The Best Vanilla Pastry Cream Recipe
This is my absolute FAVORITE, tried and true recipe for silky smooth, perfect Vanilla Pastry Cream. It’s super simple, remarkably stable, and comes out perfect every time. It will hold its own at room temperature for hours without breaking down, and you can even bake it inside pastries like hand pies.
There are few pastries in this world that can’t be made even better by adding pastry cream. Good pastry cream is silky smooth, flavorful, and more rich than sweet. It should be thick enough to hold its own in-between layers of cake or flaky pastry, pipped into doughnuts, or spread into a tart or pie shell.
What’s the difference between pastry cream and custard?
I feel like this is a tricky question that may have more to do with the area and culture in which you grew up than any sort of “technical” differentiation.
But, essentially, the word “custard” is used to describe any kind of dessert or dessert sauce that is thickened with eggs. Think of it as more of a broad category than any kind of specific food.
Custard sauces, like the kind typically poured over Irish Apple Cake, or the crème anglaise spooned over a rich Chocolate Soufflé, are quite thin and somewhat similar to the consistency of melted vanilla ice cream. For that matter, many kinds of ice cream are technically custard desserts as well. Frozen custard style ice cream, and Italian Gelato, begin with a custard base that is essentially the same thing as crème anglaise.
Oven baked custards like Mexican Flan, Pots de Creme, Creme Brûlée, or Crustless Custard Tart are thick enough to be cut with a knife, while starch-thickened custards are similar in consistency to pudding.
Pastry Cream and American-style puddings are starch-thickened custards made from a simple mixture of milk, eggs, sugar, and flour or cornstarch.
So, there isn’t actually a difference between pastry cream and custard. Pastry Cream IS a kind of custard.
Here’s the problem with most pastry cream recipes…
In general, starch thickened custards like Pastry Cream rely on cornstarch or flour to create a thick, rich, pudding-like texture that holds it’s own, but is still the kind of thing you probably want to eat with a spoon.
Not only are starch-thickened custards thicker than custard sauces like crème anglaise, they are also more stable. This is because starch slows down protein coagulation, making the eggs more resistant to curdling. Even still, there are three common pastry cream problems I wanted to overcome with this recipe:
- Pastry cream can become unstable and “break” (separate) if it gets too cold or sits out at room temperature for too long.
- Pastry cream has a tendency to curdle when baked inside a pastry.
- It’s challenging to add enough thickener (cornstarch or flour) to pastry cream in order to create a pipe-able consistency that will hold its shape and not squeeze out from between the layers of cakes or pastries without ending up with a chalky texture and starchy taste.
Gelatin to the rescue!
The addition of gelatin makes pastry cream thick and sturdy enough to hold up between layers of a flaky Napoleon, as a filling for a layer cake, or piped into chocolate eclairs or cream puffs (profiteroles). Even better, gelatin will remain stable at room temperature and does not curdle when baked. 🙌
So, for example, you can confidently fill a wedding, birthday, or anniversary cake with pastry cream, even if you know it will need to sit out at room temperature for several hours, and NOT worry about the filling breaking down and turning to liquid mush inside your cake.
Or, as I have done many times, confidently serve lovely little amaretto custard and fruit tarts at a brunch open house, placing them on the serving table at 9am and know that they will still be perfectly sliceable at 2pm.
But the really awesome thing about adding gelatin is that it allows you to bake it.
Two of my favorite desserts of all time are filled with pastry cream BEFORE you bake them:
- Strawberries and Cream Pie includes a thick layer of pastry cream topped with fresh strawberry pie filling inside a flaky double pie crust. It’s bright, and creamy, and absolutely screams summer and picnics and sunshine.
- Apple Butter and Pastry Cream Hand Pies. These buttery little hand pies are filled with almond pastry cream and apple butter. They are flaky, creamy, & packed with warm apple flavor.
For both of these desserts, I have received emails from skeptical bakers asking if I’m sure the pastry cream should be added before baking. It’s a good question because usually the answer would be no. In this case, thanks to the awesome properties of gelatin, the answer is YES! Try it. You’ll see.
Important note if you’re going to use this pastry cream in something that will be baked: Do NOT add the whipped cream. This recipe instructs you to chill the cooked custard in the refrigerator for about three hours then beat in some whipped cream. The whipped cream lightens the pastry cream, giving it a lovely, airy texture, without interfering with it’s sturdy, rich structure.
