Pastry cream is one of the building blocks. It fills fruit tarts, cream puffs, éclairs and Boston cream pie, and custard and crème pâtissière come up on the show again and again. Milk is steeped with a vanilla bean, poured onto yolks whisked with sugar and cornstarch, then cooked until it thickens and bubbles. The step not to rush is the last full minute of bubbling, which is what keeps the cream thick once it is cold.

Kristina Razon’s recipe for Serious Eats, written out here in my own words.

Recipe by The Intern

Prep: 10 min
Bake: 10 min
Rest: 3 hr
Total: 3 hr 20 min
Makes: 20 servings (2 tbsp each)
Level: medium

Recipe originally written in US cups. These are the original measures.

Ingredients

2 cups (455 g) milk, whole
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
½ cup (115 g) granulated sugar, plain or toasted
3 tbsp (30 g) cornstarch
¼ tsp kosher salt (diamond crystal), or ⅛ tsp table salt
4 large eggs, yolks only, about 70 g, straight from the fridge
2 tbsp (30 g) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes

Equipment

2-quart stainless steel saucier
Balloon whisk
Medium heatproof bowl
Large bowl for an ice bath
Fine-mesh strainer

Method

Infuse the milk. Put the milk, the split vanilla bean and its seeds in the saucier and bring just to a simmer over medium heat. Take it off the heat, cover, and leave to steep for 30 minutes.
Set up an ice bath. Partly fill a large bowl with ice and cold water and keep it nearby.
Whisk the yolks. Set a medium heatproof bowl on a damp towel so it stays put. Mix the sugar, cornstarch and salt in it, then whisk in the yolks for about a minute, until pale, smooth and fluffy.
Temper. Lift out the vanilla bean. Whisking all the time, pour the warm milk into the yolks in a thin, steady stream.
Cook. Pour it all back into the saucier and whisk over medium heat until it thickens, about 5 minutes. Keep whisking, pausing every few seconds to look for bubbles. Once it bubbles, set a timer and keep whisking for 1 full minute: the boil switches off an enzyme in the yolks that would otherwise thin the cream as it sits.
Finish. Off the heat, whisk in the butter until melted. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean heatproof bowl and press plastic wrap or buttered parchment onto the surface so no skin forms.
Chill. Set the bowl in the ice bath for 30 minutes, then refrigerate until cold, about 2 hours. Whisk until smooth before using.

Baker's notes

Do not cut the minute of bubbling short. Undercooked, the yolks keep an enzyme that breaks down the starch, and the cream goes thin and runny in the fridge. Any vanilla bean works; rinse and dry the used pod and keep it for vanilla sugar.

Storage + make ahead

Keeps up to 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge, with plastic wrap or buttered parchment pressed onto the surface.

Substitutions

No cornstarch? Use 6 tablespoons (about 45 g) all-purpose flour instead, whisked in with the sugar and salt. Once it bubbles, keep whisking 1 to 2 minutes longer to cook out the raw flour taste. The cream sets a little softer and less glossy. This swap is not from the original recipe and has not been tested yet.

ricottabear.com/vanilla-pastry-cream · US measures, metric in brackets

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Vanilla Pastry Cream (Crème Pâtissière)