Troubleshooting my Bavarian Creme

Question

Yesterday I tried to make Bavarian Cream for the first time - it was a disaster. I think I know where I went wrong, but maybe someone with a bit of experience can still help me out.

So I got this recipe consisting of some egg yolks, sugar, gelatin, milk, heavy cream and some oil, syrup or liquor for flavor.

The recipe states to whisk the yolks together with the sugar until the mixture is pale - no problem for me.

Then it says to put the milk together with the flavor giving component into a bowl and bring it to a simmer. To temper the yolks, you then have to pour a bit of the hot liquid to the yolks, whisk it together and then pour it back into the pan to the rest of the hot liquid. I think I've also done this right - I had no scrambled eggs.

Now it says to cook it over low heat while stirring constantly until the custard thickens. As a test for it, the recipe states to dip a spoon into the custard, then run you finger about it's back. If the custard stays in place and does not run back into line, its alright. I've done this test and although I had the feeling it's still really runny, it passed this test after about 3 min of cooking (Is this too short?) over really low heat not above 85 °C.

Then I took the pan from the heat like stated in the recipe and stirred in the gelatin sheets I had previously soaked in cold water. After that, I let it cool completely, but the consistency was still too runny, a bit like milk.

Here are the two things that went wrong it guess: Maybe you noticed it, I haven't written anything about the cream, because the cream is listed as an ingredient, but isn't used in the whole recipe. I think thats an error in my recipe book, so I brought the cream together with the milk to a simmer.

Another thing that caused the wrong consistency is the amount of gelatin I guess. The recipe says to use 5 sheets, so I used 5 sheets. On the package it says that 6 sheets are needed to thicken 500 ml liquid. As I have used 350 ml heavy cream an 250 ml milk and some tablespoons of rosewater and syrup, I haven't used enough gelatin I believe.

So what do you think, have I identified the right components that caused my attempt to fail? Or do you notice another thing that strikes you? Do you have any tips for me?

Answer 1

I think the problem is your cream, but not your fault if your recipe didn't mention it anymore. For a Bavarian cream, you normally whip cream and put it in the mixture in the end, to make it more light and also less liquid.

In that case, I think your amount of gelatin would be enough, since you'd only have a good 250 ml of liquid (but not all gelatin sheets are as large as others etc.).

I can't say if you let it boil long enough or not. The "back of a wooden spoon test" doesn't work for me. I normally let it cook till I see it has thickened a bit.