Microwave Pastry Cream

October 5, 2009 by Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

It occurred to me that if you can make lemon curd and custard in the microwave, then you could probably make crème pâtissière in a similar way. Here’s my microwave adaption of Dorie Greenspan’s pastry cream recipe.

2 cups (500ml) full cream milk (I used UHT)
6 large egg yolks (use the whites for meringues)
½ cup (110g) sugar
¹/₃cup (45g) cornflour (cornstarch), sifted
1½ teaspoons (8ml) vanilla extract
3½ tablespoons (50g) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces

Step 1: In a large pyrex bowl, mix together the milk, sugar, cornflour and vanilla extract. Whisk well to combine, then microwave on high until hot but not boiling (in my 1100 watt micro, this took two minutes). Remove from the microwave, whisk well to smooth out any lumps.

Step 2: In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks together until smooth.

Step 3: Continually whisking, pour the egg yolks into the milk, mixing until smooth. Microwave on high for one minute, then in 30 second increments, whisking after each burst, until the pastry cream is thick. In my microwave, this took 2½ minutes.

Step 4: Whisk well, then add the butter pieces and whisk them into the pastry cream until smooth. Press a sheet of cling film to the surface of the cream to stop it forming a skin and store in the fridge until cool.

Spoon this pastry cream into a prebaked tart shell and top with fresh berries for an elegant fruit tart. I’ve also made chocolate pastry cream by adding sifted cocoa to the milk before heating. I’m trying not to think about all the possibilities – profiteroles, danishes….hmmm….

. . . . .

Edit: I’ve just made a half batch of this recipe and it worked very well.

1 cup (250ml) milk
3 egg yolks
¼ cup sugar
¹/₆ cup cornflour
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
25g unsalted butter

Reduce the microwave times accordingly – in my micro, Step 1 took 1 minute, and Step 3 took 1½ minutes on high in 30 second bursts.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged crème pâtissière, cream patissiere, microwave pastry cream, pastry cream | 16 Comments

16 Responses

on October 5, 2009 at 7:27 am Zeb

That is a lovely photo with those gentle swirls. Maybe this is the year I finally try to make profiteroles…do you have a fool proof easy way of making choux pastry as well?
- on October 5, 2009 at 8:41 am figjamandlimecordial
  
  Jo, Dorie’s recipe is excellent – I’ve used it to make gougeres before (though haven’t tried the regular choux pastry).
  
  I’m actually thinking of using the pastry cream in a sweet bread dough to make danishes.. :)
  
  Celia
on October 5, 2009 at 10:54 am Alex

You are too clever. By the way, I used your microwave custard recipe last night and then stirred some chocolate through it – very popular!
- on October 6, 2009 at 7:01 am figjamandlimecordial
  
  Chocolate custard! Richard Bertinet has a nice recipe for chocolate buns – he uses the sweet dough recipe and then makes pastry cream with cocoa in it (add the cocoa to the milk before you heat it). Then he makes scrolls with the chocolate pastry cream and chocolate bits rolled into it. It’s a messy job, but delicious!
on October 5, 2009 at 8:57 pm Anna

What perfect timing – about to make a plum tart as my plums didn’t reach jam level but stayed at the compote (stewed) stage. They are also slightly caramelised which was also unplanned. Am also a cheat on the pastry and have bought it ….from the supermarket….
- on October 6, 2009 at 6:58 am figjamandlimecordial
  
  They sound delicious, Anna – caramelised plum compote! :) Love your blog, btw, I feel like I’m right there in Paris with you..
on October 5, 2009 at 10:32 pm dorie

This is so exciting! I never would have even thought to attempt to make the pastry cream in a microwave oven, but you can be sure that I’m going to try it now. Thank you!
- on October 6, 2009 at 6:55 am figjamandlimecordial
  
  Thanks Dorie! Please let me know if you find a way to improve on the technique – as I’m sure you will. :)
on October 5, 2009 at 11:23 pm Gillian

Ah the joys of microwave cooking. I wish they were more predictable though. Sometimes things take 30sec … sometimes 40sec, or maybe it is just me!

Now how about microwave chocolate cake:
http://www.dizzy-dee.com/recipe/chocolate-cake-in-5-minutes

I’ve tried this a few times but never got it quite right :-(
- on October 6, 2009 at 6:54 am figjamandlimecordial
  
  Gillian, I’ve never had any luck making cake in the microwave. I think it’s because I don’t like the steamed texture that results. I have the same problem with conventional baking in silicon…
on October 6, 2009 at 6:46 pm Anna

A small voice here reporting that someone wasn’t paying attention and accidentally put the yolks in at the start. This is not a good shortcut.
- on October 6, 2009 at 7:16 pm figjamandlimecordial
  
  Aaaah. Don’t give up, Anna! :)
on October 7, 2009 at 6:55 am Kitchen Butterfly

Thanks…need I say more. Life does get easier with people like you Celia: First homemade pectin now this….Thank you!
- on October 7, 2009 at 1:06 pm figjamandlimecordial
  
  You’re most welcome, Oz! Thank you for taking the time to try the recipes! :)
on November 28, 2010 at 11:12 am Anne

wow – my children were at the supermarket yesterday and saw eclairs that they wanted me to buy – naturally i did the ‘mum could MAKE them and they would not have preservatives and would TASTE better’ line.

so rainy Sunday sees us cooking! I have just made the creme and everyone is anxiously waiting for it to cool to fill the puffs!
thanks Celia – it looks exactly right. taste gorgeous (and i used your recipe for homemade vanilla extract!) and a lot less mucking around than the stove top version.
- on November 28, 2010 at 11:50 am Celia @ Fig Jam and Lime Cordial
  
  Wonderful, Anne, thanks for taking the time to let me know! It’s hard not to just eat it with a spoon, isn’t it? :)