1,569 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...

Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream)

Name: Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream)
Prep time: 29 min
Cook time: 7 min
Total time: 36 min
Yield: 720 g
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 6 egg yolks; 100 g caster sugar; 500 ml milk; 40 g cornflour; 1 vanilla pod

Quite similar to crème anglaise but much thicker. It is used in many pastries like choux pastry (pâte à choux) or millefeuille.

786 K 31× 4.0/5 (126 reviews)

40 min.

Easy

3.75 €

720 g

5 Ingredients

Last modified on: January 27^th 2017

For 720 g, you will need:

1 6 egg yolks
2 100 g caster sugar
3 500 ml milk
4 40 g cornflour
5 1 vanilla pod
Total weight: 765 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation: 30 min.

Cooking: 7 min.

All in all: 40 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 20 min.

Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream) : Stage 1

Pour 500 ml milk into a pan, and add the inside of 1 vanilla pod (the little black seeds) after carefully scraping them out with the tip a knife.

Bring to the boil on medium heat. As soon as it boils, take off the heat, cover and leave vanilla to infuse 10 minutes.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 2 min.

Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream) : Stage 2

Meanwhile, put 6 egg yolks in a bowl and add 100 g caster sugar, and without delay beat to mix thoroughly.

It is not necessary to beat for a long time to whiten, so it can be done by hand with a whisk in 1 minute.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 3 min.

Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream) : Stage 3

Add then 40 g cornflour, and beat again with the whisk.

Stage 4 - ⌛ 2 min.

Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream) : Stage 4

Then slowly pour the hot milk onto the mixture while beating continuously until thoroughly mixed.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 2 min.

Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream) : Stage 5

Transfer the mixture back into the pan.

Stage 6

Unlike for crème anglaise or crème brûlée, it is not essential to remove the froth, it will get mixed in during cooking.

But it's better...

Stage 7 - ⌛ 7 min.

Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream) : Stage 7

Put the pan on low-medium heat, and cook gently while beating continuously.

It's important to scrape the whisk over the bottom of the pan to avoid custard sticking.

Stage 8

Cooking is complete when custard is of a good consistency, in other words like a thickish purée, but not too firm..

The custard thickens quite quickly, especially if the heat is high, so do not to hesitate to take pan off heat, while continuing to stir, if this happens.

Also, remember that your custard will continue cooking for a little while after being removed from the heat, so bear this in mind when deciding at what point to stop...

Stage 9

Once custard is finished, cover the pan to avoid a skin forming.

Later, if you use the custard cold and it is too stiff, beat one or two tablespoonsful of cream into it vigorously.

Stage 10

When finished, cream is very hot, if you want to use it immediately you should cool it.

The easier solution is to put it in the fridge, but it's quite long.

The best way is to proceed as chefs, and spread it on a plastic film (to protect from the air) then put it in the fridge.

Stage 11

This short video show you how to proceed.

Remarks

It's possible to flavour confectioner's custurd with other things rather than vanilla: coffee, alcohols, etc... You can also make a chocolate custard by folding about 100 g of chocolate, broken in small pieces into the custard with the whisk while it is still hot.

Keeping: Several days in the fridge, in a closed jar.

Source: After Gaston Lenôtre.

Nutritional information

	Proteins (gr)	Carbohydrates (gr)	Fats (gr)	Energy value (in k-calories)	Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe	48 RDI=74 %	145 RDI=55 %	64 RDI=88 %	1,355 RDI=68 %	5,676 RDI: 68 %
Per 100 g	6 RDI=10 %	19 RDI=7 %	8 RDI=12 %	177 RDI=9 %	744 RDI: 9 %

Possible allergens in this recipe: egg, milk

How much will it cost?

For 720 g : 3.75 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.

Some other recipes using this recipeSee them all 20

Peach and green tea tart

This refined tart combines peaches with the delicate flavour of green tea. The sweetcrust pastry case is baked blind, then filled with a green-tea custard and topped with slices of poached white peaches.
63 K5 1 hour 15 min.

Frangipane

Frangipane is an almond cream enriched with crème pâtissière, it's the ideal filling for the galette des rois, but also for many other desserts.
477 K5 15 min.

Strawberry Verveine Tart

This tart has a crisp sweetcrust pastry case filled with verveine-flavoured cream and, of course, strawberries.
80 K3.8 1 hour 35 min.

Yvetot Douillons

This dessert, named after a small town in Normandy, consists of a pear filled with confectioner's custard (French pastry cream), which is wrapped in a pancake and puff pastry, then baked. The "douillon" part of the name comes from a warm coat, the "douillette", of former times.
94 K4.3 1 hour 3 min.

Pains briochés aux raisins

This classic French "viennoiserie" is a sweet bun containing confectioner's custard (crème pâtissière) and rum-soaked raisins. It demands a bit of skill, but is not too complicated.
159 K4.8 2 hours 40 min.

This recipe uses (among others)

Other recipes you may also like

Baked apples from St Aubin le Vertueux

Under this pretty name, my personal version of "Les pommes au four" (baked apples).

February 21^th 2011263 K 24.2 1 hour 7 min.

