Pastry Cream

Pastry CreamPastry cream is a thickened vanilla custard used in hundreds of desserts and pastries worldwide. It has always been a staple in any kitchen I've ever worked and more importantly is one of the first things I teach to those eager to become a chef. During my studies I was taught that around the year 1440, when the Paris pastry guild first published its constitution is when its use appears in classical French cuisine. This also happens to be the first point in history with the term pastry chef entered our lives. *
From cream puffs, éclairs, parfaits, and the filling for hundreds of cakes and pies, our lives would not be the same without the advent of pastry.

Pastry Cream

1 quart heavy cream
2 vanilla beans, split
3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 ounces granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
steps:
1. Place the heavy cream and vanilla bean in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a boil on the stove and reduce heat to prevent boiling over.
2. Mix the cornstarch, sugar, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Add the eggs gradually while whisking until smooth.
3. Slowly add about one third of the heavy cream to the egg mixture while whisking continuously. Pour the egg mixture back into the remaining heated cream.
4. Place over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture just begins to boil and thickened. Continue to stir, while counting to 10. Remove from heat, taste to make sure all starch flavor has been removed. If you can still taste the starchy residue, return to heat and cook a couple seconds longer.
5. Transfer to a heat proof container, and place plastic film directly on top of custard making sure to remove all air bubbles. Place in the refrigerator and allow to cool completely.
6. When ready to use your pastry cream, removed from the refrigerator, remove plastic and vanilla beans, and knocked back with a wooden spoon until smooth.
7. Rinse the vanilla bean with cool water, and pat dry with a paper towel. The vanilla bean can now be added to your sugar canister to continue to add flavor for future baking needs.
Variations:
Coffee flavored pastry: Dissolve 2 tablespoons of instant espresso powder in the cream before whisking it into the egg yolk mixture
Chocolate pastry cream: add 4 ounces of melted semi sweet chocolate to the warm cream, prior to adding to the egg mixture.
Butterscotch pastry cream: substitute for ounces of light brown sugar and place of granulated sugar in the recipe.
Orange pastry cream: add 3 fluid ounces of Grand Marnier liquor, and 1 ounce grated orange zest.
Praline pastry cream: add 1/2 cup of ground peanut brittle after your custard has been removed from the stove, whisk to incorporate, cover and refrigerate as with the original recipe.
Crème diplomat (Bavarian cream): equal parts of the whipped pastry cream and whipped cream folded together to incorporate evenly.

*You can read more on the subject by picking up copies of Culture and Cuisine: A Journey Through the History of Food, Jean-Francois Revel, and Larousse, Gastronomique ,as both provide us with wonderful historic accounts for the use of pastry cream.