Eunice Feller, who owns a bakery in Boston called Bread and Chocolate- shared this recipe on an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Eunice uses this pastry creme in between the layers of cake and chocolate for her Boston Cream Pie(which is really a cake). I use it for the bottom layer of Strawberry pie and to make copycat Raspberry Creme pie from Babe's Bakery in Idaho Falls, Idaho and for cream puffs. It is the best! Be very careful when you are"testing" it-limit yourself to one spoon or you will eat the entire bowl and you won't have any left for your recipe!!
Pastry Cream:
- 4 cups whole milk
- 1 cup sugar, divided
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 5 large egg yolks
- 6 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, cold
Place most of the milk, half of the sugar, and vanilla into a saucepan and bring to a low simmer. Meanwhile, whisk together the rest of the milk, eggs, yolks, the remaining sugar, and cornstarch. Temper the egg mixture with 1/3 of the hot milk, whisk well, and pour back into the saucepan. Over medium heat, continue to cook and whisk until the custard is thick and starts to bubble. Continue whisking and cooking for 10 more seconds. Strain the pastry cream through a sieve, pushing through with a spatula, into a clean mixing bowl. Immediately cover the entire custard surface with plastic wrap and cool before using.
When the pastry cream is cool, remove the plastic wrap, insert the
beater attachment into the stand mixer, and beat the pastry cream on
medium speed until smooth. Remove the cream to a mixing bowl. Whisk the
heavy cream to stiff peaks and fold into the pastry cream in 2 additions. The entire recipe for the Boston Cream Pie can be found at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/boston-cream-pie-recipe2/index.html. It's a great recipe- I'm just not a big fan of Boston Cream Pie but I am of this pastry cream!
