Indulge in the Ultimate Easy Vegan Pastry Cream: Your Go-To Crème Pâtissière Recipe

Discover the secret to a rich, smooth, and utterly delicious vegan pastry cream that comes together in under 10 minutes. This remarkable recipe requires just six simple ingredients and is completely free of eggs, dairy, and even coconut. Prepare to elevate your desserts with this incredibly versatile crème pâtissière, perfect for filling tarts, cakes, pies, doughnuts, choux buns, and so much more. Its luxurious vanilla flavor, ideal sweetness, and ability to hold its shape beautifully when piped will make it a staple in your plant-based baking repertoire.

What Exactly is Pastry Cream (Crème Pâtissière)?

Pastry cream, universally known as crème pâtissière in French, is a foundational element in classical patisserie. It’s a lusciously rich, thick, and creamy vanilla-flavored custard that serves as a base for countless exquisite desserts. Traditionally, this custard achieves its characteristic thick texture and stability through a combination of egg yolks and starches, most commonly cornstarch and sometimes flour.

Unlike a pourable dessert custard, crème pâtissière is designed to be firm enough to hold its shape, making it ideal for piping and layering. It’s an indispensable filling for classics like fruit tarts, delicate mille-feuille (Napoleon), airy choux buns, éclairs, and various cakes and doughnuts. Its robust texture prevents it from seeping into pastries, ensuring a clean and delightful bite every time.

Our innovative vegan rendition skillfully replaces the egg yolks with a slightly increased amount of cornstarch, ensuring that same desirable thickness and stability without any animal products. To replicate the richness and luxurious mouthfeel typically provided by dairy, we incorporate a touch of high-quality vegan butter. The result is a truly spectacular plant-based pastry cream that is thick, exquisitely creamy, and unbelievably smooth, bursting with buttery vanilla flavor. It pipes like a dream and is perfectly adaptable for all your favorite dessert creations, proving that you don’t need dairy or eggs to achieve culinary perfection.

Beyond its incredible taste and texture, one of the greatest advantages of this recipe is its simplicity and speed. You can whip up a batch of this delightful vegan pastry cream in approximately 10 minutes, using only a handful of everyday ingredients found in most pantries. It’s the perfect solution for last-minute dessert emergencies or when you simply crave a luxurious treat without a lengthy cooking process.

Essential Ingredient Details for Perfect Vegan Pastry Cream

Crafting the perfect vegan pastry cream begins with selecting the right ingredients. Each component plays a vital role in achieving that rich, creamy, and pipeable consistency. Here’s a closer look at what you’ll need and why:

• Non-Dairy Milk: The base of our vegan crème pâtissière. For optimal results, I highly recommend using unsweetened soy milk. Its neutral flavor ensures the vanilla truly shines, and its naturally creamy texture contributes wonderfully to the overall richness of the pastry cream. If soy milk isn’t an option for you, other creamier alternatives such as cashew milk or a barista-style oat milk would be excellent choices. These milks have a higher fat content and a thicker consistency compared to many other plant milks, which is crucial for a luxurious pastry cream. It’s important to steer clear of thinner, more watery milks like rice milk, almond milk, or standard coconut drinking milk, as these can result in a less robust, potentially runny pastry cream that lacks the desired body. If your chosen non-dairy milk is sweetened, remember to slightly reduce the amount of added sugar in the recipe to prevent it from becoming overly sweet. You can always adjust the sweetness to your preference once the cream is cooked and cooled.
• Non-Dairy Cream: While you can certainly use more non-dairy milk in place of the cream, incorporating a portion of vegan single cream truly elevates the pastry cream. This addition imparts an unparalleled richness, a velvety smooth texture, and a more complex, well-rounded flavor profile that mimics traditional dairy pastry cream. I typically use Alpro soy cream, which works beautifully. Other fantastic options include homemade cashew cream (thinned to a pourable consistency), Oatly Creamy Oat, or full-fat canned coconut milk (ensure it’s well-mixed). If you choose to omit the cream entirely and use extra soy milk, be aware that the final texture of your pastry cream may be slightly softer and less decadent.
• Cornflour (Cornstarch): This is the superstar ingredient responsible for thickening our vegan pastry cream in the absence of egg yolks. Its gelling properties are essential for achieving the characteristic thick, stable, and smooth consistency that holds its shape. I cannot stress enough the importance of using cornflour (cornstarch) as specified. Swapping it for other types of starch or flour will almost certainly lead to an undesirable texture, ranging from grainy to slimy, and may not thicken adequately. Stick to cornstarch for reliable results.
• Sugar: Sugar not only provides sweetness but also contributes to the smooth texture and helps prevent the pastry cream from seizing. While various sugars can be used, white caster sugar (superfine sugar) or granulated sugar will yield the most classic flavor and appearance, without imparting any unwanted color. The recipe provides a balanced sweetness, but feel free to adjust the quantity to your personal taste. You can always add a little more if desired after cooking, though it’s easier to remove sweetness before it’s cooked.
• Vanilla: Vanilla is the heart of any good pastry cream, and its quality significantly impacts the final flavor. For the most exquisite and authentic vanilla taste, I highly recommend using vanilla bean paste or the scraped seeds from a fresh vanilla pod. These options provide a richer, more nuanced, and visually appealing specks of vanilla throughout the cream. If these aren’t readily available, a good quality vanilla extract will work adequately in a pinch, but for that truly gourmet touch, invest in paste or pods.
• Vegan Block Butter: The addition of vegan block butter is crucial for enhancing the richness and contributing to the firm, yet creamy, set of the pastry cream. Unlike spreadable vegan butter or margarine, block-style vegan butter has a higher fat content and different emulsifiers, which are essential for achieving the correct structure and luxurious mouthfeel. Ensure you select a firm, block-style vegan butter for the best results; spreadable versions will not provide the same structural integrity.

