Crème pâtissière
This recipe makes juuuuust a wee bit too little to fill the 24 puffs made by the Pâte à choux recipe. By using every last little bit, we filled 22 of the 24 puffs.
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- 6 large egg yolks
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- ¼ cup cornstarch, sifted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon rum
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Directions
- Heat milk in a small saucepan until hot but not simmering.
- Whisk yolks, sugar, and salt in a large saucepan until mixture is thick and lemon-colored, 3 to 4 minutes. Add cornstarch; whisk to combine.
- Slowly whisk in hot milk. Cook milk mixture over medium-low heat, whisking constantly and scraping pan bottom and sides as you stir, until mixture thickens to a thick pudding consistency and loses all traces of raw starch flavor, about 10 minutes.
- Off heat, stir in vanilla, rum, and butter (if using) and transfer to another container to cool to room temperature, placing a piece of plastic wrap directly on surface of mixture to prevent skin from forming.
- Refrigerate pastry cream until firm. (Can be refrigerated overnight.)
Notes
- Since this caused some confusion for the hubby: first measure out 1/4 cup cornstarch, then sift it into the egg mixture.
- To ensure that pastry cream does not thin out, do not whisk once it has set.
Source: Cook's Illustrated