth, rich and creamy, making it a favourite in the pastry world. Minor adjustments can be done to alter the pastry cream for your application. Increasing the amount of butter will make it creamier, but adding too much will make it too "oily". Instead of vanilla, you can easily make it into chocolate, lemon or other flavours. To make it less rich, substitute with whole eggs instead of just egg yolks. Although personally, I prefer to lighten it by folding in some whipped cream.

A versatile component with many uses -- as a frosting for cakes or making into Crème Diplomat then literally filling it into cakes (Hokkaido cupcakes). And of course, it is the classic filling in profiteroles or éclairs. Sandwich it with 3 pieces of pâte feuilletée and you'll have a mille-feuille (aka Napoleon). Fill a blind baked pâte sucrée with it, topped with fresh, seasonal fruits and you'll get an ever-popular fruit tart. Another irresistible option is to do that with berries. Perhaps the simplest way is to layer it with sponge biscuits, fruits, cream, maybe some jelly and you've just whipped up a trifle! A dessert without having to crank up the oven.

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