#2 - Crème Pâtissière, The Whole Egg
A no-waste variation on crème pâtissière
Hello!
How are you? I hope you've had a great week!
I am currently on week one of two at Le Manoir, where I am doing a stage (work experience for those of you unfamiliar with the term), learning all about everything pastry. It seems funny to say I'm doing work experience at the age of 26. Most people associate it with something you reluctantly agree to in year 9, and is usually entirely removed from anything you are remotely interested in as a career. But that's the great thing about working in hospitality - there are so many opportunities to continue learning, and as it turns out, the majority of people are incredibly welcoming regardless of your age and experience. So, I'm making the most of it and cramming in two weeks of high end patisserie experience, along with some celebrity chef spotting.
Back to this week’s newsletter, and this week is a little continuation on the theme of my true love, crème pâtissière. You might be thinking, 'how can she possibly still be talking about custard?', but there are SO many variations I think I could fill a whole year's worth of newsletters. Of course, I won't do that to you (phew), but we will be chatting a little more about it today. Last week I shared a recipe for a basic crème pat, which used only egg yolks. It's important to have a base recipe, but to be honest I hate having to waste egg whites and often end up with a fridge full of them. So, this week I am going to tell you all about using the whole egg.
#3 - Crème pâtissière, the Whole Egg
The Whole Egg
Why use the whole egg
A recipe
Variations - infusions
The Whole Egg
In short, I think eggs are AMAZING. They are such a staple in baking in so many ways, yet totally unassuming little things and, I think, often undervalued. Here's a little summary to get you started...
The average egg weighs 50g, and comprises the shell, yolk, and white.
The White is 90% water, 10% protein, and it is this protein that makes it so useful for whisking into meringue. As you whisk, the proteins bind together to form structures, and trap air inside these. Introducing sugar into this helps strengthen these structures, which is why we get such a luscious, glossy mixture when making meringue.
The Yolk is 50% water, 20% protein, and 30% fat. Similar to egg whites, the proteins allow the yolk to foam up when whisked, which is important for making something called sabayon (more on this another time). However, it also contains something called lecithin - this is an emulsifier, and helps the yolk bind to other ingredients. For example, with oil to make a mayonnaise. The fat content helps produce rich, creamy custards, as well as beautiful soft sponges.
When we use whole egg, think of it as using both the yolk and the white, which have equally important and different properties.
So, respect your eggs (and chickens)! Think about what function your eggs are serving in a recipe. And remember that a good egg will massively improve whatever it is you are making. So invest in the best you can.
Why use the whole egg?
Most traditional recipes will use only egg yolks in a crème pâtissière. As mentioned, egg yolks help produce lovely rich, smooth custards, primarily due to their fat content. However, as someone who makes custards on the regular, I know how frustrating it is to have egg whites lingering in the back of the fridge. It's a wasteful exercise, and in our day and age it seems a little silly to be wasting perfectly good ingredients.
Besides helping reduce waste, using whole egg in custard has some real benefits in a pastry sense. The water content of the egg whites introduces a little more moisture into the crème pat, producing a much softer-set, delicate custard. It also comes in handy when we want certain flavours to shine - egg yolks are fattier and richer, so delicate flavours can be hard to taste in a traditional yolk-based custard. Some herbs and spices might struggle to fight with this dominance and be lost. So, a custard that is more delicate in texture and flavour is a huge pro when introducing other flavours.
The recipe
You'll notice this is practically copy and paste of last week's recipe, mainly because it is! The basic method of making crème pat is always the same. The only real variation here is the inclusion of the whole egg.
Ingredients
300g whole milk
1 vanilla pod, or equivalent in paste
2 eggs (should weigh 90-100g)
50g caster sugar
25g cornflour
Pinch of salt
Method
Begin by heating the milk in a medium saucepan with the vanilla. As with the previous recipe, this is where you'll infuse the flavour of the vanilla with your milk, so use a lower heat to warm gradually.
While the milk warms, whisk the eggs, caster sugar, cornflour, and salt together in a medium mixing bowl. Remember, you don't want the sugar to burn the yolks, so whisk well until pale.
By this point, you should see steam coming off the milk. If not, increase the heat slightly. It should be steaming, but not boiling - if you dipped a thermometer in, it would be around 70°C.
Pour approximately 1/3 of the warmed milk over the egg mixture and whisk. Pour another 1/3 over and whisk again.
Put the pan with the remaining 1/3 milk back on a medium heat, and pour the egg mixture into the pan. Now whisk, whisk, whisk!
After a few minutes, the heat will begin to thicken the mixture. You may begin to notice it looks a little lumpy, so take it off the heat and whisk hard until you have a smooth, glossy custard.
Return to the heat, bring the custard to the boil and let it bubble for 30 seconds or so whilst continuously whisking. Then remove from the heat. If you aren't sure whether you've cooked it enough, taste a little. If it feels floury in your mouth, keep cooking for a touch longer.
Use a spatula to get every last bit out of the pan into a tub or tray and press a sheet of baking paper directly onto the custard to prevent it forming a skin. Leave to cool before putting in the fridge.
Allow the crème pât to chill down properly. Then remove from the tub and whisk again hard until soft and glossy.
Variations - Infusions
Infusions are a great way to incorporate flavour into a custard (amongst other things!). It's incredibly simple and very rewarding too!
You have two main options: a hot or cold infusion. Begin by choosing your herb, spice, or other (loose leaf tea and coffee beans also work well!) and how much you'd like to use. I can't really advise on this - it really depends how strong a flavour you'd like and how long you are leaving it to infuse for. It's up to you to experiment here!
Hot infusions are the fastest. Before making the custard, heat your milk to steaming, then remove from the heat and add the flavouring. Allow it to sit with a lid on for 30 minutes. For tea I'd recommend just 5 minutes to prevent it becoming too strong and bitter.
Cold infusions are better overnight. They allow the flavour to infuse slowly, which means you have to use less of the flavouring to get a good infusion. Measure out your milk, add the flavouring, and allow it to sit in the fridge overnight.
When you have infused the milk, strain and re-weigh it. This step is very important. Often, whatever you infuse your milk with will absorb some of the liquid, so be sure to reweigh and add any extra milk to get the full amount you need for the recipe.
I love making infusions, as you can play around with whatever you have in your kitchen. But, if you'd like somewhere to start, here's one I made recently:
Cardamom & Mango Custard Pots
Ingredients
300g whole milk
3 cardamom pods
1 teaspoon amchoor
2 eggs (should weigh 90-100g)
50g caster sugar
25g cornflour
Pinch of salt
1 ripe mango (I'll admit, shop-bought tend to be awful and we aren't really in mango season anymore. Frozen mango would work well here with a spoonful of the purée you can buy in tins).
Method
Begin by infusing the milk with the cardamom pods. I prefer to do a hot infusion for this, but a cold one would also work. Heat the milk to steaming. Meanwhile, bash each of the pods with the end of a rolling pin. Add them into the milk and allow to infuse with the lid on for 30 minutes.
Strain the infused milk and weigh. Add any additional milk so you have a total of 300g. Add the amchoor.
Make a whole egg crème pat using the method above. Allow to cool, then whisk until smooth and glossy.
Take the skin off the mango and chop into small cubes.
Put a spoonful of the mango into the bottom of each pot, then fill with the custard.
And voilà! A simple little dessert showing off your beautiful infused custard, and not a wasted egg white in sight!
If you had any problems with the recipe, or if you have any suggestions for what you'd like to see next, go ahead and send me an email or comment!
Have a great weekend.
Annabelle
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