Diplomate Cream
300g pastry cream
150g cream, very cold, straight from the refrigerator
- Place the pastry cream in a small bowl, and use a spatula to manipulate it until it is smooth and pliable. Set this aside.
- Place the cold cream in a medium sized bowl, and whisk by hand until the cream thickens and tightens to medium peaks. In whipping by hand, you will feel the cream transition from soft to firm, each pass of the whisk tightening the cream. It’s such a small amount, it won’t take long.
- When the cream is whipped to medium peaks, add half of it to the pastry cream. Fold gently until the cream just integrates itself, a trace or two still visible. Add the remaining cream, and fold even more gently, until the cream and pastry cream have become one.
- Congratulations, you’ve just oh-so-delicately married whipped cream and pastry cream to become diplomate cream. Taste it, and note the grand texture, lighter than custard, richer than cream. The diplomate cream needs to be used immediately, and consumed within a day, the texture fleeting by nature. So get to work filling something!