German Buttercream

German Buttercream (in Germany this is just Buttercream) is a variant of Creme Mousselline, but with a much higher butter content (about 50% more). It is an ideal cake filling and for me far preferable to Standard Buttercream which I find too cloying and sweet.

As with creme Mouselline you make a basic Creme Pat and then whisk in the butter.

It also comes in different variants using fruit juice and instead of milk in the Creme Pat, though it needs boosting with an essence of the fruit to get an intensity of flavour, and chocolate

The Recipe

500 ml whole milk
90g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
pinch of salt
45 g cornflour
3 large egg yolks (60 g)
320g butter

Chocolate variation: add 30g of cocoa to the milk, add 100g of melted choclate after whisking in the butter

Fruit variation: remove the vanilla pod, replace the milk with fruit juice and halve the sugar, and add favourings of extracts or liqueur to suit

The Method

The Creme Pat Stage

separate the eggs
scrape the vanilla pod into the milk bring the milk just to the boil
take off the heat and immediately whisk the eggs and sugar together until the lighten in colour
add the cornflour and whisk until smooth (if necessary add a little milk as you should look like a lava like paste at this point)
add a quarter of the milk and whisk in and then add in the cornflour and whisk until smooth
now pour the whole mixture back into the milk in the rest of the pan and bring to the boil stirring all the time until the mixture becomes thick and gloopy
once gloopy, take off the heat and stir in the butter (about 1/3rd of the butter in the case of mousseline or buttercream)
press through a fine sieve immediately to take out any final lumps
cover with cling film with the film touching the surface and allow to cool to room temperature