French Buttercream / Ermine - like whip cream

I'm not a fan of traditional buttercream frosting which is butter, shortening, powdered sugar and milk or cream that are them creamed together until light and fluffy.  This frosting, in my opinion is entirely too sweet, and it's some what grainy texture is entirely too much for my taste buds to handle.  

I came across this frosting recipe in a book I have and it's a french roux buttercream frosting called "Ermine".  This frosting is easy to prepare, it starts off by making a blonde roux, instead of cooking the flour in the butter, it is slowly dissolved into milk that is heating on the stove.  Slowly dissolving this into the milk that is heating works like magic to help you avoid any lumps in this roux.

After the roux is prepared, it needs to poured into a bowl and covered with plastic wrap.  The plastic wrap must be pressed against the top of the roux, and then placed in the fridge to cool.  Pressing the plastic on the top of the roux, prevents the top of the roux from forming a skin on top.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon all purpose flour (5 tbsp)

1 cup of granulated sugar 

1 cup of whole milk (it must be whole milk or this will not work correctly)

pinch of salt

1 cup of butter room temp (not mushy but slightly firm) cut into 1/2 tbsp cubes 

1.  In a bowl whisk together all of the dry ingredients.

2.  In a medium saucepan, heat the milk on a medium high flame.  As the milk beings to get hot while whisking, slowly add the dry ingredients about 1/4 cup at a time in the center of the pot.  Repeat this process until all of the dry ingredients have been added to the milk.  Add the vanilla and continue to whisk until the roux begins to thicken.  

3.  Change to a wooden spoon as the mixture begin to thicken and constantly stir the roux, being sure there are no uncooked bits of flour.  

4.  Cook on a medium high flame constantly stirring.  It is important to scrape the entire bottom of the pot to prevent roux from burning.  Cook for approximately 2 to 3 minutes or until the mixture is extremely smooth and shiny.  

5. Pour the mixture into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, allowing the plastic wrap to cling against the top of the roux.  Doing so will prevent the roux from forming a skin.  Allow to chill 1 to 2 hours in the fridge.

6.  After the roux has chilled, pour the roux into a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment.  Slowly increase the speed to high and allow the roux to whip for about 2 minutes.

7.  After the roux has whipped for 2 minutes, scrape down the sides of the bowl and turn the mixer on medium.  Add the butter 1 cube at a time.  After the cube of butter has completely mixed into the roux, add another cube of butter.  Continue to do this until all the butter has completely whipped into the roux.    Scrape the bowl down after adding half of the butter.  Once completed this frosting is ready to use.  Add food coloring if desired.  If the frosting is too soft due to your room being hot, simply place into the fridge until the frosting firms up a bit.