Learn how to make pastry cream from scratch, along with tips, tricks and how to use it.
If you’re a chocolate lover, you have to try this chocolate pastry cream too or if you’d like to lighten the texture of this pastry cream, combine it with this chantilly cream.
Table of contents
What is Pastry Cream (Creme Patissiere)
Consisting of just 5 ingredients, Creme Patissiere (French for pastry cream), is a vanilla flavoured, thick custard used in so many desserts. You may already know it as the filling most often found in profiteroles, eclairs and custard horns but you may not know, the very same filling is used to fill fruit tarts and is even the basis for German Buttercream.
It’s silky smooth, creamy and fairly subtly sweet and most often flavoured with vanilla.
How to make Pastry Cream (Creme Patissiere)
Step 1:
Whisk together some cornflour (cornstarch), milk and eggs
Step 2:
Add hot milk, vanilla and sugar, slowly pouring it in so that the eggs don’t scramble.
Step 3:
Heat the mixture on the stove, over medium heat, until it gets very thick and pudding like. Make sure to whisk it constantly.
Step 4:
Strain the creme patissiere to smooth it out and remove any lumps.
Step 5:
Cover, with plastic wrap pressed right to the surface, and let it cool completely before using.
Different types of custard
- Creme Anglaise is a thick but pourable custard sauce. It is usually thickened only with egg yolks.
- Creme Patissiere is the thicker version of creme anglaise and uses the addition of starch in the form of cornflour (cornstarch) to thicken it even further to more of a set consistency.
- Baked Custard, as the name suggests, is a baked version of custard. It relies only on eggs to thicken it (no starch) and becomes things like Pots De Creme or Creme Brulee.
- Custard Powder (<– recipe) is the powdered and shelf stable form of creme anglais. While it’s normally served as a pourable custard, starch is the thickener in order to keep it shelf stable.
Custard in it’s various forms is used as a base for a multitude of different desserts from those mentioned above to creme caramel and blancmange.
What is creme patissiere used for?
Once you master making creme patissiere, the options for how you can used it are endless.
- Filling tarts like fruit tarts or flavoured for use in chocolate custard tarts
- It’s the perfect profiterole filling along with other pastries like cream puffs, chouxnuts, eclairs and custard horns
- To make custard slice
- You can even fill donuts like this brown sugar custard
- It’s the filling for Boston cream pie and you can use it to fill cupcakes too.
- The famous French dessert – mille feuille
- It’s the basis of puddings – like chocolate pudding or the butterscotch pudding in this trifle.
- Use it as the base for the most creamy, silky smooth buttercream you’ll ever taste – German Buttercream.
Tips and tricks for perfect pastry cream
This vanilla pastry cream recipe is so incredibly easy to make at home, you’ll wonder why you’ve never done it before and be looking for new desserts to use it in. Here’s some notes that may be helpful.
- Fluff up the cornflour first – for this recipe, I fluff up the cornflour, then lightly scoop it and then level the cup measure off with a knife.
- Make it richer – by adding an extra egg yolk.
- Don’t boil the milk – you’ll start by heating milk but it only needs to be hot enough that it is steaming and it’s ready to add to the eggs. This really just gives time enough for the sugar to dissolve before the next step.
- Tempering the eggs – when you add the hot liquid to the eggs, make sure to pour it in slowly and whisk constantly. Too quick and you may scramble the egg yolks.
- Cook it until it boils, just – many creme patissiere recipes will say you need to boil the mixture. The only purpose for this is that cornflour / cornstarch normally starts to thicken things at boiling point. I find it will thicken before this though and it works perfectly fine.
- Whisk it constantly while cooking – if you don’t, you’ll end up with lumpy custard.
- Straining the pastry cream isn’t absolutely necessary but helpful in case of any stray lumps.
- Cover while cooling – press plastic wrap directly to the surface of the pastry cream as it will form a skin if you don’t which will mean you have to waste some valuable delicious pudding.
How to store pastry cream
- Store the pastry cream in a container or bowl with plastic wrap pressed to the surface for 3-4 days.
- Once it has been stored in the fridge, it will set quite firm. To use it, bring it to room temperature, then whisk until smooth before use.
- Pastry cream does not freeze very successfully.
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If you’ve never made your own pastry cream, I urge you to give it a try and then try not to eat it by the spoonful before filling something with it. Also, keep an eye out later this week for a delicious buttercream recipe using this pastry cream.
More custard recipes
- Chocolate pastry cream
- Salted Caramel Pots De Creme
- Chocolate Creme Brulee
- Lemon Vanilla Custard Slice
- Caramel Doughnuts with Brown Sugar Custard
- Mini Chocolate Tart Recipe
- How to make Custard Powder
- Vanilla Cupcakes with Custard Buttercream (German Buttercream)
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Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- ⅓ cup white granulated sugar (or caster sugar)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup cornflour (cornstarch)
- 2 egg yolks from large eggs
For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided
Instructions
- Pour 1 ¼ cups of milk into a heavy based saucepan, and add sugar and vanilla, then heat on low-medium heat until steaming, stirring regularly to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup milk, egg yolks and cornflour until smooth and fully combined.
- While whisking, very slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture in a slow but steady stream. Don’t pour it too quickly or the heat will scramble the eggs.
- Once everything is combined, return the mix to the saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring with a whisk constantly, until it gets very thick and no longer settles into itself when you move it around. This will happen quite quickly after about 5 minutes so it’s important to keep gently whisking increasing intensity as it gets very thick. You will end up with lumpy custard if you don’t.
- Swap to a silicone spatula and pass the custard through a strainer into a clean bowl, then press plastic wrap to the surface and allow to cool to room temperature.
Notes
- Store the pastry cream in a container or bowl with plastic wrap pressed to the surface for 3-4 days.
- Once it has been stored in the fridge, it will set quite firm. To use it, bring it to room temperature, then whisk until smooth before use.
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6 Comments on “How to make Pastry Cream (Creme Patissiere)”
The skin is never wasted, it’s the best part of making any custard!
My brother would agree with you 🙂
These all sound do delicious and wiite easy to make as I dont do a lot but my daughter bought the sponge flan when I wanted a pastry one so lots of ideas now thank you
So many ways you can use a sponge flan. Enjoy Jaqueline 🙂
Will be trying this recipe today, thank you for sharing it! May I ask if this can be frozen, or how long might it last in the fridge without being frozen? Thank you!
You’re welcome 🙂 It will last 3-4 days in the fridge but cannot be frozen.