Crema Pasticcera (custard)

This is an essential recipe for any dessert making, so verstile and delicious as a filling for tarts, pies, cream puffs, crepes, doughnuts, base for ice cream, or as a dessert sauce...if you can manage not to eat it all with a spoon while you are making it!! :-D

1 heaped tbsp flour
100g sugar
4 yolks
500ml milk (room temperature)
a few drops of vanilla essence

Beat the york in a double boiler.
Add about 400ml of milk, sugar and vanilla, turn on the heat and whisk.
In a separate cup whisk the flour briskly in the remaining 100ml of milk until the flour is dissolved. Add into the double boiler. Mix well.
Heat the mixture on low heat, stirring often, until the cream thickens.

If the double boiler is not available, you can
1. Layer a smaller sauce pan over the larger sauce pan filled with boiling water
or
2. Use a thick bottomed saucepan with extremely low heat, constantly stirring from the bottom, taking care not to have it boil over or burn at the bottom. (If the cream starts to get overheated take off the saucepan from the heat for some seconds)

Further tips

For a liquidier cream for making a sauce, reduce the amount of flour.

The cream can be further flavoured with real vanilla bean pod*, lemon or orange zest, cinnamon, cocoa powder, rum or amaretto.

*make a slit length wise on the pod, scrape out the seeds into the egg yolk at the beginning. Put the pod in as well, just as the cream begins to thicken, take out the pods.