Basic Vanilla Pastry Cream
Makes about 1 ½ cups
Ingredients
- 1 cup 2% milk
- ½ vanilla bean or 1 ½ tsp vanilla bean paste
- 3 large egg yolks
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces.
Method
- Heat the milk with the scraped seeds of the vanilla bean or the vanilla bean paste until just below a simmer.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch. Ready a bowl with the butter, placing a strainer on top of it.
- Gradually whisk the hot milk into egg mixture and then return it all to the pot. Whisk this constantly (switching to a spatula now and again, to get into the corners) over medium heat until thickened and glossy, about 2 minutes. Pour this immediately through the strainer, whisking it through if needed, and stir in the butter.
- Place a piece of plastic wrap directly over the surface of the custard, cool to room temperature and then chill completely until ready to use.
The pastry cream will keep up to 4 days refrigerated.