Following on from our previous experiments using lemon pudding as a pastry cream substitute, this week we embark on making a proper crème pâtissière. Given my previous experiences with food influencer recipes, I went right to the source for this one.
I did, however, opt to make some modifications straight out of the gate. I added two lemons worth of zest to the milk at the start, and two lemons worth of juice to the finished cream at the end. Lemon is a risky ingredient when dairy is involved, but fortune favours the bold. I figured that once the milk was fully custardized there wouldn't be any risk of curdling, and my suspicions were correct. I also added an extra 1/4c of sugar to balance out the tartness of the lemon juice.
The result?
Well, it looks a little lumpy in the photo but I can assure you that it is smooth as silk. It's just a little firm from sitting in the fridge, and I needed to stir it up a bit more before serving it to get it looking a bit more photogenic.
Oddly, the recipe yielded about 4.5c of finished pastry cream, where the recipe claimed to only yield 3c. I find their claim somewhat dubious, as the recipe calls for 3c just for the milk, and so unless there was going to be a lot of loss along the way it wouldn't make sense for the final yield to be only that much.
Anyway, the cream is smooth, rich, just sweet enough and delightfully tart and lemony. A great success all around.
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