Recipe: Confectioner's custard

Confectioner's custard is the foundation you'll turn to constantly in pastry work: lemon tart, mille-feuille, éclairs, paris-brest. A year-round recipe, especially useful when you need to prepare desserts ahead for family meals. Vanilla is better with a whole pod scraped out rather than store-bought vanilla sugar. Eggs should be fresh and room temperature, otherwise the cornstarch mixture won't whip properly. It's a small technical detail, but it makes a real difference. Serve your custard warm or chilled depending on what pastry you're filling. For wine pairings, it's less relevant since this is a cream for tarts and cakes rather than a standalone dessert. But if you're eating it straight from a bowl with a biscuit, a glass of Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise works nicely. Quick tip: the skin that forms on top is normal. A light dusting of powdered sugar or melted butter on the surface prevents it. Let it cool completely before using, or it'll collapse in your pastry.