Strawberry Week! + Strawberry Tartlets and My Favourite Pastry Cream

I love strawberries. I wait all year just so that I can bite into the sweetness of this heart shaped deliciousness. Is there anyone who doesn’t love the burst of sweet, slightly tart juices in the mouth?

To celebrate my love for the fruit I thought it’d be fun to do a week of some of my favourite things to do with strawberries. So today I present to you my newest obsession: pastry cream. I tried making the pastry cream from Dorie Greenspan’s (no surprise here!) book: Paris Sweets. After reading some horror stories of people ending up with scrambled eggs, I was a little afraid, but I’m happy to report that I got it right in the first shot, and this recipe is a keeper. It is everything you’d want in a pastry cream: rich, dense, sweet smelling and speckled with vanilla caviar.

1. Bring the milk and vanilla bean (pulp and pod) to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cover the pan, turn off the heat, and set aside for 20-30 minutes. Or, if you are using vanilla extract, just bring the milk to a boil and proceed with the recipe. (You will need to add the extract before you add the butter to the hot pastry cream.). Bring it back to the boil after 30 minutes and then continue.
2. Working in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan (or your favourite Le Creuset!), whisk the yolks, sugar, and cornstarch together until thick and pale. Whisking enthusiastically all the while, drizzle a quarter of the hot milk onto the yolks very slowly. Continue whisking as you pour the rest of the liquid in a steady stream over the tempered yolks.
3. Put the pan over medium heat and, whisk enthusiastically (prefer using a positive sounding word like enthusiastic as opposed to the generally used ‘vigorous’) and without stopping, while the mixture comes to the boil. Turn down the flame and keep the mixture at the boil, whisking energetically, for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat and scrape the pastry cream into a bowl. Allow the pastry cream to cool on the counter for about 3 minutes.
4. Stir the butter into the hot pastry cream, continuing to stir until the butter is melted and fully incorporated. Now the cream must be chilled thoroughly. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the cream to seal the surface and refrigerate for 3-4 hours.
5. Shelf life: 3 days when refrigerated and 1 month when frozen. Defrost overnight in the refrigerator and whip it up before using to return it to its smooth consistency.

Tagged as: desserts, strawberry week