Here are five French dessert recipes (from an actual French baking blogger).
I thought I'd do a little recipe round-up this week, so here are five of my classic French dessert recipes. I know a lot about French desserts, because, well, I'm French. The recipes in this round-up are some of my favorites, and I hope they become yours too !
Tarte à la Crème ("Pastry Cream Tart") is just that : a pie crust filled with delicious pastry cream. This French tart is very easy to make (and even easier to eat !).
I told you you'd need to know how to make pastry cream !
Just like tarte au sucre, tarte à la crème is one of those desserts that takes me right back to my childhood. Tarte à la crème literally translates to pastry cream tart, and it is just that : a pie crust filled with pastry cream.
Preheat your oven, start baking the pie dough (I usually use pâte brisée, which is your regular pie crust dough, but I've also made it with pâte feuilletée (puff pastry) or pâte sablée (shortbread crust). Brisée is my favorite !). While the pie crust is starting to bake, make your pastry cream. Here is my how-to post on making pastry cream. Once the pastry cream has thickened, don't let it cool ! Take the pie crust out of the oven, pour the cream into it, spread evenly, and back to the oven it goes for about thirty minutes, until the dough is baked.
You can head to my Instagram story highlights to see how to make the tart :)
The hardest part of this recipe is waiting for the pastry cream tart to cool down completely so you can eat it. ;)
Here's how to make Tarte à la Crème (or pastry cream tart) :
TARTE À LA CRÈME (Pastry Cream Tart)
by A Cup Of Sprinkles
Tarte à la Crème ("Pastry Cream Tart") is just that : a pie crust filled with delicious pastry cream. This French tart is very easy to make (and even easier to eat !).
Cook time : 1 tart
Ingredients : 1 pie/tart dough 160g of sugar 1L of milk 2 tsp of vanilla extract 100g of flour 2 eggs 20g of butter, melted
Instructions :
Preaheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Roll out the dough and place it in a tart/pie pan. Using a fork, gently poke the bottom of the dough. Start baking.
While the pie dough starts baking, make the pastry cream : In a saucepan, whisk together the milk, sugar and vanilla extract.
In a bowl, mix together the flour, eggs, and melted butter.
Set the saucepan on low heat until the sugar is dissolved, then bring the milk to a boil.
Once the milk is boiling, remove from the heat. Add 2 tablespoons of milk to flour/egg and stir until combined. Then, while stirring, slowly pour about half the milk to the flour/eggs.
Transfer the milk/flour/egg back to the milk remaining in the saucepan (while stirring), and set it on low heat, stirring constantly, until the pastry cream has thickened.
Once the pastry cream has thickened, take the pie crust out of the oven. Fill the crust with pastry cream and spread evenly. Make sure not to overfill the crust !
Bake for another 30 minutes, until the pie crust has a golden color.
Let cool completely before eating.
Let me know in the comments if you make tarte à la crème/pastry cream tart ! You can also share a picture on Instagram by tagging @acupofsprinkles and using the hashtag #acupofsprinkles !
Want to know how to make pastry cream ? Look no further ! This is my favorite recipe (and way) to make pastry cream.
I'm French. I thought I'd remind you of this little detail about me, so that you can trust me when I say that I've eaten my fair share of pastry cream in my quarter century on this Earth, and that this pastry cream recipe I'm sharing with you is the best I've ever used.
This recipe is one I got from my mom's old recipe notebook, and it has never failed me. I've tried other pastry cream recipes but I always end up disappointed. Now, obviously, just like there is no one right way of making chocolate chip cookies or vanilla cupcakes, there are probably a lot of different ways of making pastry cream.
This one is my favorite.