Eclairs, fruit pastries, napoleons and other little treasures of the patisserie usually have one thing in common: pastry cream. Pastry cream, or creme patisserie, is an egg-enriched custard with flour or cornstarch for added thickening power, used to fill or layer pastries.
It's quite similar to vanilla pudding, and super easy to make. The recipe here only includes three egg yolks, considerably less than a traditional French recipe - which can include up to ten. We like the lighter flavor, and we usually use pastry cream in recipes that don't need a very thick texture. If you do, however, just add additional egg yolks. The resulting cream here is light, delicatedly flavored with vanilla, and very, very creamy. Be watching for a recipe later this week that puts it to good use!
My recipe (possibly an Italian version) it's very similar but doesn't call for butter. One can play with the amount of flour to get the various degree of thickness. I use this cream also for open fruit tarts and other cakes. For puffy pastries it's best if whisked together with an equal amount of whipped cream.
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i was just about to google a new lighter recipe for pastry cream when i saw this one here. i'll use it as a more stable substitute for whipped cream in a pavlova i'm making for a party.
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