Eggless Pastry Cream Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is a substitute for egg yolk in pastry cream? ›

Normally a whole egg can be substituted with 1 Tablespoon golden flax meal and 3 Tablespoons water but since we're substituting for the yolk only, 2 Tablespoons of water should work fine.

At its most basic, pastry cream is a combination of milk, eggs, and starch that are cooked together to create a rich and thick custard that's a workhorse in the baker's kitchen.

Blanching the egg yolks and sugar.

While the milk is heating, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl until pale, slightly fluffy and smooth. This step is called 'blanching' – the sugar protects the egg proteins, preventing lump formation and curdling during cooking.

The cornstarch: This recipe makes a very firm pastry cream that, when chilled, cuts neatly — a particularly nice thing when you're using it for tarts and cakes. If you'd like a more fluid cream, use a little less cornstarch. The butter: The butter adds richness to the cream as well as body.

Cheater No-Cook Pastry Cream

Blend heavy cream, pudding mix, sour cream, and salt in a medium bowl using a whisk or a hand mixer set on medium speed until well-blended and smooth. Refrigerate for 5 to 10 minutes.

Runny pastry cream most often comes from undercooking the egg yolk mixture. If you remove it from the heat too soon, the amylase in the egg yolks won't break down and will prevent the cream from fully setting. If you find your crème pâtissière is too thin, return to heat and bring to a boil over medium heat to thicken.

Put simply, pastry cream is a type of custard. Adding cornstarch to the vanilla custard will give you a thick, firm substance (almost like vanilla pudding) that will hold its shape when piped. Custard that you can pour, which is only thickened with eggs, is actually called crème anglaise.

Pastry cream is made of milk, egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and vanilla. Is pastry cream the same as custard? Pastry cream is a type of custard, while custard is simply a liquid (often milk) thickened with eggs.

When heated, the eggs in the mixture coagulate, thickening the cream to a velvety consistency. However, if the cream is heated for too long or at too high a temperature, the eggs can become overcooked, resulting in a curdled, unpleasant texture — or even scrambled eggs in your cream.

How to make pastry cream thicker? ›

Egg yolks – Egg yolks add richness and helps to thicken the pastry cream a little. Cornstarch – This starch helps thicken the pastry cream to the desired thickness, while also acting as a buffer to prevent the egg yolks from curdling too quickly. Using cornstarch makes this pastry cream naturally gluten free.

The most common cause for curdling is the wrong temperature. At no point should you heat the custard to over 87 Celsius, and due to heat inertia, and for a generally better texture, you should stop heating earlier.

If your custard, creme patissier or creme anglaise has lumps or is starting to curdle, whack an ice cube in it then give it a quick blitz in the blender.

“Heavy cream”, “whipping cream”, or even “double cream” will work here. This lends a rich creaminess to the finished product. If you're in a pinch, you can substitute both the milk and cream for half and half. Egg yolks.

This departure of foam is the sign that your pastry cream is getting close to finished.

Simply stir 1tbsp ground flaxseed into 2tbsp water to replace a single egg. This will provide both binding (making bakes hold together) and leavening (making bakes rise) in place of eggs.

Cornstarch, potato starch, arrowroot powder, and tapioca starch can all be used as egg replacements when whisked with water into a smooth paste. For one egg, use two tablespoons of your desired starch mixed with three tablespoons of water.

Egg yolks added to shortcrust pastry make it richer and slows down the development of the gluten in the flour, which is exactly what you want. Gluten has an elastic quality which can make pastry rubbery if overdeveloped. But the resulting crumbly dough can be difficult to work with.