Custard Part 1

An investigation into different types of custard and my favourite crème pat recipe

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Hello! Today we’re chatting about all things custard. A chef I used to work with once told me that being on the pastry section is easy because “it’s all just custard, innit”, while he’s not totally wrong, a lot of recipes do involve custard in some way, I have to disagree that being on the pastry is easy and there is quite a lot of nuance when it comes to desserts, even those with a custard base.

In pastry kitchens you end up using millions of different kinds of custard but my most used is definitely crème pat, I’ve been fiddling around with my recipe for ages and I wanted to share my findings but it seemed a shame only to talk about one kind of custard when there are so many other wonderful possibilities. I thought this would be a good opportunity to explore all of the different types of custard, variations, what they’re used for AND how to make my favourite crème pat. Because I cannot get enough of custard we’re going to continue the custard chats next week with some more custard based recipes so buckle up for a big custardy ride!

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What Is Custard?

Before we get going, let’s ask the big question, what is custard? Custard is anything and everything that is made my heating milk/cream, eggs and sugar until the eggs coagulate to give us a thick velvety texture. Almost every culture has it’s own version of custard in one shape or another, since my training is in classic French patisserie and most of the custards I encounter are of French origin I’ll be focusing on these. If your culture has its own custard-based dessert I would love to hear about it, please leave me a comment below!

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Meet The Custards

A quick note on the names, almost all of these various custard based products start with the word “crème”, most of the time this can be dropped, after all there’s only so many times you can read the word “crème” in one post. So, let’s meet all of the custards, we’re running through each one and where possible I’m linking a recipe using that specific custard if you fancy some further reading, I’ve tried to include mostly free recipes here but if you’re a paid subscriber you’ll have access to loads of custard based recipes, turns out I can’t keep away from the stuff!

Crème Pâtissière

First off, let’s clear something up, crème pat, pastry cream and crème pâtissière are all the same thing, I will be referring to it as crème pat as it’s the fastest to say and type and I’m lazy. Crème pat is a thick, rich custard made by boiling milk, eggs, starch and sugar, it’s often used in vienoisserie as well as patisserie. It’s sometimes enriched with the addition of butter or chocolate.

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Crème Mousseline

Mousseline starts off with a crème pat base, butter is then whipped in to make a super rich custard with a buttercream-like texture. It’s used in patisserie, most notably Paris-Brest and sometimes on cakes, often referred to as German buttercream. I rarely use mousseline without additional flavouring, it can taste quite butter-heavy and while I love butter I don’t want my bakes to taste like you’re eating a block of butter. Mousseline flavoured with nut pralines is my personal favourite.

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Crème Diplomat

Diplomat is, very simply, crème pat with whipped cream folded through, it’s lighter and more airy than crème pat with a velvety texture. It’s most often used in patisserie, often appearing as a filling for choux buns, depending on the usage it will sometimes contain gelatine to stabilise it.

This week for paid subscribers we’re using crème diplomat to make a fraisier, one of my favourite summer cakes!

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Crème Chiboust

Our last custard with a crème pat base and the lightest of the custards. Chiboust is a combination of crème pat and meringue (usually Italian), it has an almost mousse-y texture and is on the sweeter side. Of all the custards, this is the one I use the least, it’s traditionally used on St. Honoré but the texture can be difficult to pipe and I often see chefs opt for diplomat instead. I’d say this one is for the hardcore traditionalists, it’s fun to make once or twice but you don’t really need it in your custard arsenal.

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Baked Custard

Baked custard is a custard that is, well… baked. Rather than cooking it on a stovetop it’s baked in the oven until set. There are hundreds of variations of baked custards, from crème brûlée to leche flan to custard tart, the list is endless!

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Crème Anglaise

Anglaise has a more saucy consistency, it doesn’t contain any starch to thicken it and relies solely on egg yolks which are cooked with the milk/cream to around 70°C/160°F, until they coagulate and the sauce thickens. It’s generally used as a hot sauce, served with desserts or as a base for other recipes like ice creams and bavaroise mousses. We explore Angalise more in Custard Part 2!

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Crémeux

I didn’t know wether or not to include this as I wouldn’t really count it as a custard but it does have a custard base so I decided to throw it in the mix. Crémeux literally translates to “creamy”, it’s made by combining Anglaise with a stabilising ingredient, usually chocolate, which then sets to a soft pipeable consistency, the result is somewhere between a ganache and a chocolate crème pat. It can be made without the addition of any chocolate with just gelatine or cocoa butter, this is then whipped to a texture that’s slightly lighter and creamier than crème pat.

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Custard

Custard is the British alternative to crème Anglaise, served hot or cold with any and every dessert. Like Anglaise it’s a pourable consistency but is thickened with starch (usually cornflour) to give it a more robust consistency. Eaten cold, the texture is that of American “pudding”.

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Crème Pat

Ok, let’s get into our crème pat recipe! I’ve used a tonne of different recipes during my time and let me tell you, not all crème pats are created equally. The good thing is, is that once you have a good reliable recipe, the world is your oyster, it’s easy to adjust and can be used in so many different recipes!

Let’s have a look at the ingredients:

• Milk/Cream: Most recipes will use milk or a combination of milk and cream, in this instance I don’t find the addition of cream necessary, it’s rich enough without it and if I am after a more luxurious crème pat, I find it more affective adding in a few extras at the end.