Mastering the Art of Vegan Pastry Cream: A Step-by-Step Guide

(For precise measurements and detailed instructions, please refer to the comprehensive recipe card located at the bottom of this page.)

Crafting this delightful vegan pastry cream is straightforward when you follow these simple steps. Precision and consistent stirring are key to achieving that perfectly smooth and thick consistency.

Step 1: Prepare the Base. Begin by placing the cornstarch in a sturdy saucepan. Gradually pour in the cold non-dairy milk, whisking continuously as you add it. This gradual addition and constant whisking are critical to prevent any lumps from forming, ensuring a silky-smooth base. Once the cornstarch is fully dissolved and incorporated, whisk in the non-dairy cream, sugar, and vanilla until all ingredients are well combined and the mixture appears uniform. Ensure there are no dry pockets of cornstarch remaining at the bottom of the pan before proceeding.

Step 2: Cook to Perfection. Place the saucepan over a low-medium heat. This is a crucial stage where patience pays off. Stir the mixture constantly using a whisk or a heatproof spatula, ensuring you reach every corner and the bottom of the pan to prevent scorching or sticking. Continue stirring until the mixture comes to a gentle boil and begins to noticeably thicken. As soon as you observe it thickening, switch to vigorous whisking for about one minute. This energetic whisking ensures the cornstarch fully gelatinizes and activates its thickening power, creating a perfectly smooth texture and preventing lumps. You’ll know it’s ready when, if you pause stirring for a few seconds, a few large bubbles slowly rise to the surface and pop. This indicates it has reached the correct temperature and consistency. Immediately remove the pan from the heat. Add the vegan block butter to the hot pastry cream and stir vigorously until it is completely melted and seamlessly incorporated, adding richness and a beautiful sheen.

Step 3: Chill and Set. Once the pastry cream is cooked and the butter is mixed in, immediately scrape it into a clean, shallow bowl. To prevent a “skin” from forming on the surface as it cools, cover the pastry cream directly with baking paper or clingfilm. Ensure the paper or film is pressed firmly against the entire surface of the cream, eliminating any air pockets. This step is essential for maintaining a perfectly smooth texture. Refrigerate the covered pastry cream for a minimum of two hours, or until it is completely chilled and set. The cooling process allows the cornstarch to fully gel and the pastry cream to firm up to the desired consistency.

Step 4: Whisk Before Use. After chilling, your vegan pastry cream will be significantly firmer and might even appear somewhat rubbery or jelly-like. This is completely normal! Before using it, give it a good, vigorous whisk. You can use a standard balloon whisk, an electric hand mixer, or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. As you whisk, the cream will transform back into a silky-smooth, creamy, and pipeable consistency. It is now perfectly ready to be used in your favorite desserts.

