Cream 101
Cream 101
These are three different cream recipes that every baker should know about. They’re all wonderful, but each serves a bit of a different purpose. These are the key differences:
Crème Chantilly (Chantilly Cream) is pretty much whipped cream but with some added sweetness. It’s beautifully light and airy and perfect to compliment desserts like chocolate fondants and soufflés.
Crème Pâtissière (Pastry Cream) is a much more decadent cream. The egg yolks make it smooth and rich, and it’s a great one to use to fill desserts, such as my Apple Crumble Brioche.
Lastly, the Crème Diplomate (Diplomat Cream) is the fanciest of them all. By mixing the two together, you get the lightness of the whipped cream, plus the beautiful creaminess from the Creme Patissiere. Just make sure you don’t sweeten the Creme Chantilly, you just need whipped double cream for this.
Mastered these techniques? Next check out my chocolate cream recipe and my caramel cream recipe!
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Ingredients
Method
Whisk everything together until you have a medium peak.
In a saucepan over a medium heat, heat the milk and vanilla until steaming.
Meanwhile, in a bowl whisk the yolks, sugar, cornflour and salt for 1 minute until thick.
Slowly pour the hot cream over the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the pan and cook on a medium heat. Keep whisking and then once it starts to bubble cook for a further minute.
Pass the mixture through a sieve and then whisk in the cold butter. Cover the surface directly with cling film and chill for 4 hours. Whisk it up until it is smooth.
Prepare the Creme Patissiere as above.
Once the Creme Patissiere has cooled, whisk together the ingredients for the the Creme Chantilly. Whisk it to a medium peak then fold it through the Creme Patisserie in two parts. Make sure you’ve whisked the chilled Creme Patissiere so it is smooth before you fold the chantilly in.
You can use it straight away but it will be slightly thinner. Or you can chill it for a few hours in the fridge and the consistency will be thicker. Or whisk the cream so that it is thicker and then fold that through the Creme Patisserie!
Ingredients
Directions
Whisk everything together until you have a medium peak.
In a saucepan over a medium heat, heat the milk and vanilla until steaming.
Meanwhile, in a bowl whisk the yolks, sugar, cornflour and salt for 1 minute until thick.
Slowly pour the hot cream over the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the pan and cook on a medium heat. Keep whisking and then once it starts to bubble cook for a further minute.
Pass the mixture through a sieve and then whisk in the cold butter. Cover the surface directly with cling film and chill for 4 hours. Whisk it up until it is smooth.
Prepare the Creme Patissiere as above.
Once the Creme Patissiere has cooled, whisk together the ingredients for the the Creme Chantilly. Whisk it to a medium peak then fold it through the Creme Patisserie in two parts. Make sure you’ve whisked the chilled Creme Patissiere so it is smooth before you fold the chantilly in.
You can use it straight away but it will be slightly thinner. Or you can chill it for a few hours in the fridge and the consistency will be thicker. Or whisk the cream so that it is thicker and then fold that through the Creme Patisserie!
Hi Matt,
Could you specify the groundlevel of the cornflour please? Is it like the most finely grounded (white or yellow?) and does it give a better sensoric result than with the ultra-processed cornstarch (always white in colour)? Cause I usually use cornstarch to thicken these crèmes. So I would highly appreciate your take on this.
Thank you.
Regards,
Eveline
I’m afraid I just use the supermarket cornflour! It is usually very white!
Is it necessary to do step 1? Can you just whip the Chantilly after the Crème Pâtissière is cooled?
Sorry it is slightly confusing. Step 1 is just if you are making chantilly cream on it’w own. If yo are making creme diplomat, whip the chantilly once the creme pat has cooled yes!
“Cornflour” In the US is just corn starch
Good enough for me! Thx!
Sorry, probably I’m wrong. But, in the ingredients list of Chantilly you listed 510g of icing sugar on 300g of cream. Is it correct?
sorry! the recipe didn’t show the hyphen! it is 5-10g!
Thank you very much! 🙂
Hi mat,
For how long can I keep the Crème Pâtissière in the fridge?
A few days should be fine!
Hey Matt, why the addition of butter ? Is it a personal touch or a common thing ? Thanks
Some people say it’s not traditional but I like the flavour and texture it adds!