Use this simple vanilla custard recipe for filling cakes, tarts, or cream puffs. It's rich and perfect for a Boston cream pie filling, a trifle, or perhaps atop fresh fruit. This silky sauce is a must for Cream Puffs. You could thin and use a sauce too.
Ingredients
17 oz milk (2% works)
1 vanilla bean cut
or 1 tsp vanilla extract (see notes)
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup cornstarch
2/3 cup white sugar, divided evenly in two
pinch of salt
1 tbsp butter
Instructions
Read Susie's Tips and Tricks below
1. Steep vanilla bean in milk, and HALF (1/3 cup) sugar on medium heat for 5-8 minutes. Stir occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
2. In a medium size bowl, whisk together cornstarch and sugar. Add egg yolks and blend well. The mixture will be slightly thick.
3. Now you will temper the eggs (prevent them from scrambling when they touch the heat). Whisk in a small amount of milk and stir quickly to incorporate. Add portions to about 1 cups worth of liquid to the bowl and blend.
4. Slowly add tempered egg mixture to the pot on the stove. Stir continuously; in the beginning it will be thin, but the cornstarch will thicken the entire mixture. Don't walk away!
As soon as it thickens, let cook 1 minute. Remove from the stove and add butter and vanilla extract (if you didn't use a bean).
5. Place in a wide pan like a 13X9 and cover with plastic wrap so that it doesn't form a skin and refrigerate.
6. Remove the vanilla bean and place pastry cream in mixer. Using a whisk, blend till fluffy and to a consistency you prefer.
7. Use pastry cream as desired; spoon into a pastry shell or use a pastry bag with a star tip to fill from the bottom.
Susie's Tips and Tricks
Notice the sugar is divided! I've nearly forgotten once, haha.
Slice open the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds into the milk. If you use vanilla extract; its best to use at the end of cooking.
Butter isn't necessary, but I find it makes it very rich and creamy. I also add it to my homemade chocolate pudding recipe here.
What if your eggs seem to have scrambled and you have tiny cooked bits in your filling? Take your pastry cream and put through a fine sieve. Push the mixture through so that you can catch the cooked particles.
Would you like to have this pastry cream go a little further? Add some light and fluffy whipped cream to the custard.
Don't boil the cornstarch more than a minute, you risk having the cornstarch lose its thickening properties. You are cooking out the cornstarch taste.
You can change the flavour of pastry cream; add 1-2 oz unsweetened melted chocolate, liqueur, coffee, almond, or lemon. Perhaps you want a tropical touch, use rum and add dried coconut with some ground nuts.
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