How to Make Pastry Cream

Hi, I'm going to show you how to make the most delicious vanilla pastry cream

We're going to start by lining a baking sheet with plastic wrap

This is to put the pastry cream in once it's cooked. Once you lay out a sheet of plastic wrap over the baking sheet, set it aside

Next, into a saucepan, you're going to put half the sugar with the milk

Then slice a vanilla bean down the middle and then use the back of the knife to scrape out the vanilla seeds

from the bean. Place the seeds and the entire vanilla bean into the pot. If you're not using a vanilla

bean, just wait until the end and you can add some vanilla extract. In a separate heatproof

mixing bowl, add the rest of the sugar, the flour, and the cornstarch. Whisk them all together

just to incorporate them. Then add in the egg and the yolk. Whisk all of this together. You want

to whisk it really well, get it very smooth. While you're vigorously whisking the egg mixture, you should be heating up the milk

You want it to heat up until it comes to a boil

While it's heating, give it a few stirs every now and then just to make sure the sugar is dissolving

You can see here that it's boiling

If you're using vanilla extract, add it now. Then remove the entire mixture from the heat and carefully whisk in about a third of the milk mixture

Start whisking the egg mixture before you even pour the milk into the bowl with the egg mixture

You want to avoid making any scrambled eggs. That's why you need to keep whisking vigorously when adding the hot liquid

Return the hot pan to the stovetop, but do not turn any heat on

Whisk in the tempered egg mixture into the rest of the milk mixture

You can then put the whisk down and scrape the bowl out to make sure you get everything out

before you turn the heat back on under the pot. Then give it a good whisk just to make sure everything's incorporated

Turn the heat onto medium high. You're going to need to whisk the entire mixture

while it cooks. Do not stop whisking. Once it starts to boil set a timer for exactly two minutes Continue whisking and cooking for the full two minutes It is important that it cooks for the full two minutes to activate the enzymes in the cornstarch

But you also want to be careful not to overcook it because then it just won't taste that good

Once reached the two minute mark

and pour it onto the prepared pan right on top of the plastic wrap

You will see that the mixture is already quite thick. Scrape out the pot and get all the pastry cream onto the plastic wrap

Then immediately cover the entire pastry cream with plastic wrap. So the plastic wrap is adhering to the surface of the pastry cream

This is important to prevent a skin from forming on the pastry cream

You can remove that vanilla bean before or after I just left it in for now because it too hot to handle Once it gets to room temperature you can remove the vanilla bean

While you can let the pastry cream come to room temperature, you can put it in a metal bowl over an ice bath to cool it faster

When you're ready to use the pastry cream to incorporate it into whatever recipe you're making

take it out of the refrigerator and beat it. It's great to do this with an electric mixer

A hand mixer is great for this. you can also do it by hand. consistency, place it into a pastry bag. Alternatively, place it into a Ziploc bag where you can just

cut off a corner. Or if you don't want to pipe it, you can certainly just spoon it in. It just is a lot

easier to pipe than it is to spoon. This pastry cream is amazing in any recipe that calls for

pastry cream, such as Ecleres, cream puffs, Napoleon's, Boston cream pie. The list is endless. Enjoy