To introduce what a Pastry cream is , it is nothing but basically custard and they work amazing in so many varieties of pastries such as Eclairs, Profiteroles, Mille feuille and so on.
Whenever I make a basic fruit tart, this is the filling that goes inside regardless of what fruits I decide to put on top. (Find my tart base recipe here.)
My favourite toppings are always mixed berries, but I do use a variety of seasonal fruits such as mango, kiwi or grapes from time to time as well. And adding a sugar glaze on top, makes it look so beautiful and helps the fruits from browning.
You can also make my Cream Filled Doughnuts using this as the filling.
If you thought making pastry cream from scratch at home is a tricky task, you will be in for a surprise!
It is actually really easy to make and it gets ready in no time. I sometimes use just the custard, and other times I love to make it richer and creamier by stirring it along with additional whipping cream.
This is also called as Diplomat cream, a 1:1 ratio of custard and whipping cream.
For this recipe, I have not made the cream very sweet, just because when it comes to pastries, we often balance the custard with other sweeter elements and it doesn’t always work if it’s too sugary.
However if you do want it sweeter, I would recommend adding a few more tablespoons of sugar before cooking the custard or add more later when making the whipping cream.
Finally, we got the recipe below and I would love to see what pastries or desserts you add these into.
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Pastry cream for Fruit tarts, Doughnuts and other pastries
Course: DessertsDifficulty: Easy15
minutes10
minutesIngredients
- For Basic Pastry Cream/ Custard
4 Large egg yolks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp corn flour
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup milk
2 Tsp vanilla essence (or vanilla bean paste for an even better flavour)
1 Tbsp butter
- For Whipped Cream (Optional)
1 cup heavy double cream
1 Tsp Vanilla essence
1 Tbsp icing sugar (add more if you want it sweeter)
Directions
- In a pot on medium heat, add milk and vanilla essence. Let it boil.
- While you wait for the milk to come to a boil, whisk in the egg yolks and granulated sugar in a seperate bowl, until it becomes pale yellow in colour.
- Sift in corn flour and all-purpose flour into the egg yolk mixture and stir. Keep aside.
- Once the milk comes to a boil, turn off heat. Temper the eggs by slowly adding boiled milk into the egg mixture, whisking continuously ensuring the egg yolks don’t get cooked.
- Once they are both well incorporated together, put it back into the saucepan and turn on heat to medium and while whisking continuously, let it thicken. Takes just a few minutes.
- When it reaches a slightly thick custard consistency, remove from heat, pour in a bowl and cover with cling directly on the custard and let it chill. You could transfer it to a fridge as well.
- You could use this pastry cream as it is or turn it into a Diplomat Cream by mixing it with the whipped cream as well.
- For making the whipped cream, just put the cold heavy cream, vanilla and icing sugar in a medium-large bowl and whip it using an electric beater until it forms stiff peaks.
- Fold the whipped cream into the pastry cream and your Diplomat cream is ready to use in any pastry, dessert of your choice!
