Crème Pâtissière also known as Pastry Cream is a creamy, smooth French custard filling that's easy to make in 15 minutes with only 6 ingredients. Follow my foolproof recipe to make this versatile cream filling at home.
This is one of those recipes that every home baker should have in their repertoire - especially when it comes to French baking. Vanilla Pastry Cream, is the backbone for many dessert recipes and by changing the consistency and, or flavour, you can use it in a multitude of ways.
Crème Pâtissière is a smooth, gluten-free custard cream recipe that when made from scratch, will amaze you with how delicious it is. In my recipe, I'll show you little tips and tricks so that you can avoid a custard that's lumpy or too runny.
If you love French recipes as much as I do then my Tarte Fines Aux Pommes, Brioche French Toast, or Orange Madeleines are all classics for good reason.
Jump to:
- ❓ What is Crème Pâtissière?
- 🥣 How Should You Use Crème Pâtissière?
- 🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe
- 🍮 What Are The Different Types of Creams and Custards?
- 🧾 Ingredients Needed
- 📖 Variations
- 👩🏻🍳 How To Make Vanilla Pastry Cream
- 💭 Crème Pâtissière Recipe Pro Tips
- 📋 Recipe FAQs & Trouble Shooting
- ❄️ Storage and Freezer Instructions
- 🇫🇷 More French Recipes
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Comments
❓ What is Crème Pâtissière?
Crème Pâtissière is the French term for a cream filling made with egg yolks, milk, sugar, butter, a thickening agent, such as cornflour and flavouring, such as vanilla. Pronounced 'crem pat-tis-yer', it's also known as pastry cream or creme pat for short.
To make pastry cream, the yolks, sugar and cornflour are whipped together before vanilla-infused hot milk is combined with the mixture. From there, the mixture is heated in a saucepan until it's thickened before the butter is added. The result is a smooth, rich, luxurious cream that must cool before use.
Depending on how much starch is added during the cooking process (more starch equals a stiffer cream), you can use it to fill or top your favourite pastries and tarts.
🥣 How Should You Use Crème Pâtissière?
Pastry Cream can be used in so many different dessert applications. But ultimately, you can eat it directly from the bowl with a spoon- it's that good!
Here are some popular ideas on how to use your pastry cream.
- Use it to fill the base of fruit tarts like Tarte aux Fraises.
- Fill choux buns and top with chocolate to make profiteroles or fill éclairs with a flavoured cream.
- Combine pastry cream with whipped cream and pipe into cream puffs.
- Pipe between layers of sponge in a Boston Cream Pie.
- Fill brioche donuts dusted with sugar with this pastry cream.
- Pipe between layers of puff pastry to create mille feuille, napoleons or custard slice.
🌟 Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Uses basic ingredients. All the ingredients are basic pantry or fridge staples. I provide alternatives where I can.
- Easy to make. With my tips on avoiding lumpy, too runny, split pastry cream, you'll master this cream in your first go.
- Super versatile. Not only can you adjust the thickness of pastry cream, but you can create a myriad of flavour variations that I share below.
- Foolproof recipe. I've tested this over and over to make this the best recipe possible. I want you to master the technique of making home-made pastry cream in your own home kitchen.
🍮 What Are The Different Types of Creams and Custards?
In a pastry chef's recipe book, there are actually many variations of custard/creams. Here's a simple breakdown:
- Baked: Custards can be baked to form Crème Brûlée or Flan desserts.
- Pouring: When made without corn flour, the heated yolks are used to thicken the mixture to form a custard. Custard can be thicker in consistency or have a thinner pouring consistency, like Creme Anglaise.
- Pastry Cream: Once starch is added to create a thicker custard, this turns it into a pastry cream.
It really is the workhorse of a pastry chef! Here are my favourites.
Crème Brûlée is a baked custard that doesn't require starch for it to set. The combination of ingredients allows it to set to a jelly-like consistency in the oven and then a layer of sugar is added and torched to form a hard topping.
