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Learn how to make Pastry Cream, a classic French stirred custard (crème pâtissière) used to fill cakes, pastries, tarts, and pies. It’s delicious plain or try one of my flavor suggestions.
Pastry cream is basically glorified vanilla pudding, but the best, richest vanilla pudding you’ve ever had. The texture is thicker and more luxurious, while the flavor is softer and tastes like real vanilla instead of something artificial.
It’s useful, too. You can use it in layer cakes, fruit tarts, pies like Boston Cream Pie, and pastries like eclairs. But, you can also use it to elevate any processed dessert requiring pudding into something more homemade.
It takes a few more steps than a box of pudding, but it’s not difficult and worth the effort.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Milk: I’ve also tested this recipe with Almond Breeze Unsweetened Original Almond Milk and it worked perfectly.
- Vanilla: ½ vanilla bean pod, split, or vanilla bean paste may be substituted for the vanilla extract.
- Corn starch: My trick for making a thick pastry cream that’s also gluten-free.
Step-by-step instructions
- In a medium non-aluminum saucepan over high heat, warm milk until tiny bubbles appear on the surface and the milk begins to simmer, about 6 to 8 minutes (about 180 degrees Fahrenheit). Do not boil, and stir to prevent the milk from scalding.
- Meanwhile, In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar. Whisk in cornstarch and salt into the egg mixture.
- While whisking constantly, pour in half of the hot milk.
- Whisk in remaining hot milk and return to saucepan.
- Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens to a firm consistency, about 5 to 8 minutes. Whisk in vanilla.
- Remove from heat. Scrape into a heat-proof bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the surface of the pastry cream.
- Refrigerate the hot pastry cream until chilled, about 2 to 3 hours.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes just over 2 ¼ cups pastry cream, enough for one Fresh Fruit Tart or one Danish Layer Cake.
- Storage: The cream can be made up to 4 days in advance. Store covered in the fridge with plastic wrap pressed directly on its surface.
- Butter: For a buttery flavor, softer texture, and a lovely shine, add 2 tablespoons of butter with the vanilla in Step 3. I tend to keep salted butter on hand (and I prefer the taste) so that’s what I use here, but unsalted butter is fine too.
- Vegan pastry cream: I’ve tested this recipe with almond milk (Almond Breeze Unsweetened Original Almond Milk, to be exact) and it worked perfectly! So feel free to make your next batch of pastry cream dairy-free if you want to. I have not tested it with other kinds of non-dairy milk.
- Chocolate pastry cream: Stir 2 ounces of finely chopped dark chocolate into the pastry cream with the vanilla in Step 3.
- Coffee pastry cream: Add ½ ounce coffee extract to the cream with the vanilla in Step 3.
- Lemon pastry cream: Infuse the milk in step one with large pieces of lemon rind or a few teaspoons of lemon zest. Do not use lemon juice which may curdle the milk.
- Coconut pastry cream: Substitute 8 ounces (1 cup) of the whole milk with an equal amount of unsweetened canned coconut milk.
- Mousseline pastry cream: Whip 6 ounces of heavy whipping cream to stiff peaks and fold into the chilled pastry cream. This will lighten the cream and make a great filling for eclairs or cream puffs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Pastry cream is made of milk, egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla.
Pastry cream is a type of custard, while custard is simply a liquid (often milk) thickened with eggs.
Pastry cream is an important component in many desserts including cakes (layer cakes specifically), pies, tarts, and pastries such as donuts and eclairs.
Maybe recipes call for straining pastry cream through a fine mesh sieve. This leads to the smoothest possible pastry cream that is 100% lump-free. However, I personally skip this step without any negative ramifications.
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Pastry Cream
Ingredients
For the pastry cream:
- 2 cups whole milk (see note 1)
- 6 large egg yolks
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (see note 2)
Instructions
To make the pastry cream:
- In a medium non-aluminum saucepan over medium heat, warm milk until tiny bubbles appear on the surface, about 6 to 8 minutes (about 180 degrees Farenheit). Stir to prevent the milk from scalding.
- Meanwhile, In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar. Whisk in cornstarch and salt. While whisking constantly, pour in half of the hot milk. Whisk in remaining hot milk and return to saucepan.
- Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens to a firm consistency, about 5 to 8 minutes. Whisk in vanilla. Remove from heat. Scrape in to a bowl. Cool 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, or refrigerate (cover with plastic wrap, pressing plastic directly on the surface of the cream).
Notes
- Milk: I’ve also tested this recipe with Almond Breeze Unsweetened Original Almond Milk and it worked perfectly.
- Vanilla: ½ vanilla pod, split, may be substituted for the vanilla extract.
- Yield: This recipe makes just over 2 ¼ cups pastry cream, enough for one Fresh Fruit Tart or one Danish Layer Cake.
- Storage: The cream can be made up to 4 days in advance. Store covered in the refrigerator with plastic wrap pressed directly on its surface.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
Scrumptious
Thank you, Margo! – Meggan
Ultimately a very tasty cream, and even a novice like myself was able to pull it off without too much difficulty. There was a dicey moment where the milk/egg/sugar mix started to get chunky, but I was able to respond quickly enough to keep it from totally overcooking. I will be making this again and using it for all kinds of things.
I put the cornstarch in the milk and seems to have worked.
I don’t care for cornstarch. How much Wondra flour per 6 eggyokes should I use to thicken it.
Thank you.
Hi Dusica, I haven’t tested substituting Wondra for cornstarch in this recipe, sorry! Looking into it though, it seems you would us half as much when a recipe calls for cornstarch, so for 6 egg yolks you would use 2 tablespoons Wondra. If you do try this, please stop back on by and let me know how it turns out! I hope it works and doesn’t ruin your day. – Meggan
I was looking for a thorough recipe on how to make pastry cream and I found it. So yummy I could eat it with my finger.
I’m going to make a pastry cream pie and use the leftover egg whites to make meringue on top of it!