VANILLA PASTRY CREAM

Steps:

• 1. In a small saucepan, warm the milk over low heat until it is just hot enough to steam. While the milk is warming, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, flour, and cornstarch until the mixture is completely smooth.
• 2. Once the milk is steaming, add half of it, whisking constantly, to the egg mixture. Add the milk and eggs back into the hot milk, continue stirring, and heat it for 1-2 minutes, until the custard reaches 170*F on a digital thermometer and is very thick. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract, and chill before filling pastry.
• My Notes: I made this creme patisserie for some profiteroles I made and it was great:-) sweet, smooth and perfect consistency for use with pastry. I think next time I will substitute the vanilla essence for real bean extract tho for a little more flavour but it still tasted great. I will never buy custard again after making this.
• To me, The reason there are no cooking directions or explanations of ""what to do"" after mixing ingredients is because it is a ""basic recipe"" that is to be used as an INGREDIENT for other recipes like cream puffs, eclairs, etc. I reached this recipe within a recipe for Chocolate Eclairs. Once I mix the Basic Choux Pastry Dough, I will go back to my Chocolate Eclair recipe and go from there -- that is where I will find an explanation for cooking and other directions. The same will go for Cream Puffs --
• I have made this vanilla cream many, many times but I add 2 more egg yolks and when it is almost ready to use I add 50 grms of butter. please taste it and enjoy.
• **Dad! I used this recipe for the filling of a ""Gateaux Basque"" recipe. This is the cake that is famous in the Pays Basque area in France where my husband is from. Cornstarch not needed and I substituted the vanilla flavoring with almond flavoring. O.K.
• Grpa.July said it wasn't needed and I didn't want to use corn starch. I didn't use a thermometer but just stirred until the cream seemed really thick. I refrigerated for an hour. Perfect! I love this, I did however add a little more sugar, vanilla and kahlua. Wow amazing. next time I will try a little chocolate, just curious about how great it will taste. until next time, happy cooking. Rob --
• I made the recipe exactly as written and it is really good but when the cream was chilled it was so firm that I was able to stand a spoon upright in it. I too will leave out the corn starch the next time I make it. I much prefer a softer cream.I too,Play with my Food.