Vanilla Creme Patissiere Recipe

Vanilla Pastry Cream Ingredients

Pastry Cream is made with basic household ingredients you probably already have in your fridge.

• Milk - You need to use full-fat milk (whole milk) for pastry cream for both the flavor and texture to be right. 
• Sugar - Use regular white sugar.
• Egg Yolks - Just the yolks, not whole eggs. The egg yolks are what give custard that wonderful, rich flavor. Use large eggs if you can. 
• Vanilla - You can use vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste for convenience, or for a more authentic crème pâtissière, just a whole vanilla bean pod. Avoid using vanilla essence as it doesn't give the same real vanilla flavor as a vanilla pod or high-quality extract or will. 
• Cornstarch - This helps to thicken the mixture to make a nice thick custard, rather than a runny sauce.
• Unsalted Butter - This is optional to make an enriched pastry cream, you can leave it out if you prefer.

See the recipe card for quantities and full recipe. 

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How to Thicken Pastry Cream

This creme patisserie recipe is a standard thickness and a creamy texture, which is perfect for filling fruit tarts, donuts, choux buns etc. 

You can adjust the consistency of this custard recipe by altering how much cornstarch is added. For a thicker pastry cream, add a little more cornstarch, or for a looser pastry cream, add less. I wouldn't adjust by more than 2 teaspoon either way.

Different Kinds of Custard Filling

• Creme Patissiere - This recipe is for classic creme patisserie, it is thick, pipeable and creamy, often used as a filling for pastries, I use it for my Custard Donuts. 
• Creme Anglaise - Literal translation = 'English Cream', this is the thin, pourable custard that is often poured over desserts in the UK, it is made by leaving out the cornstarch and flour. I use it in my Floating Island Dessert recipe. 
• Crème Mousseline - Creme Mousseline is pastry cream folded with whipped butter to create a thick, stable end result that is often used in entremets and layer cakes. I use it in my Fraisier Cake. 
• Creme Diplomat - This is pastry cream folded into whipped cream to make a lighter, thicker filling. It is often used as a cake filling for gateaux. It is also the filling for these delicious cream-filled donuts.
• Custard Buttercream - Kind of a form of creme mousseline, German Buttercream is basically pastry cream mixed into whipped butter with added sweetener. I use it in my Custard Cake. 

Creme Patisserie Uses

​Here are just some of the ways you can use homemade pastry cream in some of your favorite desserts:

​Tarts - A very popular base for fruit tarts, pipe it into a pastry shell and top with fresh fruit and a glaze, just like my Strawberry Custard Tarts.

Cakes - Use as a filling or in the frosting for layer cakes. It also makes a great custard cupcake filling. 

Pies - Perfect for cream pies like banana cream pie

Donuts - Use as the filling for Boston Cream Donuts or mix with whipped cream for Bavarian cream donuts.

Pastries - Use this for all kinds of pastries such as profiteroles, cream puffs, eclairs, or anything made with pastry!

How to Flavor Pastry Cream

One of the best things about pastry cream is how versatile it is. Classic vanilla pastry cream is amazing on its own, but you can really add any flavor you like to crème pâtissière to make endless flavor combinations! 
Here are a few ideas:

Pistachio Pastry Cream - Stir in some pistachio paste to make Pistachio Pastry Cream.

Chocolate Pastry Cream - Add some finely chopped chocolate at the same time as the butter for a chocolate version.

Lemon Pastry Cream - Add some lemon zest (or any citrus zest) into the milk as it is warming up for a zesty cream.

Coffee Pastry Cream - Dissolve some espresso powder in a dash of hot water and add at the same time as the vanilla. 

Spices - Add spices such as cinnamon or ginger to your pastry cream for a warm, fall-time version.

To Add Liquids

It's best to add liquids such as alcohol, purees etc into the hot milk mixture as you are warming it.

To Add Dry Ingredients

For dry ingredients, you can usually add them along with the sugar and egg yolks, in small quantities. For something like chocolate, chop it finely and add at the end, along with the butter. 

To Add Pastes

To add anything with a paste-like texture such as peanut butter, add it at the very end, as the pastry cream is cooling. 

How long does pastry cream last in the fridge?

Store your pastry cream in the refrigerator, covered in plastic wrap (touching the surface of the pastry cream). It will be good like this for up to 5 days.

I actually like to make my pastry cream 24 hours ahead of time as the vanilla flavor develops overnight and becomes richer.