Pastry Cream
Pastry cream for a trifle © kvalifood.com
Recipe with video - One of the most versatile creams is plain pastry cream. It is simply a vanilla custard with a little cornstarch added, but that makes it remarkably robust and flexible.
Ingredients
- ½ l cream
- 3 eggs
- 150 g sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
Directions
Put the cornstarch in a saucepan.
Add a little cream and stir until all the lumps are gone.
Add the rest of the ingredients.
Heat over medium, stirring constantly, until the cream thickens. You will know when it is ready.
Notes
If you are not used to making creams from scratch and usually buy a packet of powder from the supermarket, that is pastry cream you get out of those packets — except the taste is not even close to comparable.
Unlike plain vanilla custard, pastry cream is not very sensitive to heat. That is also why you can bake with it. The cornstarch reinforces the egg proteins so they do not curdle.
In the video my method is slightly different. That is simply because I am too lazy to wash an extra bowl for weighing. So I do it directly in the saucepan. But the principle is the same — I stir out the cornstarch first with a little cream so it does not clump.
Variation
This cream can be used directly anywhere pastry cream is called for. But if you have a recipe where it will not be baked, it is often nice to take a portion of this pastry cream and fold it together with whipped cream from ½ litre of cream. It becomes less sweet and lighter.
That variation works well in fruit salads, trifles, layer cakes, and as a filling in choux pastry, and so on.
If you use homemade vanilla sugar, your cream may turn slightly brownish, as the vanilla pods give some colour. The flavour is just as good.