Vanilla pastry cream or creme patissiere, the most delicious vanilla custard filling for cream puffs, donuts, fruit tarts and numerous pastries, learn how to make pastry cream and a few possible variations.
Pastry cream is a custard that is mainly used as a filling for cream puffs, or fruit tarts, muffins and all kinds of pastries. Vanilla pastry cream is a basic recipe, it can be flavored with a large variety of ingredients, such as chocolate, coffee, hazelnut, fruit syrups, liqueurs, etc.
I have used this recipe for my mini fruit tarts, here is a link to the recipe, click here.
For my chocolate pastry cream recipe, click here
1 1/4 cups (300 ml) milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
2 tbsp (20 grams) all-purpose flour
2 tbsp (20 grams) cornstarch (corn flour)
1/2 tablespoon liqueur (Rum, Grand Marnier, etc.) (optional)
In a medium-sized bowl, mix the sugar and egg yolks together
Sift the flour and cornstarch together, add to the egg mixture and mix until smooth
Meanwhile, split the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds
Into a small saucepan, add the milk, vanilla pod and seeds and bring just to boil
Remove from heat and add about half of milk to egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling
Then pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan with the milk and cook over medium heat until boiling, whisking constantly. When it boils, whisk mixture constantly for another minute or so until it thickens
Remove from heat and whisk in the liqueur if using, add the vanilla extract if not using vanilla bean
Pour into a clean bowl and immediately cover on contact with plastic wrap (lay the plastic wrap right onto the surface of custard) to prevent a skin from forming
Let cool at room temperature then store into your refrigerator until needed
When needed, add the pastry cream to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with an electric mixer, whisk the cream on high speed for about 3 minutes to lighten it and bring in some air
This custard can be stored in the refrigerator up to 3 days
I don’t like to use pure vanilla extract in pastry cream, because I find that it “stains” the cream, instead of being pale yellow, it becomes “brownish”
Whisk vigorously before using to get rid of any lumps that may have formed
If there are pieces of eggs into your custard, pour it through a strainer
For lighter pastry cream, fold in 1/2 cup (120 ml) softly whipped cream to cooled pastry cream
For chocolate pastry cream, click here for my recipe
For coffee pastry cream, add 1/2 - 1 tbsp. instant espresso or coffee powder to the hot milk
For raspberry pastry cream, add 1/4 cup (60 ml) (or to taste) raspberry sauce to pastry cream
Original recipe from Stephanie Jaworski from joyofbaking.com, here is a link to her method, click here.
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