Crème Pâtissière

A custard that must be boiled rather than coddled, because the thing that thickens it and the thing that would thin it are both in the yolks.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg, dairy (butter), dairy (whole milk).

Ingredients

• 500 ml whole milk
• 1 vanilla pod, split, or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 6 egg yolks
• 120 g caster sugar
• 40 g cornflour
• 30 g butter, cold
• a pinch of salt

Method

1. IT MUST BOIL, AND BOIL FOR TWO FULL MINUTES. Every instinct trained on other custards says not to, and here it is wrong twice over. The cornflour does not reach full thickening power until it boils; and egg yolks carry an enzyme that digests starch, which only a good boil destroys. Taken off at the first bubble, it looks perfect, sets in the fridge, and is a thin puddle by morning -- a failure that appears hours later and is always blamed on the quantities.
2. THE HOT MILK GOES INTO THE YOLKS, NOT THE OTHER WAY. A third first, whisked hard, which warms them without setting them. Yolks tipped into a hot pan scramble on contact and no sieve rescues the texture.
3. AND IT IS WHISKED CONSTANTLY AND INTO THE CORNERS once it is back on the heat. It thickens from the bottom and the edges, and a whisk that misses the corner of the pan leaves scorched lumps through the whole batch.
4. Milk and the split vanilla pod brought just to the boil, then left off the heat 10 minutes to infuse.
5. Yolks, sugar, cornflour and salt whisked together until pale and smooth. Do this just before using -- sugar left sitting on yolks burns them and gives a grainy custard.
6. A third of the hot milk whisked into the yolk mixture.
7. The mixture poured back into the pan with the rest of the milk, the vanilla pod removed.
8. Over a medium heat, whisked constantly. It will thicken suddenly, in about 4 minutes.
9. BOILED 2 FULL MINUTES from the first proper bubble, still whisking. It goes briefly claggy and then slackens and turns glossy, which is the sign it is done.
10. Off the heat, the cold butter whisked in in two lots.
11. Passed through a sieve into a cold shallow dish -- not because it should be lumpy, but because the sieve catches the thin skin that forms at the pan edge.
12. Cling film pressed DIRECTLY onto the surface so no skin forms, and chilled at least 2 hours. It sets firm.
13. Whisked smooth again before use; it comes out of the fridge stiff and looks broken, and thirty seconds with a whisk restores it. Keeps three days.

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