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Italian Pastry Cream Recipe - Crema Pasticcera Recipe

Ingredients

How to make it

  • Crema pasticcera is not difficult to make, though it does require care and attention lest it curdle. Fernanda Gosetti, author of Il Dolcissimo, suggests you use a copper pot because it conducts heat better, and adds that if you make crema pasticcera frequently you should invest in a round-bottomed pot because its entire contents will be accessible to the whisk or spoon. She also notes that the crema should be transferred to a bowl as soon as it's ready, because it will continue to cook in the pot.
  • The quantities given above can easily be expanded or reduced.
  • Set all but 1/2 cup of the milk to warm over a slow burner with the vanilla bean. In the meantime, lightly whisk the yolks in a bowl to break them. Strain the flour into the bowl, whisking gently, and making sure that no lumps form. Whisk in the sugar too, and then the remaining half cup of milk, keeping a wary eye for lumps.
  • By this time the milk on the stove will be about ready to boil. Fish out and discard the vanilla bean, and slowly whisk the milk into the egg-and-milk mixture. Return the cream to the pot and the pot to the fire, and continue cooking over a low flame, stirring gently, until it barely reaches a slow boil. Count to 120 while stirring constantly and it's done. (Note -- depending on your eggs and milk it may thicken to the proper consistency before it boils. If it reaches roughly the consistency of commercially prepared plain yogurt of the sort that will pour from the cup it's done).
  • Transfer it to a bowl and let it cool, gently stirring it often to keep a skin from forming across top.
  • Danielle suggests another way to keep the skin from forming:
  • I learnt a tip many years ago that works very well and is simple. Reserve a tablespoon of of the sugar aside and sprinkle it over the cream when you set it to cool: It will keep a crust forming as the cream cools. It will melt and create a 'watery' surface that you can simply stir into the cream before use.
  • Voila.
  • As a final note, if you cover the milk after heating it and and let it sit for ten minutes covered it will absorb more bouquet from the vanilla bean. Also, you can, depending upon what you are going to use the cream for, flavor it with other things, for example 2 coffee beans or the zest of a half a lemon.
  • What to use it for? Well, between layers of sponge cake, for example, or under the fruit in a crostata. Or as icing, dusted with a little confectioner's sugar. Or in a pudding.
  • ("This is a pretty good recipe. You will find that the flour is less likely to lump if you mix the sugar in first. You can do like the professionals do and place a piece of plastic wrap over the finished product and this will prevent a skin. It must touch the surface. Also it is extremely important to cool the pastry cream quickly either in a ice water bath or refrigerator. This will prevent food born illness, such as salmonella.")

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