Classic Pastry Cream

Crème Pâtissière

Pastry cream, or crème pâtissière, is one of the essential foundation recipes in pastry.

Made with milk, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and cornstarch, it has a smooth, creamy texture and a rich custard flavor. Once you learn how to make a good pastry cream, you can use it in many different desserts.

I use pastry cream for éclairs, cream puffs, fruit tarts, tartlets, cakes, trifles, and other filled pastries. It can also become the starting point for other pastry creams and fillings.

The technique is simple, but there are two important things to learn: tempering the egg yolks and cooking the custard thoroughly without scorching it.

Once you understand those steps, pastry cream becomes one of the most useful recipes to have in your pastry collection.

Master this recipe: Pastry cream is a foundation for many other preparations. Once you are comfortable making crème pâtissière, you can use it as a base for flavored pastry creams and more advanced fillings.

Yield:

• 8 -12 servings

• 1200g total

Supplies:

• Mixing bowl medium size or stand mixer

• Spatula

• Whisk

• Scale

Ingredients

• 500ml whole milk

• 125g granulated sugar, divided

• 45g cornstarch

• 5 large egg yolks

• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  or 1 vanilla bean

Steps: 

• Prepare the egg yolks.
  Separate the egg yolks into a medium bowl. Reserve the egg whites for another recipe.

• Combine the yolks and dry ingredients.
  Add approximately half of the sugar and all of the cornstarch to the egg yolks.

• Add a little milk.
  Measure 2 tablespoons of milk from the 500ml and add it to the yolk mixture.

• Whisk until completely smooth and free of lumps.

• Add the vanilla.
  If using vanilla extract, add it to the mixture. If using a vanilla bean, split the bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds.

• Heat the milk.
  Place the remaining milk and sugar in a saucepan. If using a vanilla bean, add the seeds and pod to the milk. Bring the mixture just to a boil, then remove it from the heat.

• Temper the egg yolks.
  Slowly pour some of the hot milk into the yolk mixture while whisking continuously.

  Gradually add the remaining hot milk and whisk until combined.

  Tempering slowly raises the temperature of the yolks and helps prevent them from cooking into scrambled pieces.

• Cook the pastry cream.
  Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium to medium-low heat, whisking continuously.

  Be especially careful to reach the bottom, sides, and corners of the saucepan, where pastry cream can easily stick and scorch.

• Continue cooking until the pastry cream becomes thick and begins to bubble.

• Once thickened and bubbling, continue stirring briefly to ensure the cornstarch is fully cooked, then remove from the heat.

• Cool immediately.
  Transfer the pastry cream to a clean, shallow container.

• Place plastic wrap directly against the surface of the pastry cream. This prevents a skin from forming.

• Refrigerate until completely cold.

Before using, whisk the chilled pastry cream until smooth and creamy again.

Baking with Confidence

Whisk the yolks, sugar, and cornstarch until smooth before tempering. Starting with lumps makes it much harder to achieve a silky finished custard.

Temper gradually. Don't pour all the boiling milk onto the yolks at once.

Keep stirring while cooking. Cornstarch-thickened custard can catch surprisingly quickly on the bottom of the saucepan.

Look for bubbles. Thickening alone isn't quite your finish line. Once the pastry cream begins bubbling, you know it has reached the temperature needed for the starch to properly thicken.

Cover the surface directly. Plastic wrap touching the custard prevents that rubbery skin from forming while it cools.

Storage

Keep pastry cream refrigerated in a covered container and use it while For best quality, use within 3 days and keep refrigerated until needed.

your best homemade custard !