Simple Vanilla Custard (Crème Patissiere)
This simple pastry cream recipe is the perfect creamy, rich filling for fruit tarts, pies, and cake fillings. There are no special techniques here – it is a crowd pleasing staple to have on hand when whipping up desserts in the kitchen!
Ingredients
- 1 Vanilla Bean or 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste
- 2 cups Milk 2% or higher
- 1/2 cup Sugar granulated
- 4 Egg yolks
- 3 tbsp Cornstarch
- 3 tbsp Vanilla Pudding mix can be replaced with: vanilla cornstarch or cornstarch
- 2 tbsp Butter
- Salt a pinch
Instructions
- In a saucepan, heat milk and vanilla bean on medium heat. Bring to a gentle boil.
- Meanwhile, whisk sugar, egg yolks, cornstarch, and vanilla custard/pudding mix in a small mixing bowl. Whisk until mixture is creamy, pale, and smooth.
- Slowly pour half of the boiled milk into the mixing bowl with the eggs.
- Reduce heavy saucepan to low heat. Transfer mixing bowl contents into the saucepan with the remaining half of the boiled milk.
- Continue to heat mixture on medium-low heat until thickened. Remove from heat.
- Add butter and whisk until melted. Add a pinch of salt.
- Remove custard from heat.
Notes
Sofia's Tips:
- Combining the milk with the egg mixture too quickly will cause the eggs to scramble! Go slow!
- In the event that you have some curdled egg pieces in your custard, don’t panic! To get a smoother custard just use a strainer to remove the coarse particles.
- If you don't have vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste, you can easily substitute with 2 tsp vanilla extract. Instead of adding the vanilla extract with the milk in the first step, add the vanilla extract once the custard has thickened and it has been removed from the heat
- More pastry cream adaptations are to come!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!