Lenotre Pastry Cream

The most delicious tasting and delicious looking pastry cream - I could just eat this all up and forget what I was making it for... I used this as a filling for chocolate eclairs. Soooooo good. The real vanilla bean sends it from ordinary to fabulous. I wouldn't dream of changing a molecule of the ingredients or the method.

This is a great recipe and makes the perfect pastry cream. I recommend whisking the cornstarch (I just use 3 TBS cornstarch total instead of using the additional flour, because I'm gluten-intolerant) with the sugar in a mixing bowl, adding the yolks, and beating with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. You can add 1/2-1 cup of the hot vanilla milk to that, then turn the mixer back on and fluff it up again. Finally, whisk this mixture into the milk on the stove and heat it back up while whisking. I prefer this method because then you shouldn't have to strain it!<br/><br/>Also, I recommend putting a cinnamon stick and chunks of lemon peel in the milk instead of the vanilla (and let them steep for a bit before you take them out). It will give it an incredible depth of flavor that you just have to taste to believe!

This was delicious!!! Vanilla bean really makes a big difference from vanilla extract.

This makes an amazing filling, even with half the butter. I chose to use 2 tsp of vanilla extract instead of the bean, but I am sure vanilla bean would make it even better. I went on to make three additional flavors out of this by adding coffee concentrate, grated dark chocolate and almond extract.

Excellent pastry cream. Very easy. I love the vanilla bean though in some uses, I would be unhappy with the vanilla specks in the creme.