First time making pastry cream and it was delicious! I chose this recipe because the instructions were clearest and easiest to follow. If you don't have all the ingredients on hand, substitutions are fine since that's the situation I found myself in. I don't carry kosher salt at home and only table salt; used 1/4 tsp and it came out fine. I also only had 2% milk and not whole milk but followed the same measurement of 2 cups; came out fine. Don't have vanilla beans at home so I added 1 tsp vanilla extract into the milk on the stove; came out fine, too. This recipe is a keeper!
I don't know what I did wrong. Are you sure the recipe needs one whole teaspoon of kosher salt? I followed the recipe EXACTLY with fresh ingredients and it seems too salty.
IN REGARDS TO SALT AND BUTTER: This recipe uses *COARSE* salt and *UNSALTED* butter, meaning you should use 1/4 TSP REGULAR TABLE/FINE SALT if you don't have coarse salt and make sure to NOT use salted butter. If you only have salted butter, then use even less salt!!
Very delicious! I was extremely skeptical of this initially. When I tasted it on its own I thought it tasted too much like vanilla pudding. It wasn't until after I finally chilled it for a few hours and piped it into some choux pastry puffs that I found it very good!
I didn't have actual vanilla beans and used 2 TSP pure extract and it still came out ok. I think that next time I will definitely use either beans or paste. This is a recipe where you will really taste the vanilla you add to it so a better quality one is necessary.
I also did not follow the note to add whipped cream to the pastry cream when piping into cream puffs. It was fine in my cream puffs without the whipping because I didn't cut the puffs open (just piped the cream straight in). If you want the pastry cream to be visible/outside you might want that whipped cream for structure. Otherwise it jiggles around like pudding!
Chef John is the best. Let's just get that right out of the way. But unfortunately 1 tsp kosher salt in this recipe completely destroys the pastry cream. 1/2 tsp at the very most, perhaps even less.
This recipe really is easier than others. To anyone who is not a big fan of stirring for what seems like an eternity over a hot stove, this recipe is for you. It comes together literally in just a few minutes. I plan to make this again and again. Thanks.
I followed exactly but I, too, felt it's too salty. I will no doubt make it again but reduce the salt.
I followed the recipe exactly. The 1 teaspoon of kosher salt was way too much. Half a teaspoon would have been plenty.
If I make it again I will also add a few drops of vanilla for a bit more flavor.
I only did a pinch of salt BUT this turned out really well. I ended up whisking step 1 much longer than it states. It was easy enough to make too, just show no fear like Chef John says!
Way too much salt. Next time I'll try 1/4 tsp.
