Vanilla Pastry Cream

This pastry cream is the base of a lot of my desserts. 


2 cups of milk
6 large egg yolks
1/3 cup of sugar
1/3 cup corn starch
1 vanilla bean (or 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)
3 Tbsp butter


Boil the milk with the vanilla bean (cut lengthwise and scraped).

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the eggs with the sugar and the cornstarch until light and fluffy.
Add about 1/2 cup of hot milk to temper the yolks and prevent them from cooking. Add the remaining of the milk. Transfer back to saucepan and cook until thickened, whisking constantly. Turn the heat off.
Add the butter. When it has melted, set aside and refrigerate.


You can flavor this cream with chocolate (see Chocolate Pastry Cream recipe), or with orange blossom flavor, or any liquor you like!


NOTES:
For the Piece Montee (125 puffs), I made the recipe with 12 cups of milk. I had a cup for cream left, so don't be shy whem filling the puffs. For Emilie's Graduation, I flavored the cream with Cognac.