Caramel Pastry Cream
Intro: This recipe is a variation of a classic pastry cream. Caramelising the sugar first instead of just adding it to the mix gives you an amazing colour as well as a much deeper and more interesting flavour.
This recipe is perfect for things like choux pastry and filling tarts . If you would like a lighter cream then just fold in some whipped cream into the finished and cooled pastry cream, this is know by the name ‘creme diplomat’. The amount of cream you fold in just depends on how rich or light you need the cream to be.
Ingredients
- 200g Caster Sugar (1)
- 570ml Whole fat milk
- 2 vanilla pods
- 90g Egg yolk (about 5)
- 30g Caster sugar (2)
- 45g Custard powder
- 2 Sheets gold leaf gelatine
- 325g Cold and diced butter
Method
- Place the milk into a saucepan and scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod. Add both the pods and seeds to the milk. Heat the milk until it reaches a light simmer
- Take off the heat and place a fresh saucepan onto a medium heat. Once the pan is hot, slowly add in the sugar (1) a third at a time and stir with a wooden spoon to make sure each addition is melted completely before adding the next.
- Once all the sugar is melted, continue to cook until the sugar is a golden brown colour. This should only need 10-20 seconds
- Then SLOWLY add in the milk (about a quarter at a time) by pouring in a little, incorporating it into the mixture and then adding more.
- Once all the milk is in, return to a low heat and bring up to a light simmer so any sugar clumps can dissolve.
- Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolk, egg, sugar (2) and custard powder in a heatproof bowl to a paste and when the milk mixture has reached a simmer, pour into the bowl and whisk until incorporated.
- Transfer this mix back to the pan and cook on a medium heat whilst whisking well to make sure that nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Bring the mixture up to the boil (it should look like very thick custard) and then take off the heat.
- Add in the butter and whisk to incorporate before pouring through a sieve into a bowl or high sided tray and cover with cling film (so that it touches the top of the cream to avoid condensation).
- Set in the fridge until cold.
