Chocolate Pastry Cream
This is pastry cream in which the chocolate does more than flavour it: the cocoa butter sets in the cold and makes the cream firmer than a plain one. That is why it fills éclairs and also holds a tart that has to be cut into clean slices. Always rub the starch into the yolks dry — tipped into hot milk it seizes into lumps within a second, and nothing rescues that.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 10 min
- Rest
- 2 h 30 min
- Total
- 2 h 55 min
- Servings
- 10
- Level
- Medium
- Per serving
- 190 kcal
Ingredients
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What to use instead
Milk chocolate works too, but drop the sugar to 70 g or the cream comes out cloying.
Makes: About 700 g
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Whisk the yolks
Using a mixer or whisk, beat the yolks with the sugar, cornflour and salt to a pale, smooth paste. The starch has to disappear completely — not one white speck.
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Step 2: Heat the milk
Warm the milk until steaming but do not boil it. Boiling milk scrambles the yolks instantly, however hard you whisk.
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Step 3: Temper the yolks
Pour about a cupful of the hot milk into the yolks in a thin stream, whisking without stopping. Only then return everything to the pan with the rest of the milk.
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Step 4: Cook it
Cook over medium heat, working the whisk along the bottom and into the corners. After 2–3 minutes it thickens suddenly to the consistency of a thick pudding.
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Step 5: Add the chocolate
Off the heat, stir in the chocolate, butter and vanilla straight away. The hot cream melts the chocolate in half a minute; no extra heat is needed.
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Step 6: Push it through a sieve
Strain the cream through a fine sieve into a clean bowl. This removes the small lumps of set yolk that always turn up, however carefully you whisked.
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Step 7: Chill under film
Press cling film onto the surface so no skin forms and chill 2–3 hours. Whisk briefly before using and it goes smooth again.
Tips & variations
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Tip
The film must touch the cream itself, not the rim of the bowl. The skin that forms without it will not break down with a whisk or a sieve.
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Swap
Milk chocolate works too, but drop the sugar to 70 g or the cream comes out cloying.
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Variation
A spoonful of instant coffee dissolved in the warm milk deepens the chocolate without making it taste of coffee.
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Storage
Three days in the fridge under film. Do not freeze it: after thawing the starch releases water and the cream turns watery.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 10 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 190 kcal | 1,900 kcal |
| Protein | 4 g | 40 g |
| Fat | 10 g | 100 g |
| Carbohydrates | 21 g | 210 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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