Pastry Cream

Perfect for fruit tarts, cream puffs or cream pies. Yum.

Pastry Cream

2 cups milk
1/4 cup white sugar
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup white sugar
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. In a heavy saucepan, stir together milk and 1/4 cup of sugar. Bring to boil over medium heat.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and egg with an electric mixer. Stir together cornstarch and sugar and mix them into the eggs until smooth. Whip until color becomes light yellow or white. When milk boils, drizzle it into the egg mixture while mixing. Be careful not to cook the eggs!
3. Return the mixture into saucepan and slowly bring to boil, stirring constantly.
4. When mixture boils and thickens, remove from heat and stir in vanilla and butter until melted. Pour into a heat-proof container and place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled before use.

Note:  I actually just used a total of 4 yolks instead of 2 yolks and one whole egg since I had a bunch of them left from making angel food cupcakes. I also doubled the recipe. Good use for all those yolks. The substitution is 2 yolks for 1 whole egg.

I folded some whipped cream into half of the pastry cream and used it for my cream puffs. The leftover pastry cream I used to make a strawberry banana cream pie... I can taste summer coming!

Original recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pastry-Cream-2/Detail.aspx?prop31=4