Boston Cream Pie Recipe

I baked my first ever Boston Cream Pie! And I gotta’ tell you it was absolutely out-of-this-world delicious! I made this dessert on a work night so that I could take it to my book club meeting. Our meeting was to discuss our most recent read, The Boston Girl. So I thought a Boston Cream Pie was the perfect dessert for our gathering.

Now, not only have I never made this dessert before, I have never even have had a bite of one before! Really! I don’t know why – it’s made of flavors I love – sweet vanilla, creamy custard, all wrapped up in a coating of dark chocolate glaze.  When I started hunting down a recipe that looked good – I settled on the Saveur rendition. It looked a bit complicated but mostly straight forward. I had thought about using a box mix and instant pudding -it was a work night – but really? If you are going to splurge on calories – make them worth it. And let me tell you, these calories are worth every mile of running, or swimming, or biking needed to counterbalance! Once I placed a fork of this dessert in my mouth – my mouth and tastebuds were enjoying a bit of heaven. Not only are the flavors amazing, the textures – the light sponge cake, the creamy custard, the fudgy dark chocolate – are double amazing!

This recipe is straight from Saveur.

Boston Cream Pie

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CAKE
12 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
1½ cups flour, plus more for pan
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. kosher salt
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 eggs
⅔ cup buttermilk

FOR THE FILLING
1 cup sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
½ tsp. kosher salt
½ vanilla bean, seeds scraped and reserved
6 egg yolks
1½ cups milk
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
1 tsp. vanilla extract

FOR THE GLAZE
4 oz. 60-percent bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup heavy cream

INSTRUCTIONS

Make the Cake:

• Heat oven to 350°. Grease and flour a 9″ round cake pan; set aside. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl; set aside.
• In another bowl, beat butter, sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed of a hand mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each, until smooth. Alternately add dry ingredients and buttermilk in 3 batches, beginning and ending with dry ingredients; beat until just combined.
• Pour into pan; smooth top with a rubber spatula.
• Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 35 minutes.
• Let cool for 15 minutes, and then invert onto a wire rack; let cool completely.

Make the Filling:

• Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, and vanilla seeds in a 4-qt. saucepan;
• add yolks, and whisk until smooth.
• Stir in milk, and place pan over medium heat; cook, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 10 minutes.
• Remove from heat, and add butter one cube at a time, whisking until smooth; stir in vanilla extract.
• Transfer pudding to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap; chill until firmed, at least 2 hours.

Make the Glaze:

• Place chocolate in a bowl. Bring cream to a boil in a 1-qt. saucepan over high heat; pour over chocolate and let sit for 1 minute. Slowly stir chocolate and cream until smooth and shiny; set aside to cool for 10 minutes.

Assemble the Cake:

• Using a serrated knife, split cake horizontally into two layers so that the top layer is slightly smaller than the bottom.
• Spread chilled pudding over cut side of bottom layer and cover with top layer:
• pour chocolate glaze evenly over cake, letting it drip down the side of the cake.
• Refrigerate cake until glaze is set, at least 30 minutes. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

As I mentioned – I made my Boston Cream Pie on a week night to be served the following day. Since I had never made one before, I was not sure how the custard would settle between the cakes if I made the whole dessert a day ahead. So what I choose to do was to wrap the cooled cake in plastic wrap and completely cover the custard with plastic wrap (sitting right on the custard) and refrigerate both until the following day.  An added bonus – slicing the refrigerated cake, is a bit easier for me. I put the cake together, made the glaze, and refrigerated to set the chocolate all on the day that I served the Boston Cream Pie. This worked perfectly! We did have one slice left over and enjoyed it the following day. It. too was delicious – so I guess, you can put the whole “pie” together and serve the following day as well. Either way – it was delicious!

While you can eat it straight from the fridge, I think it taste best as it settles into room temperature. The vanilla is more pronounced and the cake is best at room temp.

Click here for a printable version: Boston Cream Pie Recipe

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