Cold Custards
[2401—PASTRY CREAM]
Mix one lb. of powdered sugar with four oz. of flour and twelve egg-yolks, and dilute with one quart of boiling milk. Cook this cream, stirring it continually the while; and, as soon as it boils, add to it a few drops of orange-flower water and four gelatine leaves, softened in cold water. Boil the cream a few minutes; take it off the fire, and, while stirring it briskly, carefully combine with it twelve egg-whites, beaten to a stiff froth.
N.B.—Some operators call this St. Honoré cream (for, as a matter of fact, it serves chiefly in the garnishing of sweets bearing that name), and give the name of Pastry cream to the [711] ]same preparation minus the egg-whites and the gelatine. I prefer to abide by the principle given above, and to consider the cream without whisked egg-whites merely as a Frangipan, with which it has many points in common.
Pastry cream may be flavoured according to fancy. The addition of the gelatine is not necessary when the cream is to be served immediately, or when it only has a moment or two to wait. But it is indispensable to prevent the decomposition of the preparation, especially in hot weather, if it have to wait at all.
[2402—WHIPPED OR CHANTILLY CREAM]
Nothing could be simpler or more exquisite than this preparation, which is obtained by whipping the best cream (kept fresh for twenty-four hours in ice) over ice. The cream speedily increases in volume and becomes frothy. The operation should then be stopped, lest the cream turn to butter, and there should be immediately added to the former four oz. of powdered sugar (part of which should be the vanilla kind) per quart, and then the preparation should be placed in the cool until required.
N.B.—The addition of a little dissolved or powdered tragacanth gum to the cream allows of a more frothy cream being obtained, but the result is neither as fresh nor as perfect in taste when it is not combined with a sweet or ice preparation.