Boston Cream Pie is a custard filled cake topped with chocolate ganache. And yes, it does taste as good as it sounds. It's incredibly popular in it's doughnut form and from my unbiased, neutral stand point--it's adorable and delicious as a cupcake!
Boston Cream Pie is the official dessert of Massachusetts and originated there as well, in the Parker House Hotel by Chef Sanzian in 1856. The original name of this dessert was Chocolate Cream Pie or Parker House Chocolate Cream Pie. The first published recipe came in 1879 in the cookbook "Housekeeping in Old Virginia" by Marion Cabell Tyree.
It is said that Boston Cream Pie is a remake of an old American dessert called the Pudding-cake pie and the word "pie" in the title is due to being cooked in pie tins and, back in the day, cakes and pies were hardly distinguishable.
Below is the recipe of them in their cupcake form. My only gripe is that the custard filling was not quite up to par. This recipe is from America's Test Kitchen, so I'm not really sure if I over-whisked or if I'm too used to the dense filling in the doughnut form.
Regardless, I did receive a lot of compliments for this recipe so it's definitely edible and then some. It's an intimidating recipe, given it's length, but it's easier than it looks :)
Ingredients for Pastry Cream:
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
3 large egg YOLKS (first time around, i put 3 large eggs--doesn't work)
1/3 cup sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut in 2 pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions for Pastry Cream:
1. Bring the cream to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir occasionally.
2. While the cream is simmering or coming to a simmer, in a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together.
3. Once the sugar and egg yolks are combined, add the cornstarch and whisk until the mixture is pale yellow and thick (around 15 seconds).
4. When the cream reaches a full simmer, slowly whisk it into the yolk mixture.
5. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thick and glossy (about 1.5 minutes).
6. Turn off the heat and whisk the butter and vanilla.
7. Transfer the pastry cream into a small bowl and refrigerate, with plastic wrap pressed against the surface. At least 2 hours and up to 2 days.
Ingredients for Cupcakes:
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool, cut into 12 pieces
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions for Cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven for 350 degrees F
2. Coat a standard muffin tray with vegetable oil spray and general coat with flour; tap off the excess
3. With an electric mixer on low, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.
4. Add the butter one piece at a time, and combine until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until well combined.
6. Add the milk and vanilla, increase the speed to medium and mix until light and fluffy. Make sure no lumps remain (about 3 minutes).
7. Fill the muffin cups three-quarters full.
8. Bake for 18-20 minutes (for my batch, it was perfection at 20 minutes on the dot)
9. Remove cupcakes to cool.
Ingredients for Chocolate Glaze:
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used milk chocolate morsels)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used 1 tablespoon because extra vanilla never hurt anybody)
Directions for the Chocolate Glaze:
1. Place cream and light corn syrup in a medium saucepan.
2. Turn on the stove, and place the saucepan on top.
3. Stir the corn syrup and cream constantly.
4. Once the cream-syrup mixture is heated (about 2 min), add half the chocolate.
5. Stir constantly until the mixture is even and the chocolate is thoroughly incorporated.
6. Add the remainder chocolate and stir until even.
7. Set aside to cool for 30 minutes.
Directions for Assembly:
1. Insert a knife at a 45 degree angle about 1/8 of an inch from the edge of each cupcake. Cut all the way around, thereby removing a cone of cake.
2. Cut the cone part of the cake so that there is a thin disk of cake for a topping.
3. Fill the center of each cupcake with the pastry cream.
4. Add the disk of cake as the topping.
5. Set the filled cupcakes on a wire rack with covering below it.
6. Pour 2 tablespoons of glaze over each cupcake, allow it to drip down the sides.
7. Refrigerate to set.
*NOTE: I noticed that despite waiting 40 minutes to cool, my chocolate was runny. So I topped each cupcake with the chocolate glaze, as instructed, and refrigerated it, again, as instructed. After it refrigerated for about 20 minutes, which also allowed the chocolate to have cooled longer and become thicker, I reapplied chocolate glaze so that the topping was thick and chocolate-y.
As far as the pastry cream is concerned, here's what I did differently that could possibly explain why the cream wasn't as "custard-y" as i wanted:
1. The recipe called for a "pinch" of salt. I figured it's useless if it doesn't have a quantity and I didn't bother to add it.
2. I added the eggs to the cream in the saucepan. I figured it would be more efficient instead of adding the cream and then pouring it all back into the saucepan.
3. Where the recipe said to "whisk", I used an electric mixer. I also whisked the egg yolks and cornstarch--perhaps it was overdone?
There's very little that comes to mind when you say, "American cuisine". Almost everything has its roots in Italy, Germany or some other foreign country. Not that I mind; in this melting pot, we get the best of the world!
