Day 184: Saffron Crème Pâtissière
I woke up this morning with one, singular thought on my mind: Saffron Crème Pâtissière needs to exist. And thus, a recipe is born…
Saffron is an extraordinary spice. It is actually the stamen of a Crocus flower that grows in Greece and is used in Indian and some Middle-Eastern cooking. It’s earthy and aromatic and is often found in breads or rice. I’ve had a precious little vial of it, sitting on my counter for a couple of weeks. But this is what I do when I want to create a new thing: I let it stare at me from a kitchen shelf until voila! I wake up with its new identity in mind.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups milk
- 1 ¼ teaspoon saffron threads
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sugar
- 5 egg yolks
- ½ cup pastry flour
- 1 Tablespoon butter
Begin by measuring your saffron threads,
and putting them in a sauce pan with your milk.
Bring your milk to a boil slowly, letting the saffron infuse until the milk is golden.
This will take some time, so while you wait…
Prepare your flavorings and butter so they’re ready to go into the pastry creme as soon as you remove it from heat (later).
And beat the egg yolks with the sugar on high
until it turns soft yellow and thick, about 2-3 minutes.
Beat the flour into the egg yolk/sugar mix and let it sit while you…
Prepare a pouring vessel with a sieve
and pass the boiling milk through to collect the saffron threads.
In a SUPER slow drizzle, over a medium-high mixer, gradually add the boiling milk to the egg/sugar/flour mix.
Then transfer it into a medium sauce pan and whisk the bejeezus out of it over a med-high heat. Don’t Stop! Once it comes to a boil, put the heat to low and continue whisking for 2-3 minutes. This is the forearm workout of the month, but don’t give up or your creme will curdle and burn.
Remove it from the heat and quickly whisk in the butter and flavorings.
Put it in a container and cover the top of the creme with cling wrap so it doesn’t form a skin. Throw it into the fridge for at least 4 hours, but preferably over night. It’ll keep for a week in the fridge, but can also be frozen after it chills.
This is Day One of a three to four day dessert, so stay with me…
see you tomorrow.
2 Replies to “Day 184: Saffron Crème Pâtissière”
it hurts my heart (and my wallet) to see you strain that large an amount of saffron from the milk – having made saffron pastry cream recently the saffron leaches out a LOT of its flavour as it sits in the fridge. seeing as this is a multi-day recipe i’d recommend leaving the strands in until you re-whip the cream for use, then press through a sieve if you want to remove the threads.
for future reference: saffron threads go a very pale yellow-orange once they’ve been spent – and you don’t need many. for a 500ml/~1 pint batch of creme patisserie i used 7 strands (one of my lucky numbers, you don’t have to be specific) and it lent a suitably potent flavour to the custard. if you’re making creme diplomat then add maybe twice as much, or alternatively, steep the cream w/ saffron before you whip
Thanks for this comment, Saffron! Great tip.