Chiboust Cream

Pastry cream lightened with hot meringue rather than cream, folded while the custard is still warm so the two can combine at all.

Egg. Not vegetarian — contains gelatine.

Ingredients

For the base

• 1 batch crème pâtissière, as on its own page, freshly made and still warm
• 3 sheets leaf gelatine

For the meringue

• 4 egg whites
• 180 g caster sugar
• 60 ml water

Method

1. THE MERINGUE IS FOLDED INTO THE CUSTARD WHILE THE CUSTARD IS STILL WARM. This is the whole difficulty and the whole difference. Warm, the pastry cream is slack enough to accept the foam and the gelatine is still liquid; cold, it is a stiff set block and folding meringue into it tears the foam to pieces and leaves lumps of custard through a watery cream. If the custard has gone cold, warm it gently and whisk it smooth before you start.
2. IT IS LIGHTENED WITH MERINGUE, NOT WITH WHIPPED CREAM. Pastry cream plus cream is a different and simpler thing and will not hold a shape on a tart for more than an hour. The hot syrup poured into the whites cooks them, and the gelatine sets what the foam holds up.
3. SO THE TWO HALVES MUST BE READY AT THE SAME MOMENT, which means the syrup goes on the heat while the custard is still on its last two minutes of boiling. There is no stage at which either can wait for the other.
4. AND IT IS USED IMMEDIATELY, before the gelatine sets. Spread or piped within about ten minutes, then chilled to firm. Left in the bowl it sets there and cannot be re-softened without destroying it.
5. Gelatine sheets soaked in cold water 5 minutes.
6. Crème pâtissière made as on its own page and left in the pan, warm.
7. The soaked gelatine squeezed out and whisked into the warm custard until completely dissolved.
8. Sugar and water brought to the boil and taken to 118C.
9. The whites whipped to soft peaks as the syrup approaches temperature.
10. The syrup poured onto the whites in a thin stream with the mixer running, then whipped until thick, glossy and only just warm.
11. A third of the meringue WHISKED into the warm custard briskly, with no care at all, to slacken it.
12. The rest FOLDED in in two lots with a large spatula, cutting down and lifting over, stopping while a few faint streaks remain.
13. Used at once -- spread into a baked case, or piped. Chilled at least 2 hours to set.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under France · All recipes