Nothing beats a homemade, classic vanilla pastry cream. It’s silky, pudding-y and subtly sweet – plus it’s endlessly customizable. Flavor any way you like for your cakes, tarts and donuts.
Pastry cream, or creme patisserie if you’ve ever heard that phrase on the Great British Baking Show, is a thickened custard made from milk, egg yolks and sugar.
It’s an easy way to make an impressive dessert – honestly, it’s delicious on it’s own as a pudding with some berries – but it also makes a great filling or dessert base.
Uses for Pastry Cream
There’s no limit to what you can use pastry cream – a few ideas are below but let your imagination run wild!
Ingredients
Pastry cream is made with just a handful of ingredients: milk and cream, sugar, egg yolks and cornstarch to set.
The flavorings are up to you – vanilla bean is a classic choice but don’t stop there! Stir in the flavors at the end when the custard is cooked and off the heat, especially the extracts which will burn off in the heat.
- Vanilla or almond extracts
- Chopped chocolate
- Pistachio paste
- Citrus zest
- Cinnamon and spices
Extra Egg Whites
Wondering what to do with the egg whites? Good news, egg whites freeze beautifully for future uses. I like to store them up and make great coffee meringues, Swiss meringue buttercream or angel food cake.
Making Pastry Cream
A quick, stove-top custard, this pastry cream is really easy to make – it comes together in literally minutes, the longest part is waiting for it to cool (if you cant wait that long, I usually sneak spoonfuls early, no shame).
The biggest concern is the temperature of the eggs – if you heat the egg yolks too quickly you will end up with deviled egg filling and not custard. Thankfully, it’s very preventable!
First, gently heat your milk, cream and half of your sugar (feel free to eyeball this) on the stovetop until you start to see a little simmer starting.
Once you see that, whisk the other half of the sugar into the egg yolks in a separate, heat-proof bowl. Whisk in your cornstarch.
Now, we need to combine the two without overheating the yolks – this is a process called tempering. We are very slowly going to trickle in the hot milk into the egg yolks to gently raise the temperature.
While whisking continuously with one hand, drizzle in a tablespoon of the simmering milk with the other. Once it is fully incorporated, add another tablespoon. Repeat this process until about half of the milk is added to the yolks, then you can stream in the rest. Keep whisking!
If all went well, you should have a smooth liquid texture with no cooked yolks! Pour everything back into the pot and heat until it bubbles for a solid minute. The bubbling boils out the cornstarch and is an important step for setting and flavor.
By now, you should have a nice thick custard and it will continue to thicken while it cools. Now is the time to stir in any flavoring – the standard is a little knob of butter (for richness), a bit of salt and vanilla but have fun and be delicious!
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have just a few dots of cooked egg yolk, you can strain the pastry cream through a fine mesh sieve while its still warm. If all the egg yolks are hard cooked, unfortunately it’s a lost cause.
The likely answer is the cornstarch didn’t cook long enough. The pastry cream should burble for a full minute on the heat and thicken as you stir.
This pastry cream will set pretty firm as it chills. Before using, give it a quick whip with a whisk and it will turn into a lovely silky texture again.
If you have a few clumps after chilling, you can use an immersion blender and smooth out the texture, but not to worry, they won’t hurt anything.
Classic Vanilla Pastry Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup whole milk
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 50 g granulated sugar divided
- 2 large egg yolks
- 18 g cornstarch
- ½ tablespoon unsalted butter
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
Instructions
- In a small saucepan with a handle combine whole milk, heavy cream and approximately 1/2 of the granulated sugar. Set over medium heat stirring occasionally.1 cup whole milk, 1/4 cup heavy cream, 50 g granulated sugar
- Once milk begins to simmer, whisk egg yolks and other 1/2 of granulated sugar in a large, heat proof bowl. Whisk in cornstarch.50 g granulated sugar, 2 large egg yolks, 18 g cornstarch
- Once milk is simmering begin to temper the eggs to bring up the temperature. While whisking vigorously continuously, slowing stream in about 1 tablespoon of the hot milk mixture. Once incorporated, add another tablespoon of milk. Continue adding about 1 tablespoon at a time while whisking until about half of the milk is added. Then slowly stream in the rest of the milk.
- Once fully incorporated, return mixture to the pot and return to medium heat. Continue to stir slowly, being sure to scrape the corners of the pot, until the mixture begins to bubble. Allow to bubble for 1 minute before removing from the heat. Note: mixture will not bubble like water, it will be large, gentle burbles.
- Stir in butter, salt and vanilla. Add in any additional flavors as desired.1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- Transfer to a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap pressing plastic onto the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Chill for at least 1 hour or store in the fridge of up to 3 days.
- When ready to use, whisk pastry cream to loosen.
Notes
- Pastry cream can be stored in fridge for up to 3 days.
- Refrigerate any pastries using pastry cream.
- Do not freeze.
- Substitute vanilla extract or scraped vanilla bean seed if desired for vanilla bean paste.
Disclaimer: We test all recipes using the metric weights shown, we cannot guarantee outcomes when switching to US measurements.
