Pastry Cream

[Derek Wildstar]

Will pastry cream keep in the freezer? I was going to make a batch and use it over the next three weeks for entertaining through Memorial Day. The recipe (Pierre Herme's) states that the cream can be kept in the fridge for two days but says nothing about the freezer. Any help would be appreciated.

[nightscotsman]

Unfortunately I don't think that pastry cream will survive freezing. When defrosted, the water will separate from eggs and starch and you'll have a curdled mess.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I have frozen it and when it thawed, it seemed fine to use as a filling .. but not as a sauce under a dessert, as it is often served ..

Then there is this in which the pastry cream becomes the base, which can be made into ice cream:

Tahitian Creme Anglaise by Ming Tsai

[JennotJenn]

I just froze 1/2 a batch of vanilla bean pastry cream from The Pie and Pastry Bible. Hopefully it will be ok.

The book says it will keep, frozen, up to a month, but that it thins once it's defrosted, and therefore won't hold it's shape very well. For use in something like a large tart, she suggests whisking in 1 tsp dissolved gelatin for every 1 cup of pastry cream. Everything I've made from every one of her books has worked perfectly, so hopefully this one will too. It's worth trying if all you're going to do is toss the leftover pastry cream anyway.

[Derek Wildstar]

Thanks everybody. The gelatin sounds like a good idea. Or I'll just throw the extra away. Or I'll just make something else because throwing the extra away will bother me -- guilt is a strong motivator.

[NeroW]

Just eat the extra. That's what I do with pastry cream.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Just eat the extra. That's what I do with pastry cream.

Amen to that! So do I!!

[Swisskaese]

Pastry cream and creme anglaise are two different things. Pastry cream is used as a filling and creme anglaise is a sauce.

I have frozen pastry cream (I make Julia Child's recipe from her "French Cooking" cookbook) several times and it has always maintained the correct consistency. I would not keep it in the freezer for more than a month.

If you are making creme anglaise, then I would not recommend freezing it.

Edited May 15, 2004 by Swisskaese (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

I have frozen pastry cream (I make Julia Child's recipe from her "French Cooking" cookbook) several times and it has always maintained the correct consistency.

Which is pretty much what I was saying in my post. I have frozen pastry creme and filled eclairs and pate a choux shells after freezing it .. with no ill effects in either taste or texture.

[McDuff]

Pastry cream made with flour will freeze...made with cornstarch not. Made with arrowroot is ok. It all has something to do long chain amylopectins, or something. The weeping is called synerisis.

[ronnie_suburban]

Just eat the extra.  That's what I do with pastry cream.

Or give it to me

=R=