As a rule, cream puffs are finished with confectioners' sugar Or with caramelized sugar (for this, a red-hot iron rod is passed over the sugar), and éclairs are iced with a fondant icing. The flavor of the icing is the same as that of the filling—traditionally vanilla, chocolate or coffee.
Cream fillings and fondant icings are of such basic importance in pastry making that they should be learned at the beginning. Once you master them you can use them in innumerable ways, with the génoise and biscuit mixtures which we will eventually discuss here and in making all the traditional French pastries and gâteaux from puff paste combined with other pastes.
Crème pâtissière is a rich filling that holds its shape when it is cold, yet is soft and never stiff. In France, a vanilla bean is used to obtain the vanilla flavor, For a pint of milk, a piece of vanilla an inch long is cut from the bean and split down the center. The bean is scalded with the milk, then removed to be washed in cold water and used another time. When the bean has been used twice, it may still be washed, dried, and pounded in a mortar with a few spoonfuls of sugar in make vanilla sugar, used to flavor puddings and fruits. If you do not have vanilla bean, you may substitute the genuine extract of vanilla, adding to the finished cream about ½ teaspoon for each pint of milk.
Créme Pâtissière (Pastry Cream)
Bear together 6 egg yolks and ¾ cup sugar until the mixture is very pale and light. Add 1/3 cup Hour and beat just until the mixture is smooth. Scald 2 cups milk with a piece of vanilla bean. Pour the flavored milk slowly onto the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Add a pinch of salt and cook, stirring vigorously with a wire whisk, until the sauce almost reaches the boiling point. Continue to cook the cream for 2 or 3 minutes, but do not let it boil. Remove the vanilla bean and strain the cream. Let it cool, stirring it occasionally to prevent a crust from forming.
Crème an Chocolat (Chocolate Cream)
Follow the directions for making crème pâtissière, but add to the scalded milk 2 squares or ounces melted and cooled unsweetened chocolate. Or add to 1 cup prepared crème pâtissière 1 square or ounce melted and cooled unsweetened chocolate.
Crème Mocha (Mocha Cream)
Flavor 1 cup chocolate crème pâtissière with 1 tablespoon hot, triple-strength coffee.
Crème au Café (Coffee Cream)
Flavor 1 cup vanilla crème pâtissière with 1 tablespoon hot, triple-strength coffee.
Crème Chantilly (Sweetened Whipped Cream)
Whip heavy cream in a chilled bowl until it is thick but still light. The acam should not be too stiff and heavy. Into each cup whipped cream fold 1 to 1 ½ tablespoons vanilla sugar. To make the vanilla sugar, split a piece of vanillfl bean and scrape out the little seeds with a small knife. Combine the seeds with powdered sugar or with confectioners' sugar and crush together well.
The Saint Honoré cream is a delicate mixture made with crème pâtissière lightened with egg whites and held together with gelatin.
Crème Saint-Honoré
Add to 2 ½ or 3 cups hot creme pâtissière 1 envelope gelatin softened in 2 tablespoons cold water. Stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved in the crème. Cool the crème and fold into it 4 egg whites beaten stiff with 3 tablespoons powdered sugar. The sugar should be added during the last minutes of beating.
The fondant icing can be made in two ways, the conventional way—the recipe just below—and the quick way.
Fondant
Combine in a small saucepan 2 cups sugar, 2/3 cup water and a pinch of cream of tartar (or 1 tablespoon white corn syrup). Bring the mixture to a boil and cook it rapidly until it reaches the soft-ball stage, or registers 238° F. on a candy thermometer. Pour (he syrup at once onto an oiled platter or a marble slab to cool until it is barely warm to the touch and will not stick to the fingers when it is lightly capped. Work the mixture with a spatula, scraping it up from the bottom, folding it over and pulling in the edges, until the mass is creamy white. Put the fondant in a jar or bowl and cover it with a damp cloth. The fondant should ripen for 2 days.
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