cajeta pastry cream
dulce de leche but goatier
So cajeta is like dulce de leche’s complex, moodier, older sister (defnitely keeps a journal of poetry). Cajeta is made essentially by caramelizing goat’s milk. You can buy cajeta or you can make it yourself- which is definitely a labor of love but so worth it. You can definitely taste the goat’s milk in cajeta so by making it yourself you can control that flavor by subbing in some plain whole milk instead. My favorite recipe for cajeta is from Serious Eats and is what I use as the cajeta in this recipe. I’ll make it the day before I plan to use it in the recipe. Or if you’re choosing to buy cajeta I find Josefa’s has the best flavor.
If you’re not a fan of cajeta you can also just sub in dulce de leche instead!
This is definitely one of my favorite donut fillings. I also love pairing this with brown butter cake layers and french buttercream with a touch of ground cinnamon in it- 2 bomb!!
This recipe makes 1000 grams of pastry cream.
Ingredients:
200 grams whole milk
60 grams goat’s milk
240 grams heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
35 grams rum (omit if you don’t like or don’t consume alcohol!)
5 grams orange zest (about 1 orange’s worth)
1 cinnamon stick
100 grams whole eggs (about 2 large whole eggs)
40 grams egg yolks (about 2 large egg yolks)
70 grams granulated sugar
37 grams cornstarch
80 grams butter, room temp
145 grams cajeta
Directions:
Place your milks, heavy cream, vanilla, rum, orange zest and cinnamon stick into a medium saucepan over medium heat.
While that heats up, whisk together your cornstarch and sugar to eliminate any lumps. Add your eggs & yolks and whisk together until a homogenous paste forms. You’'ll really want to aerate this for about a minute or two- not fully necessary it’ll help the milk mixture to temper in easier in the next step!
Once your milk mixture is at a simmer remove the cinnamon stick and temper into the egg mixture. To temper: ladle in a small amount of the hot milk into the eggs, whisking to combine. Add another ladle full and repeat. Do this about 3/4 times before adding the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan. You do this to slowly bring the eggs up to temp and avoid shocking/scrambling them. If the eggs scramble it will leave you with a grainy texture and eggy taste.
Once tempered add the egg mixture back into the saucepan.
Whisk constantly to avoid scrambling. Continue to whisk until your cream begins to thicken and reaches a soft boil (a few slow popping and thick bubbles will form.)
At this point remove your cream from the heat and strain into your desired container. This is the final frontier to make sure you don’t have any scrambled eggy bits in your cream. Add your butter & cajeta and immersion blend until smooth. If you don’t have an immersion blender you can use a regular blender or just whisk to combine. The immersion blender though leaves you with the most perfect creamy texture.
Cover directly with plastic wrap. Label and date the container!
Use it how ever you’d like ♡ just have fun and be creative
* If you find your PC has set too firm in the fridge, put it in the blender with the paddle to loosen it up a bit. or do it by hand with a spatula *