Pizzelles with French Pastry Cream

Pizzelles
via: Allrecipes.com

6 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup margarine, melted and cooled (we used salted butter)
2 tablespoons anise extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder

Beat eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. Stir in the melted margarine and anise extract. Combine the flour and baking powder; stir in gradually. Dough will be sticky.

Preheat your pizzelle iron according to the manufacturer's instructions. Drop batter by rounded spoonfuls onto the iron. Close and cook for about 90 seconds, or until steam stops coming out of the iron. Carefully remove and cool. Store in an airtight tin at room temperature.

To make the tubes Ellie created a form using foil and a drum stick. We would pull off the hot pizzelle from the iron and wrap it around a form, holding it in place with a chop stick or folk. She found that you needed to move as quickly as possible, or else it develops cracks. I needed to wear rubber gloves because the heat was hurting my fingers.

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Pastry Cream (modified by Ellie)
via: Olga's Flavor Factory

2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
¼ cup water
1½ cups half and half (Ellie used 3/4 cup 2% milk and 3/4 cup heavy cream)
5 large egg yolks
⅓ cup sugar
3 Tablespoons all purpose flour
3 Tablespoons butter, cut into 3 pieces, chilled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ Tablespoon hazelnut liqueur, optional (Ellie did not use this.)
1 cup heavy cream, chilled
1-2 Tablespoons powdered sugar

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and set aside until the gelatin softens.

In a small saucepan, bring the half and half to a simmer. Do not boil.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar until smooth.

Add the flour and whisk until smooth.

When the half and half is just barely simmering, slowly pour a ladle of the hot liquid into the bowl, while you are whisking at the same time. This is called tempering and means that you are slowly heating up the egg mixture to make sure that the eggs don't scramble. Whisk in another ladle of hot liquid and then return everything to the same saucepan and cook on medium or low heat until the mixture thickens and you see big bubbles bursting on the surface. Remove from the heat.

Add the butter, softened gelatin and the vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.

Strain the pastry cream through a fine mesh sieve to remove any lumps. Place some parchment paper right on top of the pastry cream, which will prevent a skin from forming on top. Chill in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes.