Crème Légère - Pastry Cream Lightened with Whipped Cream
If you’re a fan of the dreamy vanilla cream inside of éclairs and cream puffs, you need to learn the art of making Crème Légère. This versatile French cream recipe can be used in dozens of applications and can be flavored in countless ways to fit your dessert vision.
Servings: 4 cups
Calories: 97kcal
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 cups Whole milk
- 1 Vanilla Bean
- 5 Egg Yolks
- ⅔ cup Granulated Sugar
- ½ cup Cornstarch
- Pinch Kosher Salt
- 3 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
- 1 ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons Heavy Cream cold
Instructions
- In a heavy saucepan, add your scraped vanilla bean and milk together and bring to a simmer.4 cups Whole milk, 1 Vanilla Bean
- Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and pinch of salt together in a bowl. Whisk until the mixture lightens in color and becomes a pale yellow.5 Egg Yolks, ⅔ cup Granulated Sugar, ½ cup Cornstarch, Pinch Kosher Salt
- Temper the egg mixture by slowly whisking in the hot milk to the egg mixture together until homogenous.
- Return the mixture to the saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly over medium heat.
- When the pastry cream comes to a boil, continue to whisk constantly and boil for up to 2 minutes. The pastry cream should reach 200F.
- Remove from the heat and strain into a clean bowl. Stir in the butter and mix until the butter is melted and mixed into the cream.3 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
- Cover with plastic film placed directly in contact with the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming and place in the fridge to cool.
- Add the cold cream into a mixing bowl with a whisk attachment - start mixing until stiff peaks form.1 ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons Heavy Cream
- Add the whipped cream into the chilled and set pastry cream, mixing and whisking until combined and smooth. Allow to chill until set then use in your pastry recipes!
Notes
Expert Tips/Expert baking tips
- Don’t overmix your whipping cream. You want to stop before you hit stiff peaks! If you’re not sure what the difference is between soft and stiff peaks, I like this visual guide.
- Fold the whipped cream into the pastry cream gently and incrementally. Adding a little bit at the front end helps to loosen the custard, which makes it easier to fold the rest in without deflating it.
- Separate your eggs while they’re cold, then let the yolks come to room temperature to make tempering easier.
- Waste not, want not. Save those egg whites to make French macarons or a lovely pavlova you can then top with creme legere and macerated berries. You can also save the spent vanilla pod to make infused sugar.
- To keep your bowl from sliding around as you temper the eggs, dampen a kitchen towel, then shape it into a ring on your work surface. Place the egg bowl in the hole, and voila! No more slipping.
Nutrition
Calories: 97kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 59mg | Sodium: 21mg | Potassium: 79mg | Fiber: 0.03g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 196IU | Calcium: 66mg | Iron: 0.1mg
