Sunday Baking ~ Krémeš

Krémeš is another Hungarian dessert, literally meaning creamy in Hungarian. Basically, it's custard in between two sheets of puff pastry, similar to the french mille-feuille. There are different versions of it as well, often homemade krémeš uses a thicker, runnier, custard. However, the bakery version is light and fluffy. 

The krémeš from the Eastern European bakery in Calgary uses a very thick and rich custard rather than the light and fluffy one I enjoyed as a child and on my visits to Hungary. I've also seen versions where there is a rich custard layered with whipped cream in between pastry, as well as custard layered with jam and pastry, so there are multiple ways to get creative with this dessert.

Making the krémeš is very easy, and considerably less time consuming than gerbeaud. I used pre-bought frozen puff pastry sheets, rolled them out and baked them until golden. You can start making the custard as soon as you've thrown the pastry into the oven. 

*Note: I use a 9x13 pan and the custard fits in perfectly – not too much, not too little.

Ingredients:

2 sheets of puff pastry

2 cups milk

3 packages unflavoured gelatin

8 eggs, separated

4 egg whites

3/4 cups sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Optional: icing sugar

Directions:

Roll out the puff pastry and bake for 10 minutes at 350°F. You want to make them slightly larger than the dish you're using to hold this, as puff pastry will shrink a bit as it cooks.

Boil the milk with gelatin.

Mix the cornstarch with an equal amount of water. Add the sugar to this mixture.

When the milk is hot and gelatin dissolved, stir in the cornstarch mixture. The mixture should look like runny cream after a few minutes.

Add the vanilla to the egg yolks and lightly beat together. Add this to the milk and stir until a thick custard forms.

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Use a metal bowl, egg whites beat best in metal, especially copper. You want to beat the egg whites until you can flip the bowl upside down without the egg whites moving around or falling out. I dare you to hold it upside down over your head.

Fold the egg whites into the custard.

Place a layer of puff pastry into a dish and put the custard/egg white mixture on top. Place the second sheet of pastry on top and dust with icing sugar if you want. Refrigerate for a few hours before serving so everything has a chance to firm up.

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