Pastry Cream (Crème Pâtissière) (2024)

September 30, 2021 Updated October 7, 2021 BySam 89 Comments

My homemade pastry cream recipe (AKA crème pâtissière) comes together easily and flawlessly. I’m sharing my simple technique that requires no tempering (!) for silky smooth results. You only need a few common ingredients to make this rich, decadent filling that’s perfect for eclairs, cream puffs, and more! Recipe includes a how-to video!

Crème Pâtissière (No Tempering Required!)

Often tucked inside chocolate covered éclairs or cream puffs or layered into fruit tarts, silky smooth pastry cream (also called crème pâtissière or crème pât) has a reputation for being not only irresistible, but also a bit complicated and fussy.

For this reason, far too many home bakers shy away from making their own and reach for box-mixes of powdered pudding instead. I get it, tempering eggs especially can be a bit intimidating and I won’t say that there’s no technique or extra attention required.

Traditional recipes (including the one I shared previously on the blog) rely on tempering the eggs to yield a glossy, uniform cream. This process, while important, can be complicated and stressful, and I wanted quicker, easier results (without sacrificing anything in terms of the end result!).

Today, my recipe uses no fussy egg tempering and is much simpler and faster than the method you may be familiar with. The results are exactly the same: rich, creamy, smooth pastry cream… and you use fewer dishes!

Let’s get started!

What You Need

Here are a few of the key ingredients that make this recipe so rich and velvety:

• Milk. I recommend using whole milk for the best, creamiest texture in the finished product, but some readers have reported using low fat milk with success! I would anticipate a thinner end product if you opt for a lower fat milk.
• Heavy cream. “Heavy cream”, “whipping cream”, or even “double cream” will work here. This lends a rich creaminess to the finished product. If you’re in a pinch, you can substitute both the milk and cream for half and half.
• Egg yolks. You only need the egg yolks for this recipe. Be sure to whisk them until they’re nicely broken up.
• Cornstarch. This assists in thickening our crème pâtissière without contributing a floury flavor or gluey texture that can happen when using flour as a thickener.
• Sugar. Unlike boxed puddings and fillings, this cream isn’t overpoweringly sweet. You’ll use just a small amount of sugar to let the vanilla and cream flavors shine!
• Butter and Salt. I use unsalted butter and add salt to best control the flavor.
• Vanilla. Pastry cream is neither overly sweet or overpowering in flavor, but it does have a quintessential vanilla taste. Now is the time to break out the good stuff, Use your homemade vanilla extract, if you have some! Vanilla beans will also work wonderfully (and leave beautiful little specks throughout!) and I’ve included recipe notes on how to use either..

SAM’S TIP: You’ll have some extra egg whites after making this recipe. While you could just toss them, I suggest using them for one of my egg white recipes! Scroll down to the recipe notes for a few recipes that use up leftover egg whites.

Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

How to Make Pastry Cream (Crème Pâtissière)

If you’ve made my banana pudding before, you’ve already made pasty cream this way. I removed the tempering step from my original recipe to make this process simpler. To avoid overcooking or scrambling your eggs, you need to make sure you go slow, keep the heat at medium (do not turn it up to make things go faster), and stir constantly. This requires patience and a diligent eye, but is otherwise very simple.

1. Combine wet ingredients in a large measuring cup. In a medium saucepan, whisk together sugar, salt, and cornstarch. While still whisking the dry ingredients, very slowly pour in the wet ingredients, whisking to combine and avoid any lumps.
2. Cook mixture over medium heat until thickened, whisking constantly. You’ll know the cream is ready when it’s approaching a pudding-like consistency; your whisk should leave a trail through the cream and it should coat the back of a spoon.
3. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a fine mesh strainer (this is important to catch any lumps or small bits of cooked egg!) into a heatproof bowl.
4. Whisk in butter and vanilla until smooth. I recommend covering the surface of the crème pâtissière to prevent a skin from forming before placing it in the fridge to chill for a few hours before using.

SAM’S TIP: Don’t crank up the heat to speed up the cooking process. Not only is this a guaranteed way to cook your eggs, but slowly cooking the sugars is also critical to allow the sugar to melt properly and allow the crème pâtissière to thicken to the correct consistency. Heat that’s too high will leave you with a runny pastry cream or, possibly worse, scrambled eggs!

Frequently Asked Questions

Enjoy!

More Recipes You Might Like

• Homemade Whipped Cream
• How to make Chocolate Ganache
• Banana Cream Pie
• How to Make Puff Pastry

Let’s bake together!I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe andvideobelow! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me onInstagram, and you can also find me onYouTubeandFacebook

Here are some recipes that use pastry cream!