July 13, 2020

Dessert Cream

In From the Hearth, the author describes this dessert cream as a filling for puff pastry tarts, as well as listing the many different flavourings it could be given. Dessert cream also makes a great filling for cream puffs, and I think some of the batch I made was also spread on crackers, mixed with berries, and even eaten by the spoonful out of the container …

Orange flower water isn’t a common ingredient in my house (or at least it wasn’t before this 18th-century cooking adventure started), but it’s used in a lot of cuisines and available at speciality stores (like Gourmet Warehouse).

Candied lemon peel, on the other hand, was impossible to find. (Why, I ask you?!) But you can easily make your own (see my recipe) or replace with lemon zest.

Finally, this uses a whack-load of egg yolks, and nary an egg white. Make a triple batch of Lemon Meringues to use up those lonely whites!

Modified slightly from the original. Makes 2 cups of dessert cream.

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup flour
2 cups boiling milk, or half milk and half cream
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp orange flower water
1 tsp candied lemon peel, finely chopped

Instructions

Heat milk to boiling in a pan or the microwave. Set aside. 

In a metal bowl (if you have one), whisk the sugar into the egg yolks, and continue beating for 2-3 minutes until the mixture turns pale yellow and forms a ribbon (flows in a continuous stream from a spoon). 

Beat in flour. 

Slowly pour in boiling milk (in a thin stream of droplets) as you mix continuously. 

Set metal bowl (if you have one) over a pot of boiling water, OR pour mixture into the top of a double boiler (if you have one), OR pour mixture into a regular pot. 

Cook in double boiler/over moderately low heat, stirring continuously and making sure to reach all over the bottom of the pan/bowl. When it reaches a simmer, cook for 2-3 minutes, still stirring continuously. (If it gets lumpy in the pot, just keep stirring and it will smooth out). 

Remove from heat and stir in butter, orange flower water, and candied peel. 

If not using right away, dot the top with pieces of softened butter to prevent a skin from forming. Keeps several days in the fridge (if you don't have people snacking on it!).