pastry cream

[a small disclaimer for tonight's post:  there is some extreme food-science nerdiness happening tonight so if you need to save your street cred, you might want to stop reading now]

wow!  another night of school done and my brain is exploding with new information!  tonight we made custards to go along with all of the different pie and tart doughs that we made last night.  tomorrow we get to put them all together and eat :) 

being the science nerd that i am, i had a blast figuring out what each ingredient was doing to my recipes and how they can be altered to change flavor, texture, color, etc.  it is going to be 100% amazing when i know enough to bake without a recipe or to modify recipes that i like to make them work for other purposes. 

being in the kitchen tonight was definitely a full sensory experience.  with pastry cream, you end up with your ingredients in a pot on the stove and they just look like an eggy colored liquid.  as the mixture comes to a boil, you are suddenly hit with this overwhelmingly inviting scent of vanilla that permeates the air around you.  as you continue to stir the mixture changes to a beautiful creamy custard that ends in a silky smooth vanilla concoction that would make anyone salivate.  it is a really neat process, especially once you fully understand the chemical reactions that are occurring right before your eyes.  i think that if everything in organic chemistry lab could have been done with food, i would have gotten a much better grade ;) 

we also made a lemon curd and candied citrus peel, which is a truly delightful bit of stickiness.  i'm not sure there is much more fun to be had that turning something that most people would end up throwing away into something truly delicious and beautiful.  it does also take something that might have a small amount of nutritional value and turns it into a glorious sticky sugar treat, but as paula deen likes to say 'i'm your [pastry] cook, not your doctor', so we can let a little extra sugar slide.

so far the greatest thing about this whole experience is that i have a truly legitimate excuse to hang out in the kitchen all day.  it is amazing how fun it can be and is one of the places in the world that i feel truly comfortable and where the real me comes out in full force.  for anyone who might live close enough to me at the moment, i plan on practicing some extra recipes next week, feel free to come by and help out with some good old quality control ;)