Pastry cream or créme pâtissèrie (sometimes lovingly called “créme pât”) is the base of a lot of your favorite tarts and danishes. You can place it in a piping bag and fill out the bottom of a pastry crust or even spread it flat in the fridge and use a cutter to slice discs out for various fillings. As it sits in the fridge it thickens, making it the perfect component for so many pastries. 

This creamy deliciousness is also a great way to up your baking cred and impress your friends. When they ask: “What’s in this?” you can say: “Oh it’s créme pât at the base” and badabing badaboom you now look like a professional chef. 

Without further adieu, get to adding this perfect cream to your baking tool belt.

Equipment:

• Bowl

• Medium Pot

• Whisk

• Spatula

• Digital Scale or Measuring Cups 

• Measuring Spoons

Yields*: 1 cup of pastry cream

Ingredients:

• 250g (1 cup) whole milk

• ¼ tsp vanilla extract

• 50g (approx. ¼ cup) granulated sugar

• 50 g (little less than one) whole egg

• 12.5 g (2 tbsp) All Purpose flour

• 12.5g (2 ¼ tbsp) corn starch

• 25g (2-3 tbsp) unsalted butter, cubed

Directions:

• In a medium pot, bring milk and vanilla up to a scald*.

• In a bowl, whisk together your eggs and sugar for one minute.

• Whisk your cornstarch and flour, into your egg/sugar mixture. Whisking for another minute until everything is incorporated.

• Once you milk reaches scalding point, stream in ⅓ of liquid into your egg mixture, whisking constantly. Repeat with another third, whisk, and then the final third, until all is incorporated.

• Rinse your pot with cold water* and wipe out any residue. Return all of the liquid from the bowl, back to the pot.

• Over medium heat, use a whisk to constantly stir the mixture as it thickens. 

• Bring it to a boil and let boil for only one minute stirring continuously so it evenly thickens.

• Remove the pot from the heat and drop in one cube of butter at a time, whisking each in before adding another piece. Repeat until all your butter is added.

• Pour your pastry cream into a bowl and cover the surface of the cream with plastic wrap* before placing in the fridge for a few hours to cool completely. 

• Once cooled, it’s ready to use!

Notes:

• This is a smaller batch version of créme pâtissèrie, feel free to double as needed!

• Scalding point is when you see a rim of bubbles around the edge of your pot of liquid.

• Rinsing your pot with cold water will help the pan to cool down quickly before you add the mixture back to the pot.

• Make sure that the entire surface of the cream is cover in plastic wrap. This ensures that no skin forms on your pastry cream as it cools. Cause thats yuck.

• I received this recipe from Chef Ashley during my patisserie course in Scotland.

Tag @accentgolden in your pastry cream posts. I want to see you master these basics!

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