Whether you’re making choux pastries, cakes or tarts, cream is an essential part of the finished product. but there are many different ways to treat cream depending on the recipe’s origin. baking business consulted with the brains behind the new pastry gospel, patisserie, to find out exactly what bakers need to know about this versatile ingredient.

Pastry Cream

What Is It?
Custard-like cream prepared cold, based on milk and egg yolk, with a thick texture, traditionally flavoured with vanilla.

Time To Make
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 3 minutes per litre of milk
Cooling: 1 hour

Classic Uses
To fill cream puffs, éclairs, religieuses, mille-feuilles

Derivations
German buttercream (crème mousseline)
Diplomat cream (crème diplomate)
Frangipane cream (crème frangipane)
Chiboust cream (crème Chiboust)

Technique To Master
Blanching egg yolks

Storage
Keeps for three days in the refrigerator.

Why Blanch The Egg Yolks And Sugar?
The blanching of the egg yolks with the sugar allows the mixture to become smooth. The sugar plays a ‘protective’ role for the proteins during heating. If it is mixed well with the egg yolk proteins, the risk of lumps forming is decreased.

Why Can A ‘skin’ Form On The Surface Of The Cream After Cooling?
This is due to the coagulation of the proteins during heating (like the skin that forms when milk is heated) and to dehydration at the surface.

What Is The Difference Between A Pastry Cream Made With Flour And One Made With Cornflour?
Changing the thickening agent changes the source of starch and therefore the texture of the cream. The different starches have different properties. To make two pastry creams with the same texture, you would use less cornflour than you would flour (wheat starch). A pastry cream made with cornflour will be lighter than a pastry cream made with an equivalent quantity of flour.

You’ll Need
100g egg yolk
120g caster sugar
50g cornflour
500g milk
1 vanilla bean
50g butter

What To Do
1. In a stainless-steel bowl, blanch the egg yolk with the sugar.
Blanching egg yolks: Whisk the egg yolks with sugar to obtain a foamy mixture. It will double in volume. The process of homogenisation will take several minutes and is achieved faster with an electric whisk.

2. Add the cornflour
3. Pour the milk into a saucepan with the seeds scraped from a vanilla bean and the bean itself. Bring the milk to the boil, remove the vanilla bean, pour half the milk over the egg yolk, sugar and cornflour mixture, and whisk. Return to the saucepan and heat rapidly while whisking energetically.
4. When the mixture thickens, continue to whisk. From the time it starts to boil, count 90 seconds per 500g of milk.
5. Remove from the heat and add the butter.
6. Pour into a baking tin to cool rapidly and cover with plastic wrap, with the plastic touching the surface of the cream. Always whip the cream vigorously before using, to smooth it out.

French Butter Cream

What Is It?

A smooth, melt-in-your-mouth cream, based on butter creamed with sugar, combined with a bombe mixture. Like pastry cream, it is a component of many classics.

Time To Make

Preparation: 30 minutes

Cooking: 10 minutes

Classic Uses

Filling for logs, opera cakes, mocha cakes and religieuses

Other Use

Cupcake topping

Variations

Some recipes cream the butter with Italian meringue; the result is slightly lighter.

Vanilla buttercream: add 5g vanilla extract at the end

Coffee buttercream: add 30g coffee extract at the end

Chocolate buttercream: add 80g cocoa powder at the end

Techniques To Master

Making a sugar syrup

What Is The Action Of The 115°c Sugar On The Eggs?

Cooking the sugar to 115°C allows the evaporation of a certain quantity of the water in the syrup. When the eggs come into contact with the hot syrup, some of the egg proteins are denatured, in other words modified in their composition. These transformations are manifested in a thickening of the egg and sugar mixture.

Organisation & Storage

Whipping up the eggs – syrup – incorporating the butter

Ideally, use immediately. Otherwise, it will keep in the refrigerator for three days and in the freezer for three months in an airtight container wrapped in plastic wrap.

You’ll Need

100g egg (2 eggs)

40g water

130g caster sugar

200g butter, softened

What To do?

1. Beat the egg in an electric mixer. It should triple in volume.

2. Pour the water into a small saucepan and cover with the sugar. Make a syrup.

a. Making a sugar syrup: Use clean and dry utensils. Weigh the water then the sugar and pour them gently into a saucepan, without mixing. Clean any crystals from the side of the pan using a wet pastry brush. Heat over medium heat.

