364 pastry cream recipes

Deep-dish rhubarb strawberry pie with