Recipe: Crème Chiboust (Chiboust cream)

Rue de Paris, temps de pluie – Gustave Caillebotte

In the romantic setting of 19th-century Paris, Monsieur Chiboust, a pastry chef with his own shop in Rue Saint-Honoré, created the famous crème Chiboust.

Well, he also created the famous gâteau Saint-Honoré with crème Chiboust, but this post is about the cream only! 🙂

So what is Chiboust cream?

It is just a combination of pastry cream with gelatin and Italian meringue. The result is very light and can be used to fill and decorate cakes, but also baked tarts. If the tarts need to be baked with the cream, there is no need to use gelatin.

The preparation is quite particular because the pastry cream must be kept warm until the meringue is fully incorporated. This might pose some concerns in terms of food safety (a temperature between 30° and 60° C is an ideal condition for bacterial multiplication), so make sure to cover the cream while resting at room temperature, or even keep it on a bain marie.

Crème Chiboust (Chiboust cream)

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Ingredients

180ml	Milk
20g	Granulated sugar (for the milk)
250g	Granulated sugar (for the egg yolks)
45g	Egg yolks (~ 2 egg yolks)
1/2	Vanilla bean and seeds (halved)
18g	Cornstarch
7g	Gelatin
180g	Granulated sugar
45g	Water
90g	Egg whites (~ 6 egg whites)

Directions

Heat the milk with half of the sugar and the vanilla bean in a saucepan. In the meantime, let the gelatin soften in cold water.

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and corn starch

When the milk is boiling, pour it in three times over the egg mixture and quickly mix every time to prevent the yolks from curdling

Put back the liquid mixture into the saucepan and cook on medium heat whisking continuously

Allow the pastry cream to boil for 2 minutes then remove from the heat. Place in a clean bowl, add the gelatin and stir to dissolve

Cover the bowl with plastic film on the cream and set aside. Reducing the amount of air in contact with the cream will result in the formation of less bacteria.
In the meantime, do not refrigerate nor allow the cream to set while preparing the Italian meringue.

For the Italian meringue, start preparing a sugar syrup by placing the sugar and then the water in a saucepan on medium heat

When the syrup reaches 110°, start whipping the egg whites on medium-high speed

When the syrup reaches 119°, the egg whites should be whipped to soft peaks. Now you can pour the syrup slowly on the whipped egg whites while the mixer is running at high speed. Pour in a steady stream between the side of the bowl and the beater.

Continue whipping at high speed until the syrup is incorporated, approximately 1 minute

Quickly incorporate one third of the hot meringue into the warm pastry cream with a spatula

Gently fold in the remaining meringue

Use the cream immediately to fill tarts or tortes. You can also pour it into a clean container, cover and refrigerate until firm

Note

Please remember that the Crème Chiboust is very delicate and can become "dangerous" since the pastry cream is left at room temperature for some time, during which bacteria could form in it.
To avoid risks while you prepare the meringue, you can cover the bowl with plastic film on the pastry cream and additionally you could also place temporarily the bowl on a bain marie: this will keep the cream at safe temperatures and prevent the formation of bacteria.
If the cream needs to be baked (e.g. to fill tarts), you can omit the gelatin.
It might be necessary to let the cream set a few minutes in the fridge before it can used in a piping bag.