It was nice, but could have been nicer - I needed more tangy lemon flavour, and a little less vanilla in the creme patisserie I think. So below id what I would do if I did it again!
1. Creme patissiere:
Basically a custard but with added cornflour to make it create a pipe-able consistency when chilled.
Mix 4 egg yolks with 65g cornflour and 50g caster sugar in a bowl to make a paste. Add a little bit of vanilla extract (ideally avec les seeds) but not too much... The, heat 350ml milk in a pan until just off the boil. Add a splosh of the milk to your eggy paste, whisky whisk whisk together, then add the paste back into the hot milk STIRRING ALL THE TIME! And I don't mean a polite little stir with a spoon, I mean a whacking great scrapey bottomy pan stir with a bendy spatula. It will thicken almost immediately if the milk is hot enough, but if not just keep stirring and it will get there. Once it's bubbled, cook for a few seconds and taste it to make sure it's not still powdery from the cornflour (if it is, heat it a little longer, still stirring all the time). When you're happy, chill it in a bowl of iced water, cover with clingfilm right against the surface of it to stop a skin forming and chill... I'd recommend at least 4 or 5 hours but a day or two is fine.
2. Sponge: Bog standard sponge (from Hummingbird bakery base):
- 240g plain flour
- 250g caster sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 80g softened butter
Beat the above in a freestanding mixture until it looks like wet sand. I use salted butter - if you use unsalted please please add a decent pinch of salt. You'll thank me, I promise. When sand has been achieved, add:
- 240ml milk
- 2 large eggs
- zest of 1 large citron (lemon. It's cos c'est un recipe Francaise. J'apologise...)
Then when combined, bake in paper cases at 170 degrees C for 19 mins (ish, oven dependent, mine's un peu fierce...
Then you have this:
I'm an idiot and can't work out how to rotate this. Anyway, the little biscuity bits next to it are pastry discs made from 50g grated butter, 100g plain flour, 1 tbsp sugar rubbed together with an egg yolk added to bind. Dust with icing sugar and bake at 200 degrees for about 5-6 minutes (or buy some pastry or even little shortbready biscuity things).
Next, make temon syrup. I didn't do this and wished I had - basically juice of 1 lemon and a couple of tbsp of sugar heated until it dissolves, then stab the sponges with a skewer and drizzle a little bit of lemon syrup in. The cake should be very tangy to counteract the creme patisserie.
3. Curd au citron. Pretty sure that's not a thing. But lemon curd is, and it's DELICIOUS. Easy to make yourself, and only marginally easier to buy. If you do buy it, please buy a proper lemony one as opposed to the bright yellow waxy stuff which doesn't taste like it'd hurt if you put a finger with a papercut in it. If you want to make it, put 2 beaten eggs, 100g caster sugar, 50g butter and the juice of 2 lemons into a pan and heat gently again stirring all the time (you'll have a gun show by the end of this recipe!) until it's thick. This is lemon curd. It's this easy. You're welcome. You can add the zest in once it's thickened if you like, or not. Je ne sais pas. D'accord.
4. Construction time...
Cake plus blob of curd in the middle (usual cut sponge, put in curd, replace spongey plug). Creme pat piped on top. Beret. Sugary zest for la 'je ne sais quoi'. Manger!
JB x
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