Vanilla Pastry Cream (Crème Pâtissière)

Silky-smooth and bursting with vanilla flavour, this classic vanilla pastry cream (aka crème pâtissière) is the foundation of many French desserts. Made with just a handful of simple ingredients, it's a rich, custard that's perfect for filling everything from cakes to pastries (or devoured straight from the bowl).

This recipe walks you through the easy process, step by step, from tempering the eggs to achieving that perfect thick, creamy consistency. With helpful tips for avoiding lumps, storage advice and creative variations to take your desserts to the next level.

What is crème patissière?

An essential recipe for any pastry lover, crème pâtissière (French for pastry cream) - is a rich custard made from milk, eggs, sugar and cornstarch and infused with vanilla. Often referred to as crème pat (pronounced krem pat) it's thick enough to hold it's shape making it perfect for filling eclairs, cream puffs, fruit tart, cakes and even donuts.

In French pastries, vanilla pastry cream is also a base for other fillings including crème chiboust, crème diplomat, crème légère and crème mousseline.

Ingredients & substitutions

The ingredients for pastry cream are very basic and readily available.

Jump to the recipe card for full quantities and instructions.

• Whole milk: You'll want whole milk here for the best flavour. Though this vanilla pastry cream will work with lower fat milk and even some milk alternatives, the flavour, texture and body of the pastry cream will change. Whole milk gives the best body and richness.
• Egg yolks: Hold the egg whites for this recipe, in fact freeze them for making meringues or pavlova another time, because all you need are the yolks for this recipe. I use a slightly higher ratio of milk to eggs for my version and it results in the perfect texture and flavour. Too many egg yolks can result in an eggy flavour.
• Sugar: Caster sugar (aka superfine sugar) or white granulated sugar will work here.
• Cornflour (US cornstarch): The cornflour, known as cornstarch in some places, is a very fine starchy flour often used as a thickener.
• Vanilla: You'll want quality vanilla beans or vanilla bean paste here (I use the latter). At the very least, use a pure vanilla extract but you will be missing all those lovely little vanilla flecks.

How to make pastry cream

I've been making this vanilla pastry cream for years now and it's a rock solid recipe that I use again and again. It's easy to make, just make sure to follow the steps precisely.

Using the pastry cream

Once the pastry cream is cold, you need to use it within 3 days. It will be quite firm coming out of the fridge so give it a good whisk to get it smooth and pipeable again.

What to do with pastry cream

This vanilla pastry cream is great for piping into pastries like choux puffs, eclairs and custard horns, inside mini tart shells and topped with fruit, piped inside donuts.

When using between cake layers, you may want to add slightly more cornstarch to help it keep it's shape once sliced or it might gradually ooze out of the cake once cut. A buttercream dam is always helpful when using it in cakes as well. If you want to really make sure it's stable, add a little gelatine to the mix.

Pastry cream / crème patissière is also the base for many other pastry fillings;

• Crème chiboust = pastry cream + meringue
• Crème légère = pastry cream + whipped cream
• Crème diplomat = pastry cream + whipped cream + gelatine
• Crème mousseline = pastry cream + whipped butter
• German buttercream= pastry cream + extra sugar + whipped butter

Tips and tricks

• Temper the eggs gradually: Tempering eggs is a method of adding hot liquid to eggs gradually to prevent them from scrambling. It's very easy; just make sure to drizzle the hot liquid into beaten eggs slowly as you whisk. This technique brings the temperature of the eggs up slowly so they don't scramble.
• Boiling the pastry cream: When it comes to a boil, you'll see big bubbles breaking one or two at a time on the surface. It won't come to a rolling boil like water would and if you try to get it to that point you risk overcooking the eggs and giving it an eggy flavour.
• Store with plastic wrap pressed to the surface - this stops the pastry cream from forming a skin on top
• Chill before piping - pastry cream can be used once room temperature but will pipe more easily if chilled.

Troubleshooting

How to flavor pastry cream

• Chocolate: Using chocolate in pastry cream is a great way to add more flavour. Dark chocolate and white chocolate make lovely versions of pastry cream.
• Coffee: Add instant coffee powder to taste, to the milk as it heats.
• Citrus: For a subtle citrus flavour, add finely grated lemon zest, orange zest or lime zest to the milk as it heats (to taste).
• Strawberry: Add freeze dried strawberry powder to the finished pastry cream (to taste).
• Raspberry: Add freeze dried raspberry powder to the finished pastry cream (to taste).
• Matcha pastry cream: Add matcha powder to taste to milk as it heats.
• Chai pastry cream: Steep chai tea bags in the milk after it has heated for 10-15 minutes then discard. Reheat the milk and proceed.
• Caramel pastry cream: Whisk ½ a cup of warm caramel sauce into the warm pastry cream before chilling.

FAQs

Vanilla Pastry Cream Planning (Prep Time & Storage)

Once you've made it, you need to know how to store pastry cream.

Pastry cream is best stored in the fridge with plastic wrap pressed to the surface to stop a skin from forming. You'll need to give it a good whisk before using.

While it's not advisable to freeze it - since it just splits into a disgusting-looking water and curdled-looking bits on thawing - it is possible to recover that silky-smooth texture even after being frozen.

1. Let the vanilla pastry cream thaw at room temperature for 3-4 hours or in the fridge overnight.
2. Add the thawed pastry cream and the watery part to a heavy-based saucepan over low heat and whisk as it gently heats.
3. Once it's warm to the touch, whisk a little more vigorously until it's smooth and reconstituted.