• Egg: If you’ve made many of my recipes you’ll know I’m a yolk girl, I have used crème pat recipes that use whole eggs but yolks give a nice creamier texture while the whole eggs give a gelatinous, wobbly texture, this can be great for baked custards, but it’s not what we’re after here. The yolks are also giving us a beautiful rich yellow colour, I know aesthetics aren’t the most important thing in baking but there’s something incredibly unappealing about a sad, pale crème pat, just throw any extra egg whites in the freezer to use later.

• Starch: During my apprenticeship we only made crème pat using plain flour, in hindsight this is madness, in order to get rid of the floury taste, crème pats with flour in need to be cooked for AT LEAST 10 minutes once it comes to the boil. It’s already hard enough standing over a stove, whisking gallons of crème pat, why make life even harder? Cornflour is a much more popular and practical option, it still needs to be boiled to get rid of the floury taste but once it comes to the boil it only needs to be cooked for around 3 minutes which is much more achievable.

• Sugar: In this instance sugar is only really here to add sweetness so it can easily be adjusted to suit your personal preferences, it can also be swapped out for honey, dark brown sugar or any sugar alternative you fancy!

• Flavourings: You can really have fun here! I’ve shared my classic vanilla crème pat recipe today but the options are endless. You can add flavours with infusions or with add-ins. My favourite infusions are different teas, herbs or even things like popcorn. When it comes to add-ins, praline pastes, rosewater and caramel are all great. Don’t be afraid to experiment!

These are the ingredients that make a good base crème pat, this is the kind that works perfectly when it’s baked in goods like brioche or vienoisserie, however if I’m making crème pat that’s going to be the star of the show I like to enrich it with some additional ingredients, these ingredients help to make it taste better but they also make it firmer and easier to pipe which is important, especially in products like choux buns, the last thing you want is a runny crème pat splurting all over the place. These are the ingredients I like to use to enrich my crème pat:

• Butter: Obviously we’re going to throw some butter in there, it makes it smoother, richer, creamier and firmer, all good things!

• Chocolate: Chocolate isn’t really necessary but again, it makes the crème pat much easier to work with and much more stable, if I don’t want to affect the flavour too much, I use white chocolate but if I want a super decadent chocolate crème pat, I’ll add a 70% dark chocolate.

• Mascarpone: Adding a bit of rich dairy really takes it to the next level, I change the dairy depending on how I’m feeling, my go to-s are mascarpone, crème fraîche or cream cheese.

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Method

The method when it comes to crème pat is fairly straight forward, I do have some tips and trick though so let’s take a look at what we’ve got:

1. Boil the milk with any infusions: Fairly self explanatory, the only thing I have to add here is that it’s always a good idea to re-weigh the milk after infusing it, if I’m just using vanilla, I don’t bother but things like tea and herbs can absorb a lot of the liquid.

2. Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornflour: It’s really important that you whisk the yolks and sugar as soon as they come into contact with each other! The sugar “cooks” the proteins in the yolk and essentially cures it, this starts right away so if you don’t whisk the two instantly you’ll end up with little lumps of cured egg yolk which isn’t what you want.

3. Pour 1/3 of the boiled milk onto the yolk mixure: This is often referred to as a “liaison”, adding just a bit of the boiled milk at a time helps to control the overall temperature of the mixture rather than shocking it with a load of boiling milk which could risk cooking the egg yolks prematurely resulting in a lumpy mess.

4. Pour back into the pan: I always sieve it at this point! It gets rid of any lumps of cornflour, globby bit’s of egg white that might have snuck in there and anything else you might not want in there.

5. Whisk until boiling: I think there’s a common misconception that custards shouldn’t be boiled but this is only true for recipes that contain no starch. Any recipe that contains starch MUST be boiled in order to cook out the starch so that the mixture doesn’t taste floury and to achieve the correct setting point. It isn’t enough just to let it thicken, it must fully boil! Once you start heating it don’t walk away, just stand over the pan whisking continuously, if you start getting lumps turn the heat down, if it burns on the bottom, transfer to a new pan and continue to cook it. Always boil it for at least 3 minutes after it’s thickened so that you can be sure that the entire mixture has reached boiling point.

Alright, enough chat, let’s get onto the recipe…

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Crème Pat, Basic & Enriched

Ingredients - makes enough for 12 small tarts

300g whole milk

1/2 vanilla pod

80g egg yolk (4-5 large yolks)

35g caster sugar

20g cornflour

Pinch of salt

For the enriched version:

30g white chocolate

50g mascarpone

50g unsalted butter

Method

1. Scrape the seeds of the vanilla pod and add to a pan with the empty pod and the milk.

2. Bring to the boil.

3. Whisk together the cornflour and sugar then add the yolks and whisk until smooth.

4. Pour half of the freshly boiled milk over the egg yolk mixture while whisking, followed by the second half. Sieve back into the pan.

5. Bring the mixture to the boil, whisking continuously, once boiling cook out for 3-4 more minutes, this ensures that there isn’t a floury texture and that it’s nice and thick.

6. For enriched: Add the white chocolate, mascarpone and butter and whisk to combine, at this point is you have any lumps you can give it a quick blitz with a hand blender.

7. Leave to cool in a container with clingfilm touching the surface to prevent a skin forming or you can chill it directly in the piping bag, I like to do this to save on washing up.

I used this enriched crème pat plus my basic sweet pastry dough to make some very simple fruit tarts this week!

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