Easy Pastry Cream Recipe (Crème Pâtissière)
Delicious and rich homemade pastry cream with a silky texture and vanilla flavor. Also called crème pâtissière, this is a simple recipe that makes a decadent filling for pastries!
Equipment
- mesh sieve or strainer
Ingredients
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100g)
- 1 large egg
- 3 egg yolks
- 3 tbsp cornstarch (30g)
- 2 cups whole milk (16 oz or 480mL)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract (or 2 tsp vanilla bean paste or 1 vanilla pod)
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter (42g)
Instructions
- In a large heatproof mixing bowl whisk together the sugar, egg, egg yolks, and cornstarch. Set aside.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, bring whole milk to a simmer. Continuously whisk the milk to avoid burning.
- Carefully pour 1/4 cup of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly to temper the eggs. Keep whisking until the mixture looks smooth.
- Slowly pour the mixture back into the saucepan through a mesh sieve. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
- Once it starts simmering, about 6-8 minutes, turn the heat to medium-low and keep whisking. You'll notice that it'll become harder to whisk as the mixture thickens.
- After about 3 minutes, remove from heat. Cut the butter into 3 tbsp and place it over the hot pastry cream. Let the butter melt. Once it's melted, add vanilla and stir everything together.
- Transfer to a bowl and cover the pastry cream with plastic wrap, pushing the plastic onto the surface to avoid a skin from forming.
- Once the pastry cream has cooled, keep covered with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 3 days.
Notes
- Vanilla: If you substitute vanilla bean paste for vanilla extract, follow the recipe above. If you substitute a vanilla pod, split the pod lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a knife. Add the vanilla bean at the start of step #2 with the whole milk.
- Milk: The best milk to use is whole milk. Low fat milk can make the mixture runnier. To make this dairy-free, use almond or soy milk and skip adding the butter.
- Temper: Tempering eggs is when you add a small about of hot milk to the egg mixture to heat them slowly so they don't create scrambled eggs! To get perfect pastry cream, add the hot milk slowly and vigorously whisk the mixture.
- Smooth Pastry Cream: Pour the hot cream mixture through a mesh sieve in step #4. It's much easier to get rids of lumps while it's hot.