Pastry Cream (2024)

FAQs

What is a pastry cream? ›

Pastry cream, also called crème pâtissière, is a versatile component in a baker's toolbox. Cooked on the stovetop, it's a custard akin to pudding, with a rich taste and a creamy texture that's thick enough to hold its shape.

Put simply, pastry cream is a type of custard. Adding cornstarch to the vanilla custard will give you a thick, firm substance (almost like vanilla pudding) that will hold its shape when piped. Custard that you can pour, which is only thickened with eggs, is actually called crème anglaise.

Bavarian Cream is made from a Crème Anglaise base (milk, vanilla, egg yolks and sugar), thickened with Gelatine and lightened with Whipped Cream. Pastry Cream (or Crème Pâtissière) is relatively similar to a Crème Anglaise but is thickened on the stove with Cornstarch (or sometimes flour).

There are two main, easy to remember differences between crème anglaise and pastry cream: starch and boiling. The methodology and most of the ingredients are the same, except pastry cream incorporates flour or cornstarch and therefore needs to be boiled. This results in a much, much thicker custard.

Pastry chefs use the milk-based custard, which is often thickened with cornstarch, as a blank canvas to add flavors like fruit, chocolate, or coffee into their desserts. At bakeries, pastry cream—also known as crème patissiere—is used to fill sweets like éclairs, Napoléons, and fruit tarts.

Pastry cream is basically glorified vanilla pudding, but the best, richest vanilla pudding you've ever had. The texture is thicker and more luxurious, while the flavor is softer and tastes like real vanilla instead of something artificial.

There's something about a pastry cream that no mousse or ganache can ever replicate. It's smooth and custardy—the perfect texture. You can eat it on its own by the spoonful almost like pudding, but it's terrific in tarts and on cakes.

This Pastry cream is also great for sandwich cookies and cream puffs, profiteroles. Made in just 15 minutes from start to finish and it's honestly a super easy recipe to make. You can store it in a fridge for up to three days or in a freezer for up to three weeks (only if you are using flour in the recipe).

They are similar, but not quite the same. The main difference is that custard is actually less firm. Custard is typically thickened only with eggs (which you might recall is how we made the custard for our Creme Brulee), while pastry cream is thickened with a starch (corn starch, in this instance).

Chantilly cream is made of cold whipping cream or heavy cream, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract. The cream is sweetened and flavored then whipped to medium peaks using a stand mixer or hand mixer.

Are Boston cream and Bavarian cream the same thing? ›

Bavarian cream involves milk, eggs, sugar, and often vanilla extract, the same as Boston cream. But then the two ingredient lists diverge: Bavarian cream includes heavy cream and gelatin, while Boston cream involves cornstarch.

Diplomat cream (crème diplomat in French) is a mixture of equal parts crème pâtissiere (pastry cream) and unsweetened whipped cream. Its history is unclear, but conventional wisdom says the name originated when French leaders served the cream—which they reserved for special occasions—to distinguished Bavarian visitors.

: a thick custard that is made of eggs, sugar, milk, flour or cornstarch, and usually flavoring and that is typically used as a filling for pastries and other baked goods.

What is Curd? Curd is a sort of cream, some people call it spread, and it is made of eggs, sugar, butter, and fruit juice, usually citrus. The most famous curd is the lemon curd, although it can be made of orange, lime, grapefruit, tangerine or even passion fruit.

Pastry cream delivers in flavor — sweet and custard-like — but lacks lightness. Whipped cream is as light as it comes but doesn't have much flavor or stability.

If you have extra, you can always use it to fill some donuts. Does pastry cream need to be refrigerated? Yes! It should always be kept chilled and should be stored in an airtight container for at most three days.

Pastry cream has flour or cornstarch added to it and, therefore, must come to a boil in order to cook out that starchy flavor. Because of this, pastry cream is quite a bit thicker and more pudding-like than anglaise.