3. Heat to 115°C then stop cooking.

4. Slowly pour the syrup into the egg in a thin stream, beating the whole time. The mixture should be thick and creamy.

5. Once completely cooled, add the butter, little by little, beating the whole time. Flavour the cream if desired.

German Butter Cream

What Is It?
A pastry cream to which a large quantity of butter or butter creamed with sugar has been added.

Time To Make
Preparation: 35 minutes
Cooking: 3 minutes per litre of milk
Resting: 3-24 hours

Classic Uses
Filling for cakes and desserts

Organisation
Pastry cream –
incorporating butter
Keeps for three days in the refrigerator.

What Gives The Cream Its Great Structure?
This cream is made from a pastry cream into which, after cooling, softened butter is added. When cooled, this butter will stiffen the texture of the cream.

You ‘ll Need
Pastry Cream
100g egg yolk
120g caster sugar
50g cornflour
500g milk
125g butter

Butter

125g butter, softened

What To Do

1. Make the pastry cream.

2. Once the cream has cooled completely, whisk it for 3-5 minutes. While still beating, add the softened butter until the mixture is smooth. Use immediately or keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.

Chantilly Cream

What Is It?

Sweetened whipped cream containing at least 30 per cent fat, possibly flavoured but with no other additive.

Classic Uses

Fillings, accompaniment

Organisation & Storage

Cooling the utensils – whipping

Keeps for three days in the refrigerator; if it starts to sink, whip it again a little.

Variations

Praline chantilly cream: add 30g praline

Pistachio chantilly cream: add 10g pistachio paste.

Mascarpone chantilly cream (thicker and firmer than classic chantilly cream): add 1 tablespoon of mascarpone

Time To Take

Refrigeration: 30 minutes

Preparation: 15 minutes

Why Is There A Minimum Percentage For Fat Content?

The fat contained in the cream crystallises around the air bubbles incorporated during whipping. If the fat content is insufficient, there won’t be enough crystals to stabilise the air bubbles and therefore to stabilise the chantilly cream.

Why Does The Cream Whip Up Better If It Is Cold?

The coldness is necessary for the formation of the fat crystals, without which the chantilly cream won’t be stabilised.

What Happens If The Cream Is Overwhipped?
You make butter. The emulsion destabilises, and the water and fat separate.

At What Point Should The Sugar Be Added And Why?
To avoid the chantilly cream destabilising when the sugar is incorporated, it is preferable to add it at the beginning. That way, it will be dissolved in the cream.

You’ll Need

500g whipping cream (at least 30 per cent fat)

80g icing sugar

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

What To Do?

1. Refrigerate the utensils and the cream (utensils for 30 minutes, cream for two hours). Put the cream, icing sugar and vanilla bean seeds in the bowl of an electric mixer.

2. Whisk gently to mix the sugar and vanilla into the cream.

3. Whisk at full speed to whip the cream to stiff peaks: it should not be at all shiny. Use immediately or set aside in the refrigerator.

Almond Cream

What Is It?
A cream made with almonds, formed into an emulsion by the addition of uncooked eggs

Time To Make
Preparation: 20 minutes

Classic Uses
Tart filling, pithiviers

Derivation
Frangipane

Why Does It Swell Up When Cooked?
During cooking, the air bubbles incorporated while mixing will dilate and make the cream swell up, giving it a foamy appearance.

Technique To Master
Creaming butter and sugar

Storage
Keeps for storage days in the refrigerator

You’ll Need
100g butter, well softened
100g caster sugar
100g almond meal
100g egg (2 eggs)
20g plain flour

What To Do
1. Put the butter and sugar in a stainless-steel bowl and mix (cream) using a spatula, until light and fluffy.
a. Creaming butter and sugar: This operation consists of rendering butter or a mixture of butter and sugar airy and creamy by whisking it vigorously. Generally start with softened butter.
2. Add the almond meal, egg and flour. Fold in using the spatula, taking care not to incorporate too much air. Use straight away or set aside in the refrigerator.

Chiboust Cream

What Is It?
Pastry cream lightened with Italian meringue and stabilised with gelatine, also known as St Honoré cream.

