Pastry Cream

Ingredients

  • 1 egg
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1⁄2 cup sugar
  • 5 tbsp corn starch
  • 1⁄2 tsp kosher salt
  • seeds from 1 vanilla bean
  • 2 cups whole milk

Finish

  • 4 tbsp cold butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

  • Add all of the ingredients except the butter and vanilla extract to a heavy-bottom medium-sized pot
  • Whisk continuously over medium-low heat until the mixture thickens (around 6-8 minutes)
  • Once it's thickened, whisk in the butter, whisking continously until it's completely emulsified in
  • Whisk in the vanilla extract
  • Strain through a metal mesh to remove any vanilla pod bits
  • Refrigerate in contact with plastic

Notes

All the extra steps in older recipes are not needed, this works perfectly.

Adding in ~2 tsp of mortar-ground loose-leaf earl grey tea has worked well for me.