Pastry cream, or creme patissiere, is a silky smooth staple in pastry desserts making it the perfect filling for eclairs, cream puffs and fruit tarts.
When I first started blogging, I was a dry sponge ready to absorb everything and anything food related. When my kids were babies, I was parked on the couch with a sleeping tot in my arms, watching Sara Moulton make soup or Emeril Lagesse make tiramisu.
I cooked from my favorite cookbooks and developed the confidence to experiment and create my own recipes. I even took an online course to further develop my culinary skills.
Baking and creating desserts is still one of my favorite parts of my job. I am proud of my olive oil cake and all of my many pomegranate recipes. I was thrilled that my culinary classes had me go back to the basics and learn the classics.
Making a vanilla pastry cream is one of those skills I was thrilled to learn. Making a custard teaches you the patience needed to be succeed in creating pastries.
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Recipe highlights
- Simple: A basic vanilla custard, or pastry cream, is one of recipes anyone who enjoys baking should learn. It is basically eggs, sugar and milk, and it does not require fancy equipment to create.
- Versatile: You can use your chilled pastry cream in so many ways. Keep it simple and serve it with fresh fruit. You can also drizzle it over a pound cake, use it as a filling for your fruit tart, or pipe it inside a pastry.
- Texture: This pastry is silky and smooth. Tempering the eggs and whisking constantly keeps it from getting lumpy. I share lots of tips on how to create a lump free pastry cream.
- Flavor: This recipe creates a sweet vanilla pastry cream. I typically serve about ¼-cup per person, especially when pairing it with fresh fruit. It’s a wonderful recipe that can stand on its own or used with another treat.
Ingredients you need
- Egg Yolks: Pastry cream’s richness comes from egg yolks. Large eggs are used in this recipe.
- Whole Milk: Pastry cream is not a low fat dessert! The fat in the milk and eggs provides the rich and creamy texture.
- Granulated Sugar: Granulated sugar is used to sweeten this recipe not powdered.
- Vanilla Extract: The primary flavor in this cream is vanilla, so be sure to use a high quality vanilla extract. You can also use other extracts, like almond.
- Flour: Some recipes use cornstarch to thicken the pastry cream, but this recipe uses all purpose flour.
Step-by-step directions
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- Simmer the milk. Heat warm milk and vanilla extract until just before the boiling point.
- Whisk eggs. In a large bowl whisk egg yolks and sugar together until pale yellow. Whisk in all purpose flour until just combined.
- Temper the eggs. Continue whisking and slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture. Do this a little at a time, so as not to curdle the eggs.
- Add eggs to milks. Pour mixture back into the saucepan and slowly bring it close to the boiling point, stirring constantly. Do not let it boil or the eggs will curdle and you will have a lumpy sauce. When pudding has thickened, remove from heat and allow to cool 10 minutes.
- Chill. Place a piece of parchment paper on the surface of the sauce to prevent a skin from forming and cool to room temperature. Chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours or until ready to serve.
Expert Tips and Recipe FAQS
The longer you cook the pastry cream, the thicker it gets so you control the final texture you want. You do need to keep an eye on the cream while it is simmering so it doesn’t turn lumpy.
The key to making homemade puddings, custards and creams is patience. You want to heat everything over medium heat because you don’t want it to boil or curdle. You need to whisk regularly to keep the mixture smooth.
This might sound like a lot, but honestly it is fairly easy to whip up.
Storing/Freezing Instructions
TO STORE: If you use fresh and newly purchased ingredients, pasty cream can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. Remember, eggs and milk are perishables and have expiration dates.
TO FREEZE: Although you can freeze pastry cream, the texture will not be the same once thawed. I do not recommend doing this.
Pastry cream, or creme patissiere, is more of a custard than a pudding. Although they are very similar, pastry cream is usually more rich than the typical American pudding. They also use different thickeners.
Vanilla pastry cream can be used in a number of different ways. Drizzle over a cake or serve it with fresh fruit. You can also use it for the filling of a fruit tart or piped into pastries, like eclairs, cream puffs and donuts.
The key to a smooth and silky pastry cream is to heat it slowly. Temper the eggs by adding a little warm milk and stirring it into the egg mixture. This keeps it from curdling. Stirring the mixture constantly with a whisk will also prevent lumps. If lumps do form, you can pass the hot custard thru a sieve and then chill.
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Vanilla Pastry Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cups milk
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 egg yolks
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup all purpose flour sifted
Instructions
- In a saucepan over medium-high heat warm milk to just before the boiling point.
- Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.
- In a large bowl whisk egg yolks and sugar together until pale yellow.
- Whisk in all-purpose flour.
- Continue whisking and slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture. Do this a little at a time, so as not to curdle the eggs.
- Pour mixture back into the saucepan and slowly bring it close to the boiling point, stirring constantly. Do not let it boil or the eggs will curdle and you will have a lumpy sauce.
- When pudding has thickened, remove from heat and allow to cool 10 mins.
- Place a piece of parchment paper on the surface of the sauce to prevent a skin from forming and cool to room temperature.
- Chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours or until ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
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Written by Laura Bashar
Hi, I’m Laura, a certified professional cook and cookbook author living in San Diego. I have been sharing my family’s favorite recipes inspired from all over the world since 2008. Let’s cook up something fun!
I didn’t know Sophia Loren was a good cook and a cookbook author! This cake looks so good with fruits and cream… yum!
In her cookbook she tells how she cooked on the set and what her cast mates’ favorite foods were. It’s a fabulous cookbook!
I love that movie, too! I don’t know why, but those old movies are so much to watch.
The vanilla cream will be perfect for when all the fresh fruit hits this summer! yum!! The last two pics of Sophia look like one of my cousins and , yes, I’m totally jealous 🙂 Haven’t seen Houseboat yet, but love Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in Brining up Baby 🙂