However, if you are going to use this pastry cream to fill a pie, or any other pastry that will be baked, it’s important to leave out the addition of the whipped cream which could “melt” while baking.
Use this Pastry Cream to make…
- Cream Filled Doughnuts
- Salted Caramel Cream Filled Doughnut Holes
- Cream Puffs (Cream Filled Profiteroles)
- Chocolate Eclairs
- Butterscotch Eclairs
- Apple Butter and Pastry Cream Hand Pies
- Classic French Napoleon
- Olive Oil Cake with Mascarpone Cream
- Strawberries and Cream Pie
- Peaches and Cream Crepe Cake
- Blackberry and Amaretto Custard Tarts
- As the filling for Vanilla Layer Cake or Devil’s Food Layer Cake
… or anything that might benefit from a bit of creamy vanilla lusciousness. So, everything. 🙂
Pastry Cream is a Building Block Recipe.
Building Blocks are tried-and-true recipes that I find myself coming back to time and time again, sometimes to make them exactly as is, and sometimes as a starting point for something new. -> More Building Block Recipes.
If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or take a picture and tag it #ofbatteranddough on Instagram.
Happy baking!
All-Time Favorite Pastry Cream
This is my absolute FAVORITE, tried and true recipe for silky smooth, perfect Vanilla Pastry Cream. It’s super simple, remarkably stable, and comes out perfect every time. It will hold its own at room temperature for hours without breaking down, and you can even bake it inside pastries like hand pies.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin
- 3 tsp cold water
- 6 large egg yolks (*See note below for ideas about what to do with the egg whites.)
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream (*See note below if you are going to use this pastry cream in something that will be baked.)
Instructions
- In a small dish, stir the gelatin and water together to combine. There should be just enough water to moisten the gelatin, creating a rubbery paste. Set aside.
- Add the egg yolks and cornstarch to a medium size bowl and whisk to combine.
- Set a 1 or 2 cup glass measuring cup next to the stovetop.
- Add the milk, sugar, and salt to a 4-quart or larger heavy bottomed saucepan and whisk to combine. Cook over medium heat, whisking frequently, just until it barely begins to boil.
- Pour 1 & 1/2 cups(approximatly) of the hot milk into the glass measuring cup. Slowly pour the hot milk from the measuring cup into the egg yolks, pouring slowly, and whisking constantly. Then, pour everything back into the saucepan and set it over medium-low heat. (You want to continue to heat the eggs slowly so they won’t scramble.)
- Cook, whisking constantly, until the custard is thick and begins to boil. As soon as it begins to boil, remove from the heat and whisk for about 20 seconds longer. Pour the pastry cream into a bowl.
- Break the gelatin into small pieces, dropping them into the hot pastry cream. Whisk until the gelatin is completely incorporated, about 20 seconds. Whisk in vanilla. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap over the surface of the pastry cream.
- Refrigerate for at least 3 hours and up to 24 hours.
- Using an electric mixer, whip the heavy cream until medium peaks form. (*See note below if you are going to use this pastry cream in something that will be baked.)
- Remove the cooled pastry cream from the refrigerator and add to the whipped cream. Beat on medium speed with an electric mixer to combine, about 1 minute. The pastry cream is now ready to use in any recipe.
Notes
If you are going to use this pastry cream in something that will be baked, like a pie, DO NOT add the whipped cream.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 9 Serving Size: 1/3 cupAmount Per Serving: Calories: 215Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 172mgSodium: 143mgCarbohydrates: 18gFiber: 0gSugar: 15gProtein: 7g
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Is there a secret to the gelatin? I broke it up small and put it in hot pastry cream and wisked like crazy but I still ended up with hundreds of little gelatin lumps in my pastry cream
Hmmm…. I’m not sure why that happened Alanna. Gelatin should dissolve pretty easily with heat. Perhaps the gelatin was old? Another option is that the tiny lumps weren’t gelatin at all, but egg yolks that had scrambled slightly. This is easy to do – It’s definitely happened to me! The trick to keeping the eggs from scrambling is to make sure to stir the pastry cream constantly while it cooks and to make sure the heat isn’t to high – medium to medium low is as high as you want to go. As soon as the mixture begins to boil, cook stirring vigorously for only 30 seconds before removing from the heat and continuing to stir for at least another 30 seconds. If the yolks sit on the bottom of the pan they scramble really quickly. Does this help?
what always works for me and indeed everyone ive exchanged cooking notes with is to mix gelatine in 2-3 tablespoons of tap water to form a thick jelly and microwave for 7-8 seconds on high. At this point it would have turned into a thin liquid and is easily incorporated into whatever you desire.
