salted caramel pastry cream

originally posted 11/29/2022

Of all the pastry cream iterations I’ve got in my arsenal, this one has got to be in my top 3 faves. Most recently I paired this pastry cream with brown butter cake layers, spice toffee apples and August Uncommon Pyschocandy tea infused french buttercream. My ode to the classic fall caramel apple.

If you want to go for something really complex pair it with chocolate and passion fruit. Think chocolate cake, caramel pastry cream and passion fruit curd… or even just the pulp of a fresh passion fruit drizzles over top and finished it off with olive oil buttercream. It’s simple yet layers these flavors in an interesting way- deep & rich being cut with a bit of that tart passion fruit… like come ON!!! Don’t be surprised if you see this cake on the menu soon LOL.

This recipes makes 1000 grams of pastry cream!

Ingredients:

• 60 grams sugar (1)

• 315 grams whole milk

• 290 grams heavy cream

• 1/2 vanilla bean scraped- or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract

• 1 teaspoon sea salt

• 150 grams egg (about 3 whole large eggs)

• 60 grams sugar (2)

• 42 grams cornstarch

• 75 grams butter

Directions:

1. Place a medium saucepan over medium heat. Allow it to heat up before adding in sugar (1). Evenly sprinkle the sugar across the bottom of the pot. The sugar will begin to melt and eventually brown at the edges. At this point use a rubber spatula to stir. Cook until the sugar becomes a deep amber color and begins to give off little wisps of smoke. The lighter the caramel the sweeter it will be and darker caramels result in a deeper slightly bitter flavor. Take it to your desired level.

2. CAREFULLY deglaze the pot with your the milk and heavy cream. Pour in a little at a time until the caramel stops sputtering and releasing tons of steam before adding all the dairy in.

3. Bring the caramel milk mixture up to a simmer.

4. While that heats up, whisk together your cornstarch, sugar(2) and salt to eliminate any lumps. Add your eggs 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!

5. Once your milk mixture is at a simmer, 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.

6. Once tempered add the egg mixture back into the saucepan.

7. 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.)

8. 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 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.

9. Cover directly with plastic wrap. Label and date the container!

10. Use it how ever you’d like ♡

11. * 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 *

TYSM & ENJOY!!! XOXO, KASSIE ♡