and the living is easy

mango tart

almond tart base, pastry cream, mango slices

 i’ve made a similar tart before but methinks  this iteration is far more superior - the rose looks tighter and the pastry cream is a lot smoother. the only let down are the mango slices. despite their heady fragrance, the taste is just insipid. also, i got lazy halfway/ran out of mangoes so the rose looks less tight towards the edges of the tart.

anyway, the key to ridiculously tasty pastry cream are the ingredients and the method you use (i know right, duhhh). if possible, use real vanilla beans and fresh full cream milk (try experimenting with different brands as well; i’ve always used meji and tbh, it’s quite good but pura is definitely better).

as for the method, this is what i do:

1. whisk eggyolks with half of the sugar and mix the other half of the sugar with cornstarch.
   
   
2. bring milk to a simmer (constantly scraping the bottom of the saucepan to ensure that no milk solids get stuck and burn).
   
   once it starts simmering, whisk a little milk into the cornstarch mixture. do not add too much milk at one go or you’ll end up with lumps. once you form a lump-free slurry, pour the slurry slowly into the rest of the milk once whisking furiously.
   
   
3. bring that to a boil on a medium-high heat while whisking constantly (making sure to scrape the bottom) - it should become quite thick and viscous. taste the mixture now; if you think it’s a little floury, continue boiling the milk until the floury taste cooks out.
   
   
4. temper the eggyolk mixture with a little of the thickened milk mixture. pour the tempered eggyolk mixture into the thickened milk mixture and heat that under low heat while whisking like a madman.
   
   
5. you should see loads of foam forming at first. slowly, the foam will start to subside. when it starts subsiding, do not take your eyes off the pan.  continue whisking like your life depends on it and when you see the first bubble, take the pan off the heat and sieve it into a bowl immediately. the pan is extremely hot and will retain tons of heat. if you let the pastry cream cool in the cooking pan, it will continue cooking and you’ll end up with curdled pastry cream.
   
   do not let the mixture boil; once it starts to boil, you’ve overcooked the cream and you’re bound to end up with less than perfect pastry cream (still tasty but less smooth). you can try to salvage that by using an immersion blender, but why go through that trouble when you can make it right the first time round? :D
   
   alternatively, if you have an instant-read thermometer, heat the mixture until it reaches 82 degrees celsius. the egg yolks start to curdle at that temperature.
   
   
6. once it is slightly cooler, whisk softened butter into the pastry cream (because butter makes everything taste better). make sure that all the butter is incorporated. at this point, the cream will look extremely watery but have faith in this feetshuffler (i.e. me). put a layer of clingfilm over the pastry cream making sure that all exposed surface area is in contact with the clingfilm or a layer of ‘skin’ will form.
   
   
7. throw the bowl into the fridge to chill (normally, i chill it overnight). once it’s cold, it should be the firm enough for use/eating straight out from the bowl.