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Ackee Pastry Cream

Ackees and cream are a delightful combination, they give the pastry cream an exotic slightly nutty flavour. This pastry cream is easy to make and requires no tempering of the milk into eggs.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Author Chantal

Ingredients

  • 2 Eggs large
  • 1/2 Cup Granulated sugar
  • 4 tbsps Cornstarch
  • 1 1/2 Cups Milk
  • 3/4 Cup Parboiled Ackees
  • 2 tbsps Unsalted Butter cut into pieces
  • 1 tsp Vanilla

Instructions

  1. Combine all ingredients except for butter and vanilla in a saucepan. Blend with an immersion blender until completely smooth.
  2. Cook over low to medim heat stirring occassionally, the mixture will start to thicken. The idea is to heat the mix up slowly and evenly.
  3. Once the mixture becomes thick, you will need to stir more frequently, I like to mix with a whisk, keeping a spatula handy the get into the corners once it's thickened up.
  4. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently, let cook for 2 to 3 minutes, taste to ensure that the cornstarch has cooked out completely.
  5. Pass through a sieve into a bowl (if you stirred well you shouldn't have any lumps but this is to catch any bits of the ackee that might have missed the blade of the immersion blender)
  6. Whisk in butter piece by piece until completely melted, then add vanilla.
  7. Pour into prepared tart shell and press a piece of plastic directly on top the pastry cream. Chill till set (about 4 hours). Once the cream is set you can finish your tart as desired.

Recipe Notes

I have an 11-inch tart shell which is fairly large, if you make the full recipe and have a smaller pan you will have dough left over, the dough can be frozen for up to a month. Alternately you could roll out the excess, cut and bake them and voila! you have cookies.

For lighter pastry cream (in weight not calories đŸ˜‰): instead of filling the tart shell with the warm pastry cream, let it cool under refrigeration completely. Once cool, whip about half a cup of lightly sweetened whipping cream to medium peaks. Add into chilled pastry cream in three additions mixing well to combine.

For the apricot glaze: combine a few tablespoons of apricot preserves and water and bring to a boil, alternately you could heat it in the microwave. Mix till smooth, cool briefly before using.