I’m starting a new series of post in this blog called “basic recipes”. The name says it all, there will be some basic recipes that are easy to make and you may adapt in thousands ways. The first one is a sweet one, vanilla pastry cream basic recipe, and some tips and tricks on how to completely change its flavour.
I use part cream and part milk to make my pastry cream, for a more velvety texture and a more luscious flavour, but feel free to replace the cream with milk. I use different ways to add flavour like using spices: vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, or zest from orange or lemon, almond extract is also a very nice choice.
You may use pastry cream for many desserts: to fill tarts or pies, to fill layered cakes, to fill eclairs or muffins, or just eat it by spoon like a pudding with some fresh fruits aside. My little secret to make pastry cream is mixing everything together and cooking it in medium heat. You have to stir the mix for about 20 minutes, but on the other hand you don’t need to temper the eggs, or use many dishes.
If you’re wondering what to do with all the leftover egg whites I suggest you to make coconut macaroons, almond mini-muffins or sesame crisps.
Ingredients:
- 300 ml milk (1 & 1/4 cup)
- 200 ml (3/4 cup & 1 tbs) unsweetened cream – you may replace it by milk and use 500 ml milk (2 cups & 1 tbs) in total
- 2/3 cups sugar
- 5 egg yolks
- 4 tbs corn-starch
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Other options to add flavor: Lemon zest, orange zest, almond extract, cinnamon, cardamom etc.
Note : 1 cup – a standard cup of 240 ml
Directions:
- Mix everything together in a dip medium sauce pan until the mixture is homogeneous.
- Put it in medium heat and cook stirring continuously until it thickens and big bubbles start appearing in the surface (around 15-20 minutes).
- Remove from the heat, put it in a glass bowl and cover with plastic kitchen rap, so it doesn’t form a crust at the top.
- Let it cool completely before using.
