Pastry and Whipped Cream Filling for Eclairs or Cream Puffs or Fruit Tarts aka Diplomat Cream

The filling! And no it's not pudding and coolwhip. 

When you have too many yolks and no real desire for lemon curd go on and make pastry cream.

When you make pastry cream, go on and make pate choux for eclairs.

When you make eclairs throw together some ganache.

And when you do all this give the eclairs away because no one needs to eat a dozen eclairs.

For the filling I use a pastry cream lightened with whipped cream and stabilized with gelatin. This is really the best of the best. When pastry cream on it's own is too rich and whipped cream even stabilized doesn't have the gravitas to hold up to the pastry this is what you use. This is Diplomat cream.

Filling:

1 cup whole milk or half & half

2 tablespoons flour

3/8 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 packet gelatin

1/4 cup water

1 cup whipping cream

In a sauce pan combine the milk and flour. Add sugar. Cook with moderate heat stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan. When it's thick like a white sauce temper the eggs and add them back in. Add the salt and vanilla. Cook until thick, careful not to boil the contents, scrape the bottom of the pan often. Strain and cool.

Bloom the gelatin in water for 10 minutes. Put that container in a small pan of water and simmer until the contents are melted and clear. Pour into the cooled pastry cream.

Whip the whipping cream until firm. Fold into whipping cream. Cool. This can be frozen.

The pate choux recipe will come later.

But seriously, what better gift is there than the gift of eclairs.