caramel pastry cream

This caramel pastry cream is one of my all time favorite dessert. It’s simple and smooth and while it’s creamy, it’s not overly rich. The caramel is made by boiling together sugar and water to form a caramel syrup. Depending on what you like, your syrup can be a light amber color or a deep, rich golden hue which makes for a richer contrast in flavors.

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Makes about 4 – 6 servings:

For the caramel:

• 8 tablespoon sugar
• 3 tablespoon water
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 4 dl milk

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, the water and the lemon juice. Caramelize the mixture on medium heat. Shake the pan once in a while but you don’t need to stir with spoon.

Once the caramel turns into a nice amber color remove the pan from the heat. 

Meanwhile in a small saucepan, heat the milk. Remove the pan from heat right before it starts to boil.

Slowly add the warm milk to the caramel, cover the pan and cook until the caramel dissolves into the milk on low heat for about 10 minutes.

For the pastry cream:

• 5 dl milk
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 3 tablespoon corn starch
• 2 eggs

In the meantime combine the milk, the sugar, the corn starch and the eggs and whisk until it becomes creamy and smooth.

Pour the egg mixture to the caramel mixture slowly and stir until it starts to boil.

Remove the mixture from the heat and whisk for another 2 minutes until the cream becomes thick.

Pour the cream through a sieve into a stainless steel bowl and let cool completely.

Arranging the pastry cream:

• 3,5 dl whipping cream

Beat the whipped cream until fluffy and add half of it to the caramel cream using the rest of the whipped cream for decoration.

Caramel shards for decoration:

• 50 g sugar
• 1/3 teaspoon butter
• dash of salt

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, melt the sugar and the salt until golden brown.

Add the butter and stir until creamy.

Immediately pour the caramel onto a baking sheet and spread the caramel as thinly as possible.

Leave the caramel harden completely.

Use a rolling-pin to break the cooled caramel into small pieces and spread over the pastry cream.

Enjoy!