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Vanilla custard cream

Vanilla Custard (Pastry Cream)

Wonderfully tender, fluffy, and delicious — from simple ingredients! Vanilla custard is an all-purpose pastry-cream recipe that works every time, for everyone. It comes together quickly and without any fuss. The custard is perfect for pastries and cakes, or as a dessert on its own.

UnicornSteak

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Milk

300

Egg yolks

Sugar

100

Butter

Flour

Vanilla sugar

Salt

0.5

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 10 % 4 g

Fats 20 % 8 g

Carbohydrates 70 % 28 g

206 kcal

GI: 11 / 7 / 82

Cooking method

Cooking time: 20 min

Step 1:

How do you make vanilla custard? Get your ingredients ready. The milk and butter should be fresh, high-quality, and all-natural — their flavor determines the flavor of your custard, so choose a good butter. Adjust the sugar up or down to your taste. Don't be surprised by the salt in a sweet cream — it only sharpens the flavor and makes it richer.
Step 2:

Pour the milk into a saucepan or small pot. Set it over low heat, uncovered. There's no need to boil the milk, so take it off the heat as soon as the first bubbles appear. Keep an eye on it while it heats, since it can boil over. In a bowl, combine the sugar, vanilla sugar, and yolks, and whisk the sugar into the yolks.
Step 3:

The mixture will be very thick and hard to stir, so add a tablespoon of the warm milk to the bowl — it makes the work easier. Try to dissolve the sugar granules completely, so the custard's texture comes out smoother; the warm milk speeds that up.
Step 4:

Add the wheat flour to the mixture. Whisk it in thoroughly so there are no lumps.
Step 5:

This is how the custard should look at this stage.
Step 6:

Start adding the hot milk to the mixture in small amounts, whisking well each time. Add all the milk over three or four additions.
Step 7:

Then pour the mixture back into the same saucepan you heated the milk in and, stirring constantly (this is very important!), bring it to a thickening over low heat. If you leave it too long without stirring, it can turn lumpy and scorch on the bottom, ruining it for good.
Step 8:

Cook the custard until it holds well on a spatula. For me that took about five minutes. Take it off the heat, then add the salt and the room-temperature butter. Stir until completely smooth.
Step 9:

Cool the custard — first at room temperature, then in the refrigerator. It thickens as it cools. To keep a skin from forming on the surface, I recommend covering it right in the saucepan with a thin plastic bag (or plastic wrap) pressed directly onto the surface, as close to it as possible. The custard is ready. Enjoy!

Always wash eggs before using them, since even a shell that looks clean can carry harmful bacteria. It's best to use a food-safe wash and a brush.
How can you tell if an egg is fresh? Crack it into a separate container. First, there shouldn't be any off smell. The white of a fresh egg will be clear and clean. The yolk shouldn't spread out — it'll be glossy, domed, and even.
Important! To make sure your custard succeeds, follow a few simple rules: — Let the custard base thicken as it cooks (the flour needs to cook through, but watch that the custard doesn't scorch or form lumps). — The cooked flour base must cool down; if you add butter to a still-warm mass, the butter melts and the cream won't whip up. — Use good-quality butter for the cream. Poor butter can hurt the consistency and make it runny.