Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Creme Patissiere/Pastry Cream


AKS613

Recommended Posts

A knob or two of butter can be added to the surface after making and just before cooling to prevent a skin forming on the pastry cream. Normally I just put a sheet of plastic film on to prevent the skin forming - no butter. I have not come across a recipe that you mix butter into the actual pastry cream, not that I have looked for a pastry cream recipe as my old one does me fine.

Cape Town - At the foot of a flat topped mountain with a tablecloth covering it.

Some time ago we had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Steve Jobs. Now we have no Cash, no Hope and no Jobs. Please don't let Kevin Bacon die.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Funny coincidence that I made creme patissiere tonight.  I worked from Julia Child's recipe from Mastering.. which finishes with butter (1Tb / 2c milk recipe)

 

I don't have a copy of the book -- I worked from the recipe as reproduced (identically) on the pages below.  So I can't say that in her original text the sauce was finished with butter.

 

http://labuonacucina70.blogspot.com/2011/02/julia-childs-cream-puffs.html

http://thymeforfood.blogspot.com/2008/08/eclairs-from-my-ptisserieerrkitchen.html

 

But a google search for "creme patiessiere butter" also shows other examples of creme patissiere finished with butter.

 

 

Maybe the function is similar to monter au beurre ("mounting a sauce with butter") -- adding cold butter, off the heat, to finish it.

 

* the lecithin in the butter works as an emulsifier -- contributes lusciousness to the final texture

* in the words of http://cornercafe.wordpress.com/2008/04/15/creme-patissiere/ "for additional shine and firmness"

 

JohnT, I'm just learning to make creme patissiere -- tonight was my first go!  Could you provide any tips?  It came out all right, but I'm sure it could be better!  :)

Edited by afn33282 (log)
Frau Farbissma: "It's a television commercial! With this cartoon leprechaun! And all of these children are trying to chase him...Hey leprechaun! Leprechaun! We want to get your lucky charms! Haha! Oh, and there's all these little tiny bits of marshmallow just stuck right in the cereal so that when the kids eat them, they think, 'Oh this is candy! I'm having fun!'"
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pastry Cream (Crème Patissière)

Ingredients:

12 egg yolks

250g caster sugar

80g corn flour (or ordinary flour)

1 vanilla pod split

1 litre milk

Method:

Put the egg yolks and about a third of the sugar in a bowl and whisk until they go pale and form a ribbon. ( I find it much easier to do this using an electric hand whisk or stand mixer).

Sift in the corn flour and beat well.

Put the milk, the rest of the sugar and the split vanilla pod in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

As soon as the mixture boils, pour 1/3rd into the egg mixture and stir well with a whisk.

Pour the egg and milk back into the rest of the milk, and return to a gentle heat. Stir well until it begins to thicken. Simmer for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk.

Take off the heat and continue to stir for 2 minutes. Put some knobs of butter over the surface to prevent a skin forming or simply lay a sheet of plastic wrap over the top. Let cool.

Note 1: For a coffee cream, infuse fresh ground coffee in the milk (leaving out the vanilla pod) and strain carefully. I actually use 60ml instant coffee granules.

Note 2: For a chocolate cream use 30ml of unsweetened cocoa powder in place of the vanilla pod.

Source: Sven 1977

The above recipe comes from the Swiss pastry chef who tutored me and I have been using is ever since. It makes quite a bit but you can halve the recipe for convenience. There is nothing really technical about it other than you need to use a hand whisk to stirr it properly and ensure that there are no lumps.

Just as a matter of interest, when making choux products, I quite often use chantilly cream in place of pastry cream. John.

Edited by JohnT (log)

Cape Town - At the foot of a flat topped mountain with a tablecloth covering it.

Some time ago we had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Steve Jobs. Now we have no Cash, no Hope and no Jobs. Please don't let Kevin Bacon die.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From my old masters back in the very early 70's, and these Chef's were in their early 60's at the time.

From the German Pastry Chef added a fat to the pastry cream it self.

From the French Pastry Chef took a block of butter and rubbed it on the top of the finished sheet pan of pastry cream to seal it and prevent a crust from forming.

From my Italian Pastry Chef he too would coat it in butter and then sprinkle some granulated or powdered sugar on top.

From an American trained Chef he used All purpose shortening sometimes in the cream sometimes spread on top.

No one had and reason for doing it it was just how they were taught.

 

Carlton Brooks CCE, CEPC

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My turn to share what I have learned.

Adding a little butter at the end bring the fat content of your pastry cream higher. It will bring a different mouthfeel. The reason why you add it at the end of the cooking is to smooth out your pastry cream (over cooking makes lumps) and gives it a different gelification. So globally you will have a smoother, silkier textures and mouth feel. French and butter is not a surprise.

