Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Pastry Cream and Diplomat Cream Video


YouTube Link: Pastry Cream and Diplomat Cream
More Videos: Helen's Kitchen Channel

A few months ago, one of my readers asked for a video of pastry cream that is tasty, light, and sturdy enough to pipe.  Here it is.  This recipe is adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Pie and Pastry Bible.

Pastry Cream
2 large eggs (100 grams weighed without the shell)
4 Tbsp corn starch (32 grams)
242 g whole milk (1 cup)
242 g cream (1 cup)
1/2 cup sugar (100 grams)
1/2 Vanilla bean, split lengthwise (or 1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract added in the end)
Pinch of salt
3 Tbsp unsalted butter (42 grams), cut into 3 pieces

Diplomat Cream
1 recipe chilled pastry cream and stabilized whipped cream (I prefer to use a double whipped cream recipe, but you can use less).  The procedure is in the above video.

Eclairs Recipe and Assembly

Equipment:

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I followed your recipe of the last few days. I've never made anything like this before and it came out wonderful. https://instagram.com/p/0tMcEYvH0O/

Helen said...

wow -- is that your first cream puff? that's really gorgeous.

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Anna said...

I want to try the pastry cream but I do not want to use corn starch. I don't really like how it makes the cream kind of 'rubbery' in texture. I want something like the Russian 'zavarnoi krem' Can I use something instead of corn starch. It sounds like I cannot omit it because after watching your video it looks like it helps the eggs not to curdle. Or can I. I went strawberry picking and am trying to do a strawberry tart for the first time. Scared:-)

Helen said...

Pastry cream needs to be thoroughly whipped after refrigeration and the rubbery texture disappears. But if you've already tried that and still don't like it, you can try using cake flour. I find that pastry cream made with all flour has a starchy taste, but using half flour and half corn starch works well. So in this recipe, you'd use 2 Tbsp flour and 2 Tbsp corn starch. If you can get cake flour it would be very helpful -- lest starchy taste.

Anna said...

Thank you! It's my second time making pastry cream. The first time I did not use corn starch or flour and it did not thicken. Surprise. This time I used flour. I will see how it tastes and see if I like it. I tried a little and it already tasted much better then anything I ever got in a bakery cafe. Maybe I have been going to the wrong ones.

Helen said...

Ah, so you haven't tried the recipe I posted yet. I have tried every pastry cream before and this is the best tasting one. I realize you might have had a bad experience with corn starch in the past, but I do encourage you to try the recipe I posted exactly as is. This is pastry, so please no improvisation :)

Unknown said...

Hello, excellent video but will this cream cause the choux's to become soggy? I intend to fill my choux puffs with this for a dinner party and they will be in room temp for a few hours, I don't want them to turn soggy :/ Please help

Helen said...

they will become a bit softer, but they'll do that with any filling. This particular one, should be refrigerated at all time. If you want them to be crispy, get your cream into a pastry bag and keep in the fridge, then pipe right before serving. I don't mind when they are a bit less crisp though. to store at room temp, you need to stabilize the whipped cream with gelatin. They'll still need to be refrigerated until gelatin sets, but then can survive the room temp for a few hours.