Let me present to you a spontaneous, unforeseen dessert that I literally whipped up at the eleventh hour. The truth is that I made crème pâtissière or French pastry cream for filling choux au craquelin. Sadly, my cream puffs did not rise (my craquelin biscuit was too heavy; I’m working on that!), as a result of which they were dense and undercooked and could not be filled with the pastry cream (I will be baking choux pastry again sometime in May, so be around!). As much as I was disappointed that my afternoon didn’t give me the results I hoped for, I’m still very glad that I gave choux au craquelin a chance!

As for the pastry cream, I did not want to squander it, so I used it in a very humble dessert: custard cups. For the individual components, we will be making crème pâtissière folded with apple sauce and swirled with whipped coffee, followed by crisp rolled apples dusted with brown sugar! These apples I've used are Rockit apples, grown in New Zealand. They're basically mini-apples which I saw at a grocery store and decided to give a try! A very simple dessert, however I wasn’t in the mood of committing to a complicated project, given the reason for the creation of this dessert. 

HOWEVER, I did use the presented circumstance for something constructive: this was a great time to redeem myself and make thinly rolled apple roses/ slices, which I fell short of in “royal echoes”! Oh alright, maybe the custard did help them to remain rolled, but at least I could cut the apple evenly and roll it without breaking!

Crème Pâtissière cups

Apple sauce:

• 1 1/2 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1/4 cup cool water
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of sugar
• Cinnamon powder

Combine the chopped apples and water in a pot. Cook on a low heat until the apples become tender and soft. Remove from heat and mash the apples, season with pinches of salt, sugar and cinnamon and pass the sauce through a sieve. Cool completely.

Crème pâtissière:

• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 8g corn starch
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp. butter
• Prepared apple sauce

Whisk together the yolks and sugar, corn starch and vanilla extract until combined and double in volume. In a saucepan, heat the milk until it just starts to boil. Slowly drizzle a third of the heated milk into the eggs and sugar, whisking vigorously. Pour this mixture into the remaining milk and return to a low flame, stirring constantly until the pastry cream thickens. Remove from heat and combine the butter. Cover with a plastic wrap and cool in the fridge before folding in the apple sauce.

Assembly:

• 1 apple
• 1/2 tbsp. coffee
• 1/2 tbsp. water
• Brown sugar, for dusting

Pour the pastry cream into individual cups/ ramekins. Add the coffee and water to a bottle and shake until bubbly. Equally divide the mixture into the prepared cups and marble with a toothpick. Chop the apple in half and cut thin slices. Roll the slices and place them in the custard and dust with brown sugar.

Serve cold!!!