Spaghetti Carbonara

A very famous Italian pasta recipe: egg yolks, cream, bacon, Parmesan and lemon juice.

February 21^th 2011354 K 24.8 25 min.

Crab and smoked salmon club sandwiches

A club sandwich has three slices of bread, filled with a mayonnaise-style dressing. Here is a crab and smoked salmon version with cocktail sauce.

October 13^th 2010240 K 15 1 hour 2 min.

Boeuf (beef) bourguignon

Bœuf bourguignon is a traditional recipe of French cuisine (bourguignon means from Burgundy). It's chunks of meat cooked slowly with bacon, onions, carrots and mushrooms in red wine.

February 21^th 2011499 K 32.5 4 hours 20 min.

Cheese Soufflé

A soufflé sounds difficult to make, but it's really not. The important thing is to break down the steps carefully: you start by making a béchamel sauce, then add cheese, then egg yolks (and it becomes a Mornay sauce), and finally the beaten egg whites. All that's left to do is place in a well-buttered and floured oven.

June 13^th 2024148 K 14.4 1 hour 35 min.

News list of cooking-ez.com

Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.

The 31 comments already posted on this recipe

Brilliant recipe, really well explained. Thank you!
Anonymous february 20^th 202209:53 31
If you keep it in a closed jar in the fridge, several days.
jh april 3^rd 201818:34 30
How far in advance can i make this?
Alison april 1^st 201813:20 29
Just made this, and it's way too sweet. Next time will reduce sugar to half.
Pam june 3^rd 201717:33 28
Hi 😄 Thank you for this wonderful recipe. I thought you might like to know that I made it with coconut cream instead of milk and it worked great. Thanx again
Fiona march 14^th 201706:19 27
Yes it is.
jh february 24^th 201714:47 26
Hi, I like to make custard tart and use confectionery custard as the filling. Is this recipe suitable for me? Janine
Anonymous february 23^th 201701:58 25
Yes, absolutely.
Anonymous april 28^th 201608:38 24
I had a wonderful eclair filled with a pistachio cream, it was kind of thick, could I use this for a base to make it.
Anonymous april 28^th 201600:16 23
I don't think so.
jh may 7^th 201308:31 22
Is this the pudding made for Pearl tapioca? If not is there a tapioca. Recipe?
Nicola may 7^th 201302:42 21
Good,but I need to know the equipment needed for it
Akiza Directioner february 6^th 201318:17 20
Yes
jh january 25^th 201309:09 19
Is this recipe suitable to use in Danish pastries>
Sheanne Carr january 24^th 201320:26 18
Make 360g of the recipe, take your 2 cups, and use the (small) remaining for something else.
jh december 24^th 201214:50 17
Could you please list the exact amounts of all the ingredients for making less. I need to use this custard in a cake and that recipe says 2 cups of CREMA PASTICCERA - it's an Italian recipe, so I am guessing this is what they mean... How much of each ingredient will I need to end up with 2 cups of this creme? thanks a lot.
kiska december 23^th 201214:42 16
I always prefer whole milk, but you can use skimmed if you prefer.
jh november 28^th 201221:34 15
What kind of milk does this recipe use? Whole, 2%, skim, etc...
Ashley november 18^th 201204:17 14
Yes
lindo november 1^st 201210:43 13
Could you use this in a Manchester Tart
casm october 30^th 201219:52 12
Increase volume of cornflour.
jh august 10^th 201214:50 11
Need to make a thick version which will hold well between the puff pastry top and bottom in a classic 'english' vanilla slice and noy quickly soak and toughen the pastry = ant suggestions
DROSCAR august 10^th 201211:32 10
I confirm: yes you can! The cream will be a bit less smooth but it's ok.
In the past, when corn flour was not existing, that how pastry chef does.
jh january 21^th 201210:26 9
No you cant!
LOWONIAN january 20^th 201223:16 8
Yes you can.
jh october 17^th 201113:33 7
Can i replace corn flour for plain flour?
Anonymous october 15^th 201120:03 6
Yes it could be, I use vanilla beans because it's very common in grocery here (France).

You can also reduce caster sugar of one teaspoon and add a teaspoon of vanilla sugar instead.
jh june 2^nd 201109:34 5
Does it have to be a vanilla bean? Can it be vanilla extract, as the beans are difficult to find in the everyday grocery store...
Adam june 1^st 201122:51 4
Hello,Not more than one or two days in the fridge I'm afraid, because with time confectioners custard will finally wet the cake too much.Yes, in the fridge absolutely because there is egg yolks in.
jh february 1^st 201112:25 3
Helloi have been asked to make a sponge cake with confectioners custard and fresh strawberries as the filling. How long will this recipe keep for? Also does it have to be kept in fridge? As lady would like the cake iced which can't be kept in fridge.thanks in advance for any advice
Rebecca january 31^th 201118:37 2
This recipe turned out very well in the chinois I made but I added apricot brandy instead of eau de vie de mirabelle. Big mistake. It was terrible. No fault to the pastry cream recipe though the flavor and texture on the remake without the brandy was fantastic!
Iowonian june 18^th 200917:40 1

Follow this recipe (as 11 people already do)

If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.