That’s a great tip, Mary! Going to have to try that myself. Thank you!
thanks for the comments. The lumps were definately the gelatin and not eggs. I have made pastry cream successfully many times but never with gelatin so I wanted to try it. I will try Mary’s tip.
Let me know if the tip from Mary makes a difference, Alanna. If it works for you, I’ll add a note in the recipe about this. Thank you!
Do you mix the gelatin with 3 teaspoons or 3 tablespoons? I came across a similar problem, and thought maybe it needed more liquid to bloom in. Thanks!
Hi Kate! 3 tsp of water is all you need, although if you added a bit more I don’t think it would hurt the pastry cream at all. 3 tsp is just enough to moisten all the powder and create a sort of gel that can be broken apart into the warm pastry cream. Does that answer your question?
Hello!, I am new In batter and dough but really like the approach you have to your recipes and I coincide with you in the IMBC (that is what brought me here) and bout pastry cream. I truly Enjoy your blog. So thank you for sharing knowledge. About this recipe, I wonder if this pastry cream is consistent?, I am about to do a layered cake but I have that concern, I bet it will be tasty.
Well, thank you!
Hi Jess! I am so glad you found me. 🙂 I’m not totally sure what you’re asking… I’m not sure if consistent is the right word? But if you’re thinking of using this as a filling for a layer cake, go for it! It will be delicious. I would probably not add the whipped cream at the end if making this as a layer cake filling. I think doing so will make the pastry cream too soft and it might run out the sides of the cake. Does that answer your question? xo
Yes! 😀 Thank you for taking you time to answer me. yeah I meant to say firm.I will be also trying your vanilla cake. I like to bake this kind because It reminds me the cakes we do in mexico layered with pastry cream. I will let you know how that goes 😉 have a good day. See you!
Hi, just found your recipe and can’t wait to try it. You state that a plus to adding gelatin is that you can freeze the pastry cream! How long can it stay in the freezer and is there any downside to the consistency of it when you take it out to use it?
Thanks!
Hi Deb! Yes – the gelatin stabilizes the pastry cream allowing it to be frozen. I’ve never frozen it for longer than a couple of weeks, but if it’s in a sealed container, I’d think it would be ok for up to 6 weeks. I’ve never had this happen, but if the pastry cream splits after thawing, another baker told me that this works like a charm: Put the thawed pastry cream into a saucepan and heat it over the lowest possible heat, stirring constantly with a whisk. When the pastry cream is warm, heat 1 tbsp of whole milk in the microwave until very hot (about 15-20 seconds). Add the milk to the pastry cream, and keep whisking to incorporate. This should bring the pastry cream back together.
Like I said, I’ve never had any issues with the pastry cream splitting after it thaws, but I’ve spent enough time reading through baking forums to know it can happen. I can’t wait to hear what you think of this recipe. I’ve made it hundreds of times and find it nearly indestructible and always delicious. 🙂 Please let me know if you have any other questions! xo
How long can this pastry cream last at room temperature as a filling in a cake?
Hi Terri! There’s a safe answer and a real life answer to this question. I’ll give you both. 🙂 Pastry cream can be left out at room temperature for 4 hours without any worries about it not being safe to eat. Having said that, I’ve left cakes filled with pastry cream (and eclairs and profiteroles and doughnut holes) out for much longer than 4 hours with no ill effects or change in consistency. I think the main thing you want to pay attention to is the temperature of the room. If it’s the middle of summer and a cake filled with pastry cream is sitting outside in the sun, you should probably eat it pretty quickly. If it’s being held inside at somewhere around 70 degrees, you’re probably fine for several hours.
Does that help? Please let me know if you have any other questions! And, I’d love to hear what you think of this pastry cream after you make it! xo
Ohh this pastry cream is so, so good! I love the creamy vanilla flavor – definitely a go-to recipe now!
I am so happy to hear that you like this recipe Lauren! Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know! xo
Wow, what a great recipe! I can’t believe that it can be left out of the fridge for hours, used as is or even baked inside desserts! Very cool. I think I’ll be making some donuts for this delicious pastry cream!
Thank you so much Aleta! I can’t think of a better excuse to make doughnuts! xo