In addition to this, if you are considering making a mousseline - half of thé butter is inserted in the warm pastry cream and the other half whipped up when it has cooled (montee au beurre)

Indeed, to prevent the creation of a skin, it was recommended to "grease" the top of your pastry cream with butter, nowadays it's just easier to wrap it in plastic wrap and cool immediately.

Butter can also be replaced by cacao butter, coconut fat,... If you wish as well you can add cream [10%] of your milk to increase the fat content of your milk.

You can also replace a part of the milk or all by a fruit purée or nut milk to the exception of very acidic fruits.

Enjoy!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For what it's worth, the pâtisserie where I worked included butter with the milk at the start of the process.  If you blitz in the butter at the end, once it's cooled down somewhat, you're looking at something more like a crémeux.

 

If I'm doing a pastry cream that'll be eaten on it's own (choux, éclair, or this) I'll use a more advanced method, incorporating butter, cocoa butter and gelatin at the end then blitzing that together.  If you let it set overnight then whip it in the kitchenaid, it's fantastic.  So much smoother, lighter and more more stable.

 

If not (for a soufflé, mousseline or frangipane, for example), I won't bother.  A normal, bog-standard pastry cream is fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok

Pastry cream + butter is a crème mousseline. A french buttercream if u will:

As others have mentioned, it leads to a smoother more unctuous cream, and shinier in appearance. But needs to be eaten at room temperature....as the it is much firmer then basic pastry cream once chilled.

Chef Cem

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For what it's worth, the pâtisserie where I worked included butter with the milk at the start of the process.  If you blitz in the butter at the end, once it's cooled down somewhat, you're looking at something more like a crémeux.

 

If I'm doing a pastry cream that'll be eaten on it's own (choux, éclair, or this) I'll use a more advanced method, incorporating butter, cocoa butter and gelatin at the end then blitzing that together.  If you let it set overnight then whip it in the kitchenaid, it's fantastic.  So much smoother, lighter and more more stable.

h

If not (for a soufflé, mousseline or frangipane, for example), I won't bother.  A normal, bog-standard pastry cream is fine.

 

That is really interesting! how much butter to milk? Do you feel it impacted the flavor/mouth feel in a positive way? I would be curious to see a formula for your modern version (finishing with gelatin) if you are not not breaking any vows of silence :) It really sounds useful 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is really interesting! how much butter to milk? Do you feel it impacted the flavor/mouth feel in a positive way? I would be curious to see a formula for your modern version (finishing with gelatin) if you are not not breaking any vows of silence :) It really sounds useful 

 

I've never done a side-by-side comparison with and without butter, so I'm not sure if it has a huge impact.  However, I still like to do it :)

 

For the more advanced one, I use (as a percentage of the weight of the milk) 1.6% bloomed gelatin, 10% cold butter and 6% cocoa butter.  Once the pastry cream is fully cooked, take it off the heat, stir in the gelatin, butter and cocoa butter and then blitz it.  Let it cool and set overnight, then whip on a fairly low speed for a few minutes, and if you're feeling luxurious, incorporate 6% mascarpone too.

 

I love the texture and flavour release you get from this- it's almost like a very silky ganache, but not at all heavy.  It's firm enough to hold its shape when piped, and can hold up a millefeuille no problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When I was in school we always cut in 50g of butter per litre of creme pat we were making. We would do this at the end along with the flavoring which tended to just be simple vanilla extract. It always made it smoother and I found compared to what I had made at home previous to that it didn't form as much of a skin on top. The skin can be avoided with proper care with the plastic wrap however.

 

Also when we did choux paste we always cut the creme pat with whipped cream, not sure if there is a name for this since I am fresh to the industry but it made it very light but still had a bit of the creme pat flavor.

"If you can crack an egg one-handed, you'll have no problems undoing a brassiere." -Newfie saying

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also when we did choux paste we always cut the creme pat with whipped cream, not sure if there is a name for this since I am fresh to the industry but it made it very light but still had a bit of the creme pat flavor.

Diplomat Cream or Crème Diplomat

Cape Town - At the foot of a flat topped mountain with a tablecloth covering it.

Some time ago we had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Steve Jobs. Now we have no Cash, no Hope and no Jobs. Please don't let Kevin Bacon die.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Depends on where you are.  For me, that's always been a crème légère, whereas a crème diplomate is similar to a bread and butter pudding.

You could be partially correct except I have never heard it associated with bread and butter pudding. I think the word "diplomat" looks like it is used to denote something "superior". I was taught it was simply CP with whipped cream folded in. Having done a search on the www, it appears that crème légère is the French term but most non-French nations tend to use the diplomat crème term. I was taught by a Swiss PC in the mid 70's and he called it diplomat crème.

Cape Town - At the foot of a flat topped mountain with a tablecloth covering it.

Some time ago we had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Steve Jobs. Now we have no Cash, no Hope and no Jobs. Please don't let Kevin Bacon die.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...