Chocolate pastry cream is a luscious twist on classic French crème pâtissière. It's silky-smooth, rich and deeply chocolatey. Made with just 8 simple ingredients, this chocolate custard comes together quickly with the flavour and texture you'd expect from an elegant pastry shop dessert.
Chocolate crème pâtissière is perfect for filling tart shells, choux puffs, eclairs, cupcakes and cakes. It's luscious, creamy, smooth, unapologetically indulgent and one of the foundation recipes here on TBC.
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❤️ Why you'll love it
- Super smooth and creamy
- Rich chocolate flavour - from 2 types of chocolate.
- Just 8 staple ingredients
- Very quick and easy - great for beginner bakers
- It's versatile - great for cakes, pastries, tarts, donuts, or even on it's own
- Make ahead friendly: Will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days.
What is chocolate pastry cream?
A variation on classic French pastry cream, chocolate pastry cream (aka crème pâtissière au chocolat) is a rich chocolate custard made from milk, eggs, sugar, cornstarch and chocolate. It's consistency is thick enough to hold it's shape and is a rich chocolate filling for eclairs, cream puffs, tarts, tartlets, cakes and even donuts.
You can find all the detailed ins and outs of pastry cream on my basic pastry cream post.
Ingredients & substitutions
The ingredients for this chocolate flavoured pastry cream are very simple.
Jump to the recipe card for full quantities and instructions.
- Whole milk: Make sure to use whole milk for the best flavour and creamiest texture. Other versions and milk substitutes work but the flavour and consistency will be affected.
- Egg yolks: You only need egg yolks for pastry cream. You can freeze egg whites and use them for things like pavlova or meringues.
- Sugar: You can use white granulated sugar or caster sugar (aka superfine sugar). I almost exclusively use the latter, just because it's finer so it dissolves quicker or disperses better in other baking.
- Cornflour (US cornstarch): Cornflour (aka cornstarch) is a starch often used for thickening sauces. Here it does double duty by thickening the pastry cream but also stabilising the proteins in the egg yolks which prevents curdling.
- Chocolate: You want good-quality dark chocolate here (70% cocoa solids). This will ensure you get a smooth texture and perfect flavour balance. I specifically use Lindt 70% chocolate here.
- Cocoa powder: Use a good quality cocoa powder as well. I use Dutch processed cocoa powder for a deeper chocolate flavour without the bitterness but regular unsweetened cocoa powder will work too. This just gives more depth of chocolate flavour and also helps to thicken the pastry cream too.
How to make chocolate pastry cream
Chocolate-flavoured pastry cream is incredibly simple to make
Jump to the recipe card for full quantities and instructions.
Whisk egg yolks and cornstarch
In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, cornstarch and half a cup of cold milk.
Heat the milk mixture
Heat milk, sugar and cocoa powder in a saucepan until steaming heavily.
Combine the two
Called tempering, slowly pour the hot chocolate milk mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Doing this slowly ensures the eggs don't curdle.
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Heat the custard
Pour the chocolate custard mixture back into the saucepan and heat it again, stirring constantly so it doesn't form lumps. Once you see big bubbles start to break the surface, continue heating and stir slowly for a full minute. This activates the starch so that the consistency holds after chilling.
Add chocolate, vanilla, butter & salt
Off the heat, whisk in the chocolate, butter, vanilla and salt until fully incorporated.
Storing the pastry cream
Pour your chocolate pastry cream through a strainer into a clean bowl then cover with plastic wrap pressed to the surface. This is to stop a skin forming on top. Chill it until cold.
Using the pastry cream
- Once the chocolate pastry cream is made, you must use it within 3 days.
- It must be chilled before use.
- It will be quite firm straight from the fridge so give it a good whisk to get it smooth and pipeable again.
Uses for chocolate pastry cream
Choc pastry cream is perfect for making chocolate versions of more delicious French fillings including crème chiboust, crème diplomat, crème légère and crème mousseline.
Or serve it au naturel inside pastries like choux puffs, eclairs, custard horns or tart shells. You can even pipe it into donuts or the middle of cupcakes. It's great in trifle too.
If you want to use it between cake layers, increase the cornstarch by about ⅓ to help it keep it's shape under the weight of a cake layer. You can also add a little gelatine to make it stronger.
For all the troubleshooting and technical pastry cream tips,
Tips and tricks
- Temper the eggs gradually: Tempering is a way of adding hot liquid to eggs slowly so that they don't scramble or curdle. Make sure to slowly drizzle the hot chocolate milk into the egg yolks while constantly whisking so the temperature of the eggs increases slowly.
- You must boil the pastry cream: You don't want it to come to a rolling boil like water but once you see big bubbles popping at the surface, let it continue to bubble while stirring slowly for at least one minute. This will activate the starch allowing it to stabilise the pastry cream. If you don't boil it, you'll find your pastry cream turns to liquid after chilling.
- Pastry cream forms a skin on top, if it isn't stored with plastic wrap pressed to the surface.
- Chill before piping - pastry cream should be chilled before piping so that it holds its shape better.
Storage
Chocolate pastry cream must be stored in the fridge with plastic wrap pressed to the surface. You'll need to give it a good whisk before using. It will keep for 3 days in the fridge.
I don't recommend freezing it. It can be done but will thaw into a liquidy mess. If it does, you can save it but it's best to make it fresh.
Chocolate pastry cream is rich and smooth and perfect when you want to create a mouthwatering pastry. Try not to eat it all by the spoonful first.
If you made this chocolate pastry cream recipe,
be sure to leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating below. Thank you!
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Chocolate Pastry Cream
Ingredients
- 500 ml whole milk (2 cups)
- 67 g white granulated sugar or caster sugar (⅓ cup / 2 ⅓oz)
- 1 tablespoon Dutch processed cocoa powder (4 tsp, notes 1)
- ¼ cup cornflour (US cornstarch) (35g / 1 ¼oz)
- 2 egg yolks from large eggs
- 85 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) very finely chopped (3oz)
- 14 g butter salted or unsalted (1 tablespoon / ½oz)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch table salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together ½ cup of milk, the egg yolks and cornflour until smooth and fully combined.
- Pour the remaining 1 ½ cups of milk into a heavy based saucepan, and add sugar and cocoa, then heat on low-medium heat until steaming, stirring regularly to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat.
- While whisking, very slowly pour the hot chocolate milk mixture into the egg mixture in a very slow but steady stream. Don't pour it too quickly or the heat will scramble the eggs.
- You now have a chocolate custard base. Return it to the saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring with a whisk constantly, until you notice it getting quite thick and big bubbles are starting to break the surface. This will happen quite quickly after about 5 minutes so it's important to keep gently whisking increasing intensity as it gets thicker. It can turn out lumpy if you don't.
- Let it boil for a minute, stirring gently with the whisk, then remove from the heat.
- Add the finely chopped chocolate, butter, vanilla and salt. Stir until it is completely melted and combined.
- 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.
- Please take a moment to leave a comment & rating. It's appreciated and so helpful.
Notes
- Tablespoons: I use a standard Australian 20ml tablespoon (equal to 4 teaspoons). Check yours before measuring.
- Store the pastry cream in a container or bowl with plastic wrap pressed to the surface, in the fridge for 3-4 days.
- Chill thoroughly then give it a whisk before use.
- Yields roughly 2 cups. This will fill 10-20 choux buns depending on size and whether you cut them open to fill or not.
- Nutritional information is based on 1 cup.
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