Pastry Cream-Creme Patissiere like my Great grand Ma used to do.
Hello foodies, The recipe I share with you today brings me back to my childhood memories when my great grand-ma was making strawberry tarts in summer. She once shared with me that the difference of pastry cream and why her tarts was so popular was due to use whole eggs as well as egg yolks and to the butter she had at the end of the cooking process. As a kid,  I was eating it warm from the bowl and was told off for double dipping “stop it she said, they won’t be enough for my tart”. Now, here is the time to share it with you all. If you never tried to make pastry cream before i recommend you divide the recipe by half or a quarter. Because your wrist will get a work out :) I hope you enjoy  
Servings: 10 yield(s)
Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 10 mins
Total Time: 30 mins
Ingredients
    This Recipe is based on 1 liter of milk and can fill up to 50 profiteroles
  • 1 l Milk
  • 400 g Sugar
  • 150 g Plain flour or cornflour (cornflour offer you a Gluten free option )
  • 8 Eggs (whole eggs (60g))
  • 4 Egg yolks
  • 1 Vanilla pod (Fresh or dry)
  • 200 g Butter (Unsalted)
Instructions
  1. Gather and using a scale weight all your ingredients.
  2. Sieve your flour and keep it aside.
  3. Pour the milk into a sauce pan.
  4. Split the vanilla pod in half length way.
  5. Scrape all the vanilla little dots.. (this is always magical for me).
  6. Put the entire scraped vanilla in the milk.
  7. Heat up the sauce pan with your milk and vanilla. Bring it to boiling point. It should take about 5 minutes.
  8. Meanwhile, using a clean bowl, separate 4 egg yolks and put them in the bowl. then add the 8 whole eggs... Check for broken shell :)
  9. Add the entire sugar. Be CAREFUL check your milk on the stove.
  10. Using a whisk, mix it well.
  11. Mix it for 1 minute or until it is all combined.
  12. When you see the milk rising, just stop the heat under the sauce pan and let it infuse aside for 5 more minutes.
  13. Meanwhile, add your sift flour (or cornflour) to the side of the bowl (onto the eggs-sugar mixture).
  14. Start with a little mixing motion from the center of the bowl.
  15. As you stay in the center of the bowl the liquid slowly grab the flour and combines together.
  16. This techniques allows you to mix gently and with out creating lumps.
  17. Keep mixing from the center.
  18. As you see the flour is slowly binding to the liquid mix.
  19. Nearly there.
  20. Done. Check for lumps. there is none, perfect.
  21. Once you have incorporated your flour (starch) and the milk has infused nicely, Strain your milk into the bowl containing the eggs, sugar, flour mix.
  22. Mix it well for few seconds.
  23. Using the same pan that you used to heat up the milk, transfer back the pastry cream mixture into it. (you do not need to clean the sauce pan in between, unless the milk burnt into the sauce pan.
  24. Bring back the sauce pan to the stove on high heat. You will need to whisk continuously until the cream thicken and boiled. It should take about 5 minutes. So, my tips here are be gentle at first on your wrist. Don't whisk too fast at the beginning as the liquid is still thin. just a gentle whisking motion and check the side of the sauce pan. But keep whisking
  25. At about the 2.5-3 minutes mark, you will find than the mixture start thickening very hard at the bottom of the pan. That is when you are going to have to produce your main effort. You must keep whisking now vigorously or the cream will start to cook too much at the bottom and my burn.
  26. Keep whisking until you see a big bubble of steam popping out whilst you are mixing the pastry cream. When you reach that point keep whisking for another minute. This is the must to cook the flour in the pastry cream. it will perfectly thicken the cream and hold the texture into shape. If you do not cook the pastry cream for long enough, it will taste "floury" (raw flour) and the cream will slack back to a soup consistency after few hours.
  27. Once cooked transfer the pastry cream into a clean bowl.
  28. Steamy is good.
  29. Add the butter.
  30. Mix in the butter as it is melting.
  31. Keep mixing until all the butter is combined to the pastry cream.
  32. Check this out.............Yummoooooooooooooooooooooooo
  33. Back to memory lane, this is divine
  34. I made that recipe for a Croque en bouche the French wedding cake
  35. Filled 115 profiteroles with that pastry cream.
  36. And Build an ephemera illusion of pleasure.
Recipe Notes

Using full cream milk is nicer. For a gluten free option replace the flour by cornflour or maizena to the same amount. you can keep it safely covered in the fridge for up to 5 days and freezer for up to 3 months. I recommend you cool it down as fast as possible by spreading the cream on a flat tray and covered with plastic wrap.