How to make pastry cream (easy recipe)

A tasty and easy recipe for pastry cream or crème pâtissière. One of those great basic recipes that you can use for endless different recipes.

What is pastry cream?

To start with a simple explanation on what pastry cream is; it’s essentially a type of custard that is thick enough to hold its shape. It’s delicious and can be used for different kinds of fillings. The recipe below is my favorite vanilla pastry cream but there is so much you can do with it.

And the good news is; it is incredibly easy to make. Sure you can buy a ready made bag of powder in the grocery store but trust me when I say it is so much tastier if you make it yourself!

Once you’ve made your own, you won’t be so quick to use a ready-made mix again. Not only is it much tastier, it is also incredibly easy to make.

BAKING TIP: As described at the end of the recipe, the pastry cream will keep for several days in an airtight container.

How to make crème patissière

The recipe for making your own pastry cream is super easy. You use pretty simple ingredients and I will soon be giving you lots of ways to use pastry cream in your favorite recipes too. Cream puffs are just one example of what you can do.

You need the following ingredients:

• sugar – I use fine white granulated sugar
• vanilla sugar – you can use a bit of vanilla bean paste or a vanilla pod as well
• egg yolks – I use medium eggs
• flour – I use all purpose flour
• milk – I use whole milk for the best flavor

First you make your egg mixture by splitting the whole eggs and separating yolk from egg white. Take a medium bowl and whisk sugar, vanilla sugar and egg yolks together. You’re not using the egg whites in this recipe but you can save them for making a meringue later.

Now take a medium saucepan and add the milk. Gently heat the milk until it is hot. Now add a little bit of the hot milk into your egg yolk mixture and whisk till it is incorporated and smooth. While you keep stirring add the remaining milk gradually until you have a smooth milk mixture.

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and turn up to medium-high heat. Keep stirring while you bring it to the boil and keep stirring until it has a custard consistency. Pour the hot pastry cream into a clean large bowl and cover the top of the cream with a piece of plastic wrap. That way you prevent a film from forming on top of the pastry cream. Leave to cool to room temperature before placing it in the fridge to cool completely.

Check the full recipe in the recipe card below. Some of my favorite desserts like this strawberry custard tart are made with pastry cream!

How to add different flavors to the pastry cream

Once you’ve mastered making this delicious vanilla flavor pastry cream you can vary with adding flavors. You can make a lemon pastry cream or a chocolate cream version for instance. Using chocolate milk instead of regular milk will give it a nice chocolate flavor.

Adding a bit of lemon zest will give it a subtle lemon flavor and there are more ways to add flavors. A common used method is to add some extract. Almond extract is a classic but I will be sharing more tips on flavoring the pastry cream later.