Guava Pastry Cream

[QbanCrackr]

So by no means am i a professional at cooking...this is something that I'm learning every day as i go mainly with books and the help of eG & google =P

Anywho, I've been fairly successful making pastry cream (only had 1 problem in the past and i figured out how to get it good again)

This is my basic recipe (taken from the joy of cooking)

4 egg yolks

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tbs flour

2 tbs corn starch

1-1/3 cup milk (i use heavy cream in mine)

3/4 tsp vanilla

My process is as follows - while heating 1 c of the cream i beat eggs & sugar + flour in a mixer until theyre thicker & paler. dissolve the corn starch in the remaining 1/3 c of cream. when the cream is up, temper the egg mixture and then combine with the corn starch mixture over heat and cook it until it thickens and then add vanilla at the end, removing from pot and into a clean bowl.

With this recipe there was 1 time which I'd blame on my technique where it looked as if the cream separated in the pot. it got thick, but it also looked oily/greasy (it was sliding all over the place in the pot. This was resolved by just taking a whisk to it and it came back together.

Today I tried getting adventurous and adding some guava puree that i had laying around, but I wasn't sure when/how much to add to it (i basically just added it to taste) and it was coming along nicely, but towards the end it "separated" on me again and no amount of beating would bring it back..

Did it have anything to do with the acidity in the fruit? I did notice in one of the bowls i had it in when i was going to toss it out that there was a little bit of a golden colored liquid, almost like clarified butter....was this the cream that got heated too much with the corn starch? I've heard/read about cooking the corn starch too long/hot and it does wacky things.

Well in any case, any help you all can provide will help me alot in my quest for the guava pastry cream haha.

Thanks!

[Woods]

I would add the guave puree off the fire. Pastry cream can slip around a bit as it thinkens. I was taught to cook it for several more minutes after it thickens and make sure it smells "sweet" as opposed to starchy. By the by, I am baking a guava cake as I am writing. Woods

[QbanCrackr]

hmm, i think i'll try adding it off the fire. should i add a little more corn starch or flour to compensate for the extra liquid? i did this once with an apple puree that i added to the cream...it had a fantastic taste but it was too thin to use as anything other than like a topping or poured sauce (it wouldn't hold up in a sliced tart)