Pastry Cream

5 from 1 vote

Pastry Cream is one of the most important building blocks of French pastry. From cream puffs to eclairs, mille-feuille (Napolean pastry), fruit tarts and our American favorite Boston Cream Pie.

Prep Time15

Cook Time15

Total Time30

Course: Pastry

Cuisine: French

Keyword: pastry cream

Servings: cups

Calories: 681kcal

Author: Helen S. Fletcher

Ingredients

Pastry Cream

1 teaspoons gelatin
1 tablespoon cold water
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean split
1 ⅓ cup very hot milk
4 large egg yolks
½ cup sugar (100 grams)
3 tablespoons flour (26 grams)

Diplomat Cream

1 recipe pastry cream
½ cup heavy cream

Instructions

Soften the gelatin in the water and set aside.
If using the vanilla bean, scrape out the seeds and add to the milk along with the pod; heat the milk until hot but not boiling.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a non-reactive saucepan. Whisk in the flour. Remove the pod from the milk. Add the milk slowly, whisking well and scraping the corners of the pan with a rubber spatula to make sure all of the egg yolk mixture is incorporated.
Place over medium heat and, stirring constantly, bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla (if using extract). Tear the dissolved gelatin into small pieces and stir it into the hot liquid (there is no need to liquefy it, the heat of the mixture will do this for you).
Pour into a storage container, cover the surface with plastic wrap, poke a few holes in it and refrigerate overnight to chill or freeze.
Yield: about 2 cups (490 grams)

Diplomat Cream

Place the cold pastry cream in a bowl. Whisk it until it is smooth. It will be very chunky in the beginning, just keep whisking to smooth it out.
Whip the cream until stiff. Fold it in until it is all incorporated and smooth. This can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 or 3 days before using.

Notes

There is always an abundance of photos to guide you in the post above. If you have questions, look at the photos or read the header of the article. Many of them will be answered there.

As always, I recommend using a scale for accuracy and consistency. Flour, in particular, is difficult to measure by volume. For my recipes, I use 140 grams per cup of unsifted all-purpose, bread or whole wheat flour and 125 grams of cake flour. Others may use different weights so use whatever they suggest.

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It is most important to mix sugar and egg yolks together immediately or they can clump together and become small hard blobs. This happens because sugar is hygroscopic, and as such, it attracts the water from the egg yolks and makes it gelatinize. Once this happens the mixture cannot be reversed and the only option is to throw them away and start over.

Pastry cream needs to be made in any pot that is not aluminum or cast iron until it is coated.

Using flour and gelatin as the thickening agents in pastry cream allows the cream to be frozen.

In the olden days, pastry cream would be made and then it would be shoved through a chinois or strainer. This is actually backwards. Strain it before it is cooked to make your life easier.

Variations

Lemon, Lime or Orange - Peel the rind of a lemon or orange, cut it into large pieces and place it in a pan with the milk. Bring it to a simmer, turn off the heat and bring it to room temperature. Remove the rind and use the milk which is now flavored. For extra flavor, refrigerate the milk and rind overnight. This will give a lot of flavor without making bumps in your pastry cream as adding the grated zest of the fruit.

Coffee - Add a tablespoon of instant coffee or a couple of teaspoons of expresso to the milk when heating it.

Cinnamon - Either steep several cinnamon sticks in the hot milk or add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the pastry cream when making it.

Liqueur - Omit the vanilla and add 2 tablespoons of any liqueur to the finished pastry cream.

Extracts - Whisk in ½ to 1 teaspoon of any extract into the hot, finished pastry cream. Taste and add more to taste. Remember it will not taste as strong when cold.

Chocolate - Add 3 ounces of white, dark or milk chocolate.

Crème Légère or Lightened Pastry Cream is pastry cream that has whipped cream added to it. While the traditional proportions are 2 parts pastry cream to 1 part whipping cream, less whipped cream is often used.

Diplomat Cream is a mix of pastry cream and whipped cream that has been stabalized with gelatin. It’s lighter than pastry cream, and richer than whipped cream. Since my pastry cream already has gelatin in it, adding whipped cream to it makes it Diplomat Cream.

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