Time To Make
Preparation: 40 minutes

Techniques To Master
Hydrating gelatine
Incorporating with a whisk then a silicone spatula

Organisation & Storage
Pastry cream – cooling – Italian meringue – combining the two mixtures
Keeps for three days in the refrigerator.

What Effect Does The Addition Of Meringue Have?
The incorporation of the meringue base considerably lightens the pastry cream.

Classic Uses
Chiboust tart, filling for choux pastry and St Honoré cake

You’ll Need
PASTRY CREAM
8g leaf gelatine
50g egg yolk
60g caster sugar
25g cornflour
250g milk
25g butter

Italian Meringue
40g water
125g caster sugar
50g egg white

What To Do
1. Hydrate the gelatin
a. Hydrating gelatine: Leaf gelatine has been dehydrated and must be rehydrated in order to melt it into a mixture. If it isn’t hydrated well, it will absorb any missing water from the mixture itself, causing it to shrink. Immerse the gelatine in a bowl of very cold water (it melts at low temperatures). Let it soak for at least 15 minutes, then drain it and squeeze it between your hands before adding it to the mixture. Gelatine ‘glues’ mixtures together; in other words, it gives them their structure. The setting time is quite quick. Use the mixture straight away, so that the gelling power kicks in as soon as the mixture is put in place, or set it aside and whisk it before using to restore its consistency.
2. Make the pastry cream; at the end of cooking, add the drained gelatine then set aside to cool to 30°C.
3. Make the Italian meringue.
4. Whisk the pastry cream then whisk in one-third of the meringue.
5. Gently fold in the remaining meringue using a silicone spatula.
a. Work in two steps to mix the textures. Incorporate the first third using a whisk and mixing vigorously to loosen the thickest mixture, then fold in the remaining two thirds more delicately, using a silicone spatula, to retain the lightness. It is possible to whisk in the remaining two-thirds using the whisk like a silicone spatula; the mixing will occur more rapidly. Use the silicone spatula to check if the mixture is smooth.
Use immediately or keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.

Diplomat Cream

What Is It?
Pastry cream lightened with whipped cream and stabilised with gelatine.

Classic Uses
Filling for diplomat cakes, desserts and small cakes

Time To Make
Preparation: 30 minutes

Techniques To Master
Hydrating gelatine
Incorporating with a whisk, then a silicone spatula

Organisation & Storage
Pastry cream – cooling – whipped cream – mixing the two creams
Keeps for three days in the refrigerator.

Why Is It Better To Use The Cream Immediately?
In diplomat cream, the pastry cream is ‘glued’ together by the gelatine to obtain a cream that will set well, before adding the whipped cream. The diplomat cream is therefore easiest to work with before it is chilled and the gelatine network has developed. It will take on its definitive texture in the assembled dessert.

You’ll Need
PASTRY CREAM
8g leaf gelatine
100g egg yolk
120g caster sugar
50g cornflour
500g milk
50g butter

Whipped Cream
200g whipping cream (30 per cent fat)

What To Do
1. Hydrate the gelatine
a. Hydrating gelatine: Leaf gelatine has been dehydrated and must be rehydrated in order to melt it into a mixture. If it isn’t hydrated well, it will absorb any missing water from the mixture itself, causing it to shrink. Immerse the gelatine in a bowl of very cold water (it melts at low temperatures). Let it soak for at least 15 minutes, then drain it and squeeze it between your hands before adding it to the mixture. Gelatine ‘glues’ mixtures together; in other words, it gives them their structure. The setting time is quite quick. Use the mixture straight away, so that the gelling power kicks in as soon as the mixture is put in place, or set it aside and whisk it before using to restore its consistency.

2. Make the pastry cream. At the end of cooking, whisk in the drained gelatine at the same time as the butter. Set aside to cool.

3. Whip the cream as for chantilly cream. Whisk the cooled pastry cream, then whisk in one-third of the whipped cream. Once the mixture is smooth, fold in the remaining whipped cream using a silicone spatula.
a. Work in two steps to mix the textures. Incorporate the first third using a whisk and mixing vigorously to loosen the thickest mixture, then fold in the remaining two thirds more delicately, using a silicone spatula, to retain the lightness. It is possible to whisk in the remaining two-thirds using the whisk like a silicone spatula; the mixing will occur more rapidly. Use the silicone spatula to check if the mixture is smooth.

4. Use immediately or keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days.