Delicious thick and creamy this easy recipe for pastry cream is the perfect filling for pastries and cakes! Vanilla beans make this Creme Patissiere extra special and beautiful!

Pastry cream or Creme Patissiere has got to be one of my most favorite things to make. It's basically a custard that is so smooth, creamy, and perfectly sweet. I prefer to use fresh vanilla beans or vanilla bean paste to ensure the beautiful vanilla bean flecks, I feel like it gives it that something extra that makes it so special!

This custard is perfect as a cake filling, in tarts, choux pastry, eclairs or cream puffs, or napoleons. Check out my chocolate pastry cream recipe.

If you love vanilla then check out my vanilla bean creme brulee recipe and classic vanilla cheesecake.

vanilla pasty cream in a small glass bowl on top of a striped towel

Jump to:

✏️What are the ingredients?
📖How do you make Pastry Cream?
⏲️ Can you make pastry cream ahead of time?
More pastry cream recipes
Recipe Card
Recipe Ratings & Comments

✏️What are the ingredients?

Large Egg Yolks, save the egg whites for meringue cookies
Granulated Sugar or Caster Sugar
Cornstarch/ Cornflour. This acts as the thickener along with the egg yolks.
Whole Milk
Salt
Butter, cold
Vanilla Bean Paste or Pure Vanilla Extract or a scraped Vanilla Bean Pod

📖How do you make Pastry Cream?

Over low-medium heat cook whole milk in a medium saucepan. Let the mixture cook for a couple of minutes to warm it up - do not boil the milk.

milk in a small pot for a pastry cream recipe

In a medium bowl add the egg yolks, corn starch, salt, and sugar. Whisk for two minutes, the mixture should be much lighter in color.

egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch in a glass bowl

If you want a thicker/ sturdier pastry cream use the 4 tablespoons of cornstarch/ cornflour. This will give you more of a thicker texture pudding consistency instead of the looser Crème Pâtissière.

whisked egg, sugar and cornstarch in a glass bowl with a whisk

Once the milk mixture is warmed slowly stir in a little bit to the egg mixture and whisk to combine. This is tempering the eggs, which prevents the eggs from scrambling! Once the eggs have been warmed by the small addition of milk add all of the milk slowly and whisk to combine.

warm milk added to egg mixture to temper the eggs

milk added to egg mixture for a pastry cream mixture

Add the whole mixture back to the pot you cooked the milk in. Whisking constantly cook over low-medium cook for another couple of minutes. Do not stop whisking or walk away the mixture will slowly, then quickly thicken up. Watch for the mixture to "burp" bubbles- they will pop on the surface. Once this happens take the pot off the heat immediately.

butter and vanilla bean paste added to a custard mixture in a small pot

Add the cold cubed butter and vanilla to help cool the mixture and stop the cooking process. Whisk vigorously to combine.

Let the mixture cool for 2 minutes then pour into an air-tight container and place plastic wrap on top and push directly on top of the cream- this helps prevent a thick skin from forming. Place the container in the fridge to chill for at least three hours or up to three days.

Optional- you could pour the pastry cream through a fine mesh sieve to strain out any clumps to create a super smooth Creme Patissiere . I do not normally do this step.

pastry cream with plastic wrap on top in a small container to prevent a skin from forming

When ready to serve the pastry cream re-whisk to make sure there are no lumps.

⏲️ Can you make pastry cream ahead of time?

Totally, I actually will usually make the Creme Patissiere a day or two before I plan to use it. You can prepare it up to 3 days ahead of time, just make sure it is stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Pastry cream does not freeze well, I do not recommend it.

More pastry cream recipes

One of my favorite flavors of pastry cream is this dulce de leche pastry cream that I used in my dulce de leche napoleon!

Make sure to try my chocolate pastry cream recipe or my coffee pastry cream recipe too!

I love using pastry cream in my mini fruit tarts recipe.

★★★★★ Please let me know if you make this recipe by leaving a star rating and comment below!

Make sure to join our Newsletter and follow us on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

Recipe Card