Pastry cream

A thick, cooked custard of milk, sugar, egg yolks and starch, usually flavored with vanilla, used to fill pastries and tarts.

Pastry cream: a bowl of thick, glossy, pale yellow vanilla pastry cream (creme patissiere) with a whisk resting in it, a split
  • Fillings, creams, frostings and sauces
  • French

Also called: crème pâtissière

Milk is heated with vanilla, then whisked into egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch or flour, and the mixture is cooked until it thickens and comes to a boil. Because it contains starch, pastry cream is boiled for about a minute while whisking: this cooks out the raw starch taste and keeps the cream from thinning later. It is chilled with plastic wrap pressed onto the surface so no skin forms.

Pastry cream fills éclairs, cream puffs, Boston cream cake and fruit tarts. Folded with whipped cream it becomes diplomat cream; beaten with butter it becomes crème mousseline.

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Related entries

Sources

Written by VanillaGoods in our own words from these sources. Last reviewed October 15, 2026.

  1. 1.6: Custards (Introduction to Baking and Pastries), LibreTexts (Rink and Thibodeaux, Chef John Folse Culinary Institute, Nicholls State University)
  2. Types of Thickening Agents, BCcampus Open Education (Understanding Ingredients for the Canadian Baker)
  3. Picture Perfect Pies, K-State Research and Extension (Walnut Creek Extension District)