How to Make Vanilla Pastry Cream (Crème Pâtissière)

Vanilla pastry cream, also known as crème pâtissière, is a rich, thick, creamy custard and it’s used to fill everything from éclairs to Boston cream pie. Making your own homemade pastry cream is incredibly easy – you need just 6 ingredients and about 15 minutes to make it. Here, I share my fail-proof way of making a perfectly silky-smooth vanilla pastry cream. Check out the blog post for the additional troubleshooting guide that includes advice for what to do if your pastry cream is lumpy, too thick or too runny.

Ingredients

480 g (2 cups) full-fat, whole milk
2 tsp vanilla bean paste (You can also use vanilla pods. If using vanilla extract, use 4 tsp.)
6 US large/UK medium egg yolks, room temperature
150 g (¾ cup) granulated sugar
45 g (6 tbsp) cornstarch (US)/cornflour (UK) (If you need the pastry cream to set more firmly, for example for spreading between cake layers in Boston cream pie or for custard slices, you can increase the amount of cornstarch to 52g or 7 tbsp.)
55 g (½ stick) unsalted butter, cubed

Instructions

In a saucepan, cook the milk and vanilla over medium heat until the mixture only just comes to a boil.
While the milk is heating, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl until pale, slightly fluffy and smooth.

Tip: This step is called ‘blanching’ – the sugar protects the egg proteins, preventing lump formation and curdling during cooking.
Add the cornstarch to the egg mixture and whisk well until combined and no clumps remain.
Pour the hot milk in a slow, thin stream into the egg mixture, whisking constantly.

Tip: It’s important that you add the hot milk slowly – this is called ‘tempering’ and it prevents the egg yolks from scrambling. If you added the boiling hot milk to the egg mixture all at once, the eggs would cook and curdle. This way, you’re slowly increasing the temperature of the egg yolks while also diluting them. This helps to achieve a perfectly silky-smooth pastry cream.
Return the mixture to the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, with constant whisking, until thickened and it comes to a boil. This will take about 2-3 minutes. Once the mixture comes to a boil, cook for about 1 minute more.

Tip: This one extra minute of cooking time is important, as cornstarch will reach its full thickening power only if the mixture reaches the boiling point and stays there for about one minute.
Remove the pastry cream from heat and add the butter. Stir until the butter has melted and fully incorporated into the pastry cream.
Transfer the finished pastry cream into a heat-proof bowl. Cover with a sheet of cling film (plastic wrap), and make sure that the cling film is in direct contact with the surface of the pastry cream – this will help to prevent skin formation. Allow to cool completely to room temperature.

Tip: If you don’t want to use the cling film method to prevent skin formation, you can just stir or whisk the pastry cream regularly, every few minutes, until cooled to room temperature.
Refrigerate the pastry cream until needed.
Once you’re ready to use the pastry cream, give it a thorough whisk to smooth it out. It will firm up and set slightly during cooling and chilling, and it might look a bit rubbery initially, but it will smooth out again after a good whisk.

Storage:

The vanilla pastry cream keeps well in a closed, air-tight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

It's best to cover the pastry cream in the container with a piece of cling film (plastic wrap), so that it’s in direct contact with the surface. This will prevent any skin formation.