Flan or Crème Caramel is baked in an oven dish (flan) or individual ramekins (crème caramel). A simple caramel is made and poured into the base of the dish or ramekin before the custard is poured on top and then baked. The whole dish is then flipped onto a plate and the dish is lifted off to reveal a set custard covered in caramel.
Crème Anglaise. Translated as English cream, this is similar to a simple, thick pouring custard except that it without any starch the result is a thinner consistency. It's typically used to pour over another dessert such as a sponge cake or used in Île Flottante.
Crème Légère is a lightened pastry cream that's a fantastic alternative when you want a cream lighter in texture than traditional pastry cream but with all the flavours of delicious custard. Perfect for choux puffs and eclairs.
Crème Diplomat is Crème Pâtissière mixed with whipped cream but with gelatine added to create more stability to the cream. You can use this type of cream in layer cakes if there is a buttercream dam in between layers as even though it is more stable, the weight of the sponge will cause it to squish out of the layers without the damn.
Crème Mousseline is thick Crème Pâtissière folded with whipped butter so that when it chills, the extra butter will provide a little more structure. Perfect for piping in between puff pastry layers for Mille Feuille or on top of cakes and cupcakes.
Crème Chiboust is, again Crème Pâtissière combined with Italian meringue and commonly and used in a St Honoré Cake.
🧾 Ingredients Needed
While the list is simple and short, there are a couple of pointers on the specific ingredients that you need to know. I also provide substitutions on ingredients where I can.
Eggs - Large egg yolks provide flavour and structure when cooked to the right consistency. 5 yolks are perfect when combined with the richness of the whole milk but feel free to add another yolk if you want an even richer custard. In the UK a large egg yolk weighs 16g/0.56oz - important as egg sizes vary in different countries.
Sugar - Granulated or caster sugar is perfect to make Crème Pâtissière, however, I've used light brown or dark brown sugar as well. The extra molasses in the sugar adds a beautiful caramel note to your pastry cream. I don't like the pastry cream to be too sweet and find ½ cup perfect for this amount of pastry cream.
Milk - Whole milk is best over low-fat or skim milk, as it provides a richer, more well-rounded flavour due to its high-fat content. You can substitute with coconut milk, almond milk, soy milk or oat milk.
Vanilla - this is the flavour that we want to taste predominantly. So use the caviar from a vanilla pod for a maximum, well-rounded flavour. You can use a teaspoon or two of vanilla bean paste as a substitute or vanilla extract at a push (I personally love to see all the little specks of vanilla beans throughout the cream).
Corn Flour - (cornstarch) is needed to thicken the pastry cream. It's perfect as it doesn't alter the flavour of the pastry cream, which plain flour tends to do. However, you can still use plain flour to thicken the pastry cream, but you'll need to add more than corn flour. I have not tested this recipe with plain flour however.
Butter - Only a small amount is needed to add flavour, shine and richness. Replace with plant-based butter if you prefer.
How Much Corn Flour (Cornstarch) To Use
The general ratio of ingredients I use to make Crème Pâtissière is:
1 yolk : 20g sugar : 100ml milk : 10g cornflour : 10 g butter
This makes for a pipeable, stiff pastry cream that you can fill your fruit tart case with and when sliced, the cream will hold its shape for a little while. Obviously with the weight of the fruit on top of the cream, over time the slice will squish out. But to serve up the slice, it will remain a neatly cut slice!
In my recipe card the ratio sits at:
5 yolks : 100g sugar : 500ml milk : 50g corn flour : 50g butter
If you prefer a looser pastry cream then I suggest reducing the amount of corn flour you use to 30-40g.
📖 Variations
Crème Pâtissière is a fantastic cream to flavour with all sorts of ingredients. Here are a few of my favourite flavourings you can use.
- Chocolate: Make a chocolate pastry cream by adding a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder with the cornflour. Then add 100g chopped dark chocolate in with the butter and whisk it all together.
- Coffee: Add two tablespoons of espresso powder or coffee granules to the hot milk to flavour.
- Caramel: Use brown sugar instead of white sugar and make a simple caramel on the side to pour into the cooked custard. You can refer to my Caramel Pie for this.
- Tea-infused: My favourite is to infuse earl grey tea bags into the hot milk. The tea flavour is subtle and delicate. You can use any tea you like.
- Citrus: Add the zest a lemon, lime, orange or grapefruit into the sugar and rub together to release the citrus oils. Once the eggs and hot milk are tempered, then add in the juice. Mix in well and return to the saucepan to heat and thicken.
- Spices: Add in a teaspoon of cinnamon or/and ground ginger and nutmeg for an Autumnal inspired pastry cream.
👩🏻🍳 How To Make Vanilla Pastry Cream
So commonly used in French baking, learning how to make French pastry cream successfully is a skill that has to be learnt! I'm here to show you how!
*Be sure to see the recipe card below for the full ingredients list & instructions!*
STEP 1. Heat the Milk
Slice the vanilla pod in half and scrape the vanilla beans out (Image 1). Add the bean and milk to a small heavy-based saucepan set over medium-high heat. Heat the mixture until it's steaming, and some bubbles appear around the edges of the saucepan (Image 2).
Whatever you do, don't boil it!!! Keep the heat on low, and don't get impatient! Once warmed sufficiently, turn the stovetop off. Set the milk aside for ten minutes to infuse further, then remove the vanilla pod.
STEP 2. Whisk Eggs, Sugar and Corn Flour
In a separate bowl, add your egg yolks and sugar (Image 3). Whisk them together until thickened and pale. This takes about a minute, a little longer if done by hand.
TIP: Did you know that the sugar can dry out and 'burn' the egg yolks? So don't leave them in the bowl together for too long before whisking them.
Add in the cornflour and whisk until combined (Image 4). It will form quite a thick paste at this point.
STEP 3. Temper the Eggs
What does that mean? The milk mixture is warm, and if you add the eggs directly, it will scramble them. Disaster! So, we temper by adding the warm milk mixture to the eggs whilst continuously whisking, which brings the temperature down (Images 5 & 6).
STEP 4. Cook the Crème Pâtissière
Pour the mixture back into it the saucepan (Image 7) and set on low heat.
Carry on whisking whilst the custard heats and thickens. This can take a couple of minutes. As soon as you see a bubble in the custard (Image 8), you should heat it for another minute to ensure the yolks are cooked sufficiently, and then it's done (Images 9 & 10).
NOTE: Don't be impatient and turn the heat up, hoping the thickening will happen quicker. All you'll get is a split custard and bits of cooked egg.
STEP 5. Add in Butter
I recommend passing the mixture through a sieve to remove any possible lumps (Image 11).
Then add the butter (Image 12) and whisk it in until fully melted and combined. The butter adds a beautiful sheen to the cream but also richness. As it cools, it also helps the cream thicken.
STEP 6. Chill the Pastry Cream
This can be done in two ways, slower or quicker method.
- A quicker method is to set the pastry cream bowl over a bowl of cold water and ice (Image 13). Whisk the cream whilst in the bowl set over the ice bath, and the ice bath will bring down the temperature quickly. Cover the pastry cream with plastic wrap that touches the surface (Image 13). Refrigerate the cream until it's cold.
- The slower method is to cover the cream with plastic wrap (Image 14) straight after sieving, let it come to room temperature and then refrigerate.
TIP: The plastic wrap needs to touch the surface of the cream. This helps prevent a skin from forming.
When ready to use the Crème Pâtissière, remove it from the fridge and give it a good whisk. After chilling, the pastry cream will look stiff and lumpy (Image 15). However, with a good whisk and a couple of minutes, the cream will come out smooth and silky, ready to use (Image 16).
💭 Crème Pâtissière Recipe Pro Tips
- Don't whisk the eggs and sugar until ready to temper. When sugar comes into contact with the yolks and is left, it will 'burn' the yolks and cause them to essentially scramble creating unpleasant lumps that won't dissolve into the milk.
- Heat the milk until just simmering around the edges. There's no need to boil it. Heating the milk too aggressively will create too much of a difference between the room-temperature egg yolks and boiling milk.
- When tempering the eggs whisk continuously and add the milk in slowly. The yolks have to increase in temperature and the milk has to cool down whilst whisking. Doing this step too quickly will result in the milk 'cooking' the eggs and causing them to scramble.
- Avoid aluminium or cast iron saucepans to make the pastry cream in. They can react with the ingredients creating a metallic taste in the cream and turning it grey.
- Heat the custard mixture slowly. Once the eggs are tempered and the mixture is back in the saucepan, the custard needs to heat enough for the yolks to cook without scrambling but also for the starch in the cornflour to activate and allow the custard to thicken. Once you see a couple of bubbles- make sure to cook it for another minute.
📋 Recipe FAQs & Trouble Shooting
They contain predominantly exactly the same ingredients of egg yolks, sugar, milk and vanilla. However, Crème Pâtissière contains corn flour (cornstarch) which thickens the custard as it cools. Custard, however, thickens form the egg yolks alone and is of a more pourable consistency.
The pastry cream has been heated up too quickly causing the egg yolk to over cook. Unfortunately, once this happens there is no way to remedy the problem and you'll have to start the process again.
Let's look at why it's curdled. The pastry cream was cooked at too high a heat and cooked the egg yolks to far. Technically the mixture should not reach past 85C/185F. All is not lost, there is a solution. If you see bits start to form then immediately remove the pan from the heat, pour the custard into a clean bowl and pulse it with a handheld blender until smooth. Then return it back to a clean saucepan and continue to heat slowly until it thickens.
This will happen if too much corn starch is added, or you just prefer a looser Crème Pâtissière for the intended application. Once the pastry cream has heated in the saucepan and thickened, pour in a quarter cup at a time of warm milk to help loosen it to your desired consistency. Then continue on with the recipe by passing it through a sieve and adding the butter.
This can happen if you haven't added enough corn flour or if you haven't cooked the pastry cream for long enough.
❄️ Storage and Freezer Instructions
To store: As Crème Pâtissière contains eggs and milk, it can't be left out at room temperature. Pour into an airtight container, place plastic wrap onto the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming and cool to room temperature. Close container with an air-tight lid and refrigerate for up to 5 days.
To freeze: Unfortunately pastry cream using corn starch can not be frozen as the thickening agent with in the corn starch breaks down during the freezing process.
🇫🇷 More French Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Crème Pâtissière (Vanilla Pastry Cream) Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 vanilla bean pod, cut in half with the seeds scraped out., or 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 520 ml whole milk
- 5 large egg yolks, room temperature
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 50 g cornflour (corn starch)
- 50 g unsalted butter, chopped, room temperature
Instructions
- Heat the milk. Combine milk, vanilla bean pod and vanilla caviar into a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat until it begins to simmer and bubbles appear around the edge of the saucepan. Do not boil the milk. Remove the vanilla bean pod.
- Whisk eggs and sugar. Whilst the milk is heating, place the yolks and sugar in a medium-sized mixing bowl and whisk until thickened and pale. Add in cornflour and whisk until combined.
- Temper the eggs. While whisking the yolks continuously, pour in the milk mixture in a slow thin stream and whisk until combined. Pour the mixture straight back into the saucepan and return to low heat.
- Heat the custard. Whilst continuously whisking, (do not stop!), heat the custard on low to medium heat until it starts to bubble and thicken. Heat for a further minute for the cornflour to reach the full point of thickening.
- Add in butter and cool pastry cream. Remove the pan from the heat and pass the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve set over a medium-sized bowl. This will remove any egg lumps. Add the butter to the custard and whisk until melted and combined.
- Chill the pastry cream. Set the bowl over a water bath (a larger bowl filled with cold water and ice). Whisk the pastry cream until it cools, then place plastic wrap directly onto the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Alternatively, cover with the plastic wrap and set aside until cooled to room temperature, then refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hours. When ready to use, remove plastic wrap and whip or beat vigorously until smooth again.
All recipes are developed and tested in Metric grams. I strongly recommend that you bake using digital scales for a more accurate result. I have provided a conversion to US customary in the recipe but please note that I haven’t tested using this method.
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