Pastry Cream (Eggless)

Submitted by Dee514

"This recipe makes a good pastry cream which can be used in many desserts and pastries. Lemon, orange or rum flavoring may be substituted for the vanilla if you prefer. If you add some chopped chocolate (or mini chocolate chips) to the pastry cream, it makes a yummy filling for cannoli shells, recipe #40291. Prep time does not include chilling time."

 

• Ready In: 17mins
• Ingredients: 5
• Yields: 4 cups

ingredients

• 1 quart whole milk
• 3⁄4 cup sugar
• 1⁄2 cup cornstarch
• 1 dash cinnamon (omit cinnamon if using citrus or other flavors)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

directions

1. Mix first 4 ingredients in a large pan until well blended and sugar is almost dissolved.
2. Place pan over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, until it comes to the boil.
3. Continue to simmer, stirring constantly while simmering, until very thick (about 5- 10 minutes).
4. Remove from heat and add vanilla (or your choice of flavoring).
5. Pour mixture into bowl and cover surface directly with waxed paper or plastic wrap to prevent skin from forming.
6. Refrigerate several hours to overnight.
7. To use pastry cream to fill[recipe=40291]cannoli shells[/recipe]: Chop 1 regular size Hershey chocolate bar and add bits to cooled (pastry cream) mixture.
8. Fill cannoli shells by piping mixture into shell using a pastry bag, or use a long-handled iced tea spoon.
9. Dip ends of filled cannoli into toasted, sliced or crushed almonds or crushed pistachio nuts or finely minced chocolate bits.
10. Sprinkle top of shells lightly with powdered sugar (recipe will fill about 16 shells depending on their size).

Reviews

[MooseCall]

Oops, this didn't turn out right for me! I was going to make my own filling for donuts, but it turns out watery. I followed the recipe without any substitution and it looked like it was going to work when I first toke it off the heat. But after refrigerating it, the cornstarch must have sunken to the bottom and it looked like a cloudy mess. I don't really know what went wrong though! It smelled good when i was cooking it. Sorry :(

 

[Dave S.]

This is a good recipe, but it is an adaptation of another recipe that used flour. Flour needs to cook for several minutes to get rid of the floury taste, corn starch does not, so if using corn starch stop cooking as soon as it begins to simmer to prevent over cooking and starch separation.

 

[Rosa M.]

This is a simple excellent recipe. For those who have had trouble using cornstarch; if over cooked or over whisked, cornstarch will thin out. Substitute rice flour for the cornstarch, and make the same way. Rice flour is very stable, and will not thin out, and stores well. Rice flour can be found in most grocery stores, in the Latin or Asian section. Sweet rice flour is not "sweet", but made from "sticky rice". I prefer this for stuff like sauces or puddings, but any kind will do.

 

[mianbao]

This is delicious! I decreased the recipe to make 1/3 of the original yield. I cooked some drained canned pineapple with the custard to make it pineapple flavored, and used that to fill buns. I did read that cornstarch can be tricky to use because it will lose its thickening power if it is overcooked or overbeaten. However, I had no problems at all. Thank you for sharing this recipe with us. I will use it often.