When I first saw potatoes being offered as a pizza topping, I considered it to be one of the silliest things I had ever seen. But after giving it a go, I saw that they may make a great pizza topping if prepared correctly. The only issue is that they are really difficult to prepare properly because they must be fully cooked by the time our crust is done. To cut a long tale short, I decided to try making potato chips instead, which was an amazingly successful experiment.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 3 cups |
Ingredients
- 1 large whole egg
- 2 large egg yolks
- ½ cup white sugar
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 vanilla bean
- 4 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
Instructions
- Place whole egg and 2 egg yolks into a mixing bowl. Add sugar, corn starch, and salt. Whisk together completely until mixture turns from yellow to a very page creamy color and is slightly thickened, 5 to 8 minutes.
- Place milk in a saucepan. Split vanilla bean lengthwise. Scrape the cut side with a paring knife to extract the seeds (paste). Add the seeds to the milk. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until milk just barely starts to simmer and a few small bubbles appear on the surface. Remove from heat. Whisk hot milk into egg mixture, starting with a small splash then incorporating the rest. Pour mixture back into saucepan.
- Place pan over medium-low heat and continue to whisk until mixture begin to thicken, 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool 5 minutes. Add chunks of butter and whisk until butter melts into the warm milk mixture. Pass mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove and chunks of cooked egg or vanilla seeds. Cover surface with plastic to keep it from discoloring; refrigerate until thoroughly chilled 2 to 3 hours.
- Tip: Save the scraped pods, and stick them in your sugar container for lovely, vanilla-scented sugar!
- To use this cream as Napoleon filling, here’s Chef John’s recipe for
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- To use it in cream puffs, you can lighten it by folding in whipped cream. Whip about 3/4 cup of heavy cream until medium peaks form. Fold it into cooled pastry cream. Get the recipe for
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Reviews
I think it’s absolutely fantastic! I just put it in the fridge to cool but you bet your behind I was snacking on it while warm. Can’t wait to try it tomorrow in napoleon’s. I did read the reviews first and omitted the salt because I used 4 tbsp. of salted butter. Thanks Chef John! Every recipe I’ve tried by Chef John has been spot on. I was in a rut with cooking and then I recently discovered his YouTube channel. It got me back into being creative and finding cooking to be exciting again.
Far, far too salty. I mixed it in with 2 cups of instant vanilla pudding and still find it too salty. I will probably use it again with no added salt and start out with significantly less cornstarch. I think that underneath those two ingredients is something delicious, but I can’t rate the recipe any higher as it is.
My first time making pastry cream and it turned out perfectly! Now on to my cream puff/eclair shells!
Used half the salt based on other reviews and this is still much too salty. (And I love salt.). I think the issue is with the amount of cornstarch. It is way off. I don’t think this pastry cream is salvageable. Maybe I will make some pie crust and see if perhaps I can offset the saltiness off
I have made this many times and will be making it many more times. The first time I did everything as written except to veganize where necessary. One time I used it for banana pudding and vanilla wafers so of course added bananas and vanilla wafers. This is the best pudding (I know it’s not pudding, it’s pastry cream) I have ever had in my life…. If you want to veganize this it’s pretty easy. Instead of eggs add 5 tablespoons of water and just enough turmeric to get the coloring right. (Do not add more cornstarch, there’s plenty to hold everything together.) Sub out the milk and butter for any non-dairy, we use almond milk and earth balance baking sticks. Once I was out of vanilla beans and instead used one teaspoon of vanilla in the milk and one teaspoon of vanilla in the cornstarch mix. Still amazing.
I’ve made it but i don’t use salt at all, and it taste delicious thanks so much
This stuff is so good! I make it as written, EXCEPT I do use salted butter and then skip adding the additional kosher salt entirely. You do not need the added salt at all. I serve it any number of ways, but it’s also really delicious as a small serving topped with some fresh raspberries!
came out awesome.
I have made this twice, once a full batch and another a half batch, both turned out perfect. you just cant mess this up following the instructions.
This is my go-to pastry cream. Make it for millefeuilles and then my wife and I just eat what’s left. Make sure to use just a bit of kosher salt!
I didn’t make any changes. It is very good for the Mille Feuille I made. The video was very helpful.
Much easier than i thought it would be! Didn’t have vanilla beans so we used 1 1/2 Tablespoons instead
I used the recipe as inspiration since I didn’t have whole milk, unsalted butter, or a vanilla bean. My version was ok in the cream puffs I made but would’ve been so much better if I had used whole milk and higher quality extract or a vanilla bean. So my advice is to stick to the recipe as written, go figure.
Is there an error in the salt? Please revise this recipe down from 1 teaspoon! I used a scant teaspoon of coarse Kosher salt, and was so disappointed that I had not read reviews. Even the 5 star reviews recommended halving the salt, and quartering if you use table salt. I was going to give still 4 stars for texture and body, but then decided that cooks need to be forewarned before they serve guests a mountain of saltiness. Otherwise a 5 star recipe.
Very tasty and easy to make. I followed the video, which made it very easy. I’m using this as a cream puff filling.
OMG, this was amazing! I just now took a bite after it cooled just a bit, and my taste buds went wild. I am very excited to add it to my repertoire! Also, I love the videos… 🙂
It’s the recipe I’ve been looking for; it’s Great! Thanks.
Will cut salt back by one half next time. Other than too much salt, very good, smooth. Very easy to make.
It’s me again. I’ve not made it but I want to but I no longer use refined sugar and instead use Blue Agave. How will this affect my cooking, my baking? I do so much pastry. It hadn’t occurred to me until I just read the recipe. Perhaps there’s something I can read? If you know of anything please pass it along. Many thanks, Samantha
this was my first attempt at making pastry cream, but the video and recipe were really easy and helpful! since I used salted butter, I omitted the extra salt entirely and got a perfect result. this is now my go-to pastry cream recipe! thank you for making an intimidating dessert really easy and absolutely delicious!
I followed the recipe exactly. The 1 teaspoon of kosher salt was way too much. Half a teaspoon would have been plenty. If I make it again I will also add a few drops of vanilla for a bit more flavor.