Classic Pastry Cream, Smooth and Velvety
Classic Italian pastry cream with milk, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla: smooth, velvety, and lump-free. The base for tarts, choux, and filled cakes.
Want a pastry cream that’s smooth and velvety, without a single lump, the kind that fills tarts, choux, and cakes? Then follow this recipe: it’s the base of home baking, and it comes together in twenty minutes.
Pastry cream is one of the most important base preparations in the kitchen: it fills choux, fills cakes, and cradles fruit on tarts. Just a few ingredients, milk, yolks, sugar, and starch, but a precise technique to get it thick and silky.
It has at least three real advantages: it’s made with simple ingredients, it’s the base of countless desserts, and you can flavor it however you like with vanilla, lemon, or cocoa to change it every time.
The most important tip involves two moves: pour the hot milk onto the yolks a little at a time while stirring, and cook over medium heat without stopping. These two details give you a cream that’s smooth, lump-free, and doesn’t stick to the bottom.
As soon as it’s ready, cover it with plastic wrap touching the surface: you avoid the annoying skin on top and the cream stays perfect until you use it.
Ready? Let’s make pastry cream.
To make this recipe
A small selection of handy tools to keep within reach. Some links may be affiliate links.
Pastry whisk
Useful for whipping egg whites to stiff peaks and for gently folding the mixture without deflating it.
Steps
- Heat the milk in a small pot with the seeds from the vanilla pod and the lemon zest, without bringing it to a boil.
- In a bowl, whip the egg yolks with the sugar until pale, then add the sifted cornstarch and mix until smooth.
- Pour the hot strained milk over the yolks in a thin stream, whisking constantly to avoid lumps.
- Transfer everything to the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring without stopping, until the cream thickens and is about to simmer.
- Remove from the heat, pour the cream into a cold bowl, and cover it with plastic wrap touching the surface. Let it cool completely before using.
Helpful tips
Pour the hot milk onto the yolks a little at a time and keep stirring: that's how you avoid lumps.
Cover the cream with plastic wrap touching the surface as soon as it's done, so no skin forms on top.
For a firmer cream to pipe, increase the cornstarch slightly; for a softer one, reduce it.
It's the base of fruit tarts, choux, filled cakes, and cannoli: flavor it with vanilla, lemon, or cocoa.
Average nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 160 kcal
- Carbohydrates
- 24.0 g
- Sugars
- 18.0 g
- Protein
- 5.0 g
- Fat
- 5.0 g
- Saturated fat
- 2.0 g
- Fiber
- 0.0 g
- Sodium
- 40 mg
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