Confectioner's custard

 Recipe from chef patrick

Ingredients :
This custard is a basis for numerous desserts like cakes, tarts, soufflés etc...

Serving for a large bowl of confectioner's custard :
1/2 liter (1 pint) milk
1 vanilla bean (cut into 2 long halfes) or 1 small bag of vanilla flavoured sugar
6 egg yolks
150 grams (1/3 lb) caster sugar
50 grams (1.5 oz) corn starch powder (or wheat flour but the custard is lighter with starch)
Icing sugar or 1 "nut" of butter

Direction :
1/ In a sauce pan, pour 1 soup spoon of cold water then the milk and the vanilla and make it boiling.
2/ In the meantime, blend in a salad bowl the egg yolks with the caster sugar and stir until the colour of the mixture becomes ligther then carefully add and blend the starch powder.
3/ Pour on the mixture the boiling milk (without the vanilla bean) while whisking, then transfer the whole in the sauce pan and put it under heat on the cooking hob.
4/ Still without stopping whisking with a whip, let it gently boil during 2 minutes (it will become thicker like a cream), then pour it on a plate and cover with either icing suger or with a little melt butter to avoid hardening.

At that point, the custard can be used for numerous recipes.
You can flavour it by adding and mixing with 150 grams (1/3 lb) chocolate chips while the custard is still hot or with a few coffee concentrate drops or with 2 soup spoons of freezedried coffee