| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 20 min |
| Prep: | 5 min |
| Cook: | 15 min |
| Yield: | About 3 1/2 cups |
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 20 min |
| Prep: | 5 min |
| Cook: | 15 min |
| Yield: | About 3 1/2 cups |
Ingredients
- 3 cups milk
- Seeds scraped from one vanilla bean
- 8 yolks
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 6 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
Instructions
- In a 3 quart saucepot combine the milk and vanilla bean seeds. Combine the yolks and sugar in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Sift the cornstarch onto a piece of wax or parchment paper.
- Scald the milk. Meanwhile, beat the yolks and sugar until they lighten in color. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the cornstarch. Pour about 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking continuously to incorporate. Whisk the tempered egg mixture back into the remaining hot milk, and place the pot back on the heat. Cook on medium high heat, stirring constantly but gently with the whisk, until the mixture comes to the boil. Reduce heat and let it boil for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and gently whisk in the butter. Strain the pastry cream into a bowl, place plastic wrap right down on the surface, and chill completely. This can be made up to 3 days ahead.
Reviews
Wow!!! This was delicious. Super easy to make and tasted great. I used them for creme puffs and it was perfect. This will be my go to from now on
This is my go to recipe for pastry cream. It has turned out well every time! My only alteration is to cut the sugar so it’s a little over 1/2 cup instead of 3/4 cup, because otherwise it is a bit too sweet for me.
Wonderful pastry cream! My goto favorite! Moderate difficult level as it has a number of components/steps: (1) scald the milk and vanilla bean (2) beating the egg yolks and sugar (3) sifted corn starch (4) temper the egg mixture (5) cook (6) add butter (7) strain. For a lot of people anything more than 3 steps is too difficult. Although this takes time, it is well worth it!
Absolutely deee-licious! I’m a fledgling pastry cook and getting into vanilla beans, and love the vanilla flavor in this recipe, using beans and not extract. I like the thickness. It’s perfect for fruit tarts as it holds the fruit well, even before it’s completely chilled. I have also used a cup and a half of heavy cream and a cup and half of milk (to make a total of 3 and find the cream adds a little sum sum! LOL Too bad I can’t upload a photo!
I also got a super thick end result. I think the amount of milk is not a correct proportion to the cornstarch and egg yolk. I have made pastry cream before and dont remeber ever using that much cornstarch or egg to that small amount of milk. Otherwise it has great flavor!
P.S. Make sure to use a stainless steel pan only! If you use Aluminum the pastry cream will turn green. Still edible just an unpleasant color.
Awesome….easy straight to the point. This was silky smooth after staining it before putting it in refrig to cool.
This is actually a quick and easy recipe. It is cooked for 30 seconds, not 30 minutes. Like other puddings, it should be pushed thru a strainer with a rubber spatula. I used it to fill cream puffs, and it was just what I was looking for.
I bake a lot. And I would not call this an easy recipe. Any time you need to temper eggs and then stir continuously for a half hour, there is opportunity for mistakes. This recipe was unsuccessful for me. I think that perhaps the half hour recommended cooking time was too long. When it cooled, it was overly thick and gloppy. I have no idea how you could possibly strain this when is is a cream. If anyone has recommendations of why this happened, please let me know. The taste was rich and lovely, but the consistency made it unusable. A waste when vanilla beans are so expensive.
I baked a three layer white cake and filled between the layers with this cream. Next I topped each layer with fresh strawberries….frosting the entire cake with whipped cream and topping with more fresh strawberries…
The cream was perfect with the strawberries… All in all, a real “keeper.”