Expert Tips for Flawless Vegan Pastry Cream Every Time

Achieving bakery-quality vegan pastry cream is easier than you think with these expert tips:

• Embrace Metric Measurements: For consistently superior results, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of using metric measurements with a digital kitchen scale over volumetric cup conversions. Cups are notoriously imprecise and can lead to significant variations in your final product. A scale ensures accuracy, consistency, and often, a less messy cooking experience.
• Always Start with Cold Liquid: When incorporating cornstarch, always whisk it into cold or room-temperature liquid. Adding cornstarch directly to warm or hot liquids can cause it to clump instantly, creating intractable lumps that are difficult to smooth out.
• Avoid Double-Dipping: Once your pastry cream is cooked, resist the urge to taste it and then reinsert the same spoon back into the batch. The enzymes present in your saliva can actually break down the cornstarch, leading to a runny, thin pastry cream. Always use a clean spoon for each taste test.
• Stick to Cornstarch: While other thickeners like arrowroot powder might seem like viable alternatives, I strongly advise against swapping out cornflour (cornstarch) in this recipe. Arrowroot, though a thickener, can often result in a slightly slimy or gelatinous texture in pastry cream, which is not ideal. Cornstarch provides the perfect creamy, smooth finish.
• Adjust Sweetness to Taste: The sugar amount in this recipe provides a balanced sweetness that complements most desserts. However, personal preference varies greatly. Feel free to slightly reduce or increase the sugar to suit your taste. It’s easier to adjust before cooking, but you can always add a touch more powdered sugar to the chilled cream if needed, whisking thoroughly.
• Constant Stirring, Moderate Heat: To prevent lumps, scorching, and sticking to the bottom of the pan, maintain constant stirring while the pastry cream cooks. Also, ensure you cook it over a low-to-medium heat. High heat can cause the mixture to thicken too quickly and unevenly, leading to a lumpy texture or a burnt bottom.
• Tailor Consistency for Application: This recipe yields a pastry cream that is wonderfully pipeable and perfect for fillings like tarts, doughnuts, and éclairs. If you require a firmer-set pastry cream – for example, one that will hold up well between cake layers in a celebration cake – you can easily adjust it. Simply increase both the cornstarch and the vegan block butter to 70g each. This modification will provide extra stability and a more structured cream.
• Whisk After Chilling: It’s absolutely normal for chilled pastry cream to appear thick, stiff, or even slightly rubbery. Don’t panic! Before using, give it a thorough whisk. A balloon whisk, electric hand mixer, or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment will quickly transform it back into a smooth, creamy, and easily pipeable consistency, ready for any dessert.

Frequently Asked Questions About Vegan Pastry Cream

Delightful Ways to Utilize Your Vegan Pastry Cream

This versatile vegan pastry cream is a game-changer for plant-based desserts, offering endless possibilities. Here are some of our favorite ways to enjoy it:

• Elegant Fruit Tarts: Create stunning fruit tarts by filling a pre-baked tart shell with a generous layer of this luscious vegan pastry cream. Top with an array of fresh seasonal fruits like vibrant strawberries, juicy raspberries, sliced kiwis, or blueberries. For an extra special treat, try my incredible vegan rhubarb tart recipe.
• Layer Cake Perfection: Substitute traditional fillings with this crème pâtissière in your favorite layer cakes. It’s an absolute must for classics like a Vegan Boston Cream Pie, adding a rich, creamy contrast to light sponge layers.
• Exquisite Mille-feuille: Construct a classic French mille-feuille by layering crisp sheets of puff pastry with generous dollops of vegan pastry cream for a truly impressive dessert.
• Delectable Fillings: Transform plain baked goods into gourmet delights. Use it as a luxurious filling for fluffy doughnuts, sweet brioche buns, or flaky croissants.
• Companion to Vegan Crêpes: Elevate your breakfast or dessert crêpes. Either roll it up as a decadent filling within light and airy vegan crêpes, or stack multiple crêpes with layers of pastry cream to create a show-stopping crêpe cake.
• A Spoonful of Heaven: Sometimes, the simplest pleasures are the best. Serve it as a sophisticated alternative to whipped cream with your favorite desserts, or honestly, just grab a spoon and enjoy it straight from the bowl! Its irresistible flavor makes it a treat on its own.

If you’ve tried this incredible vegan pastry cream recipe, please let me know your thoughts! Rate it, leave a comment below, or share your creations by tagging @domestic_gothess on Instagram and using the hashtag #domesticgothess. Your feedback is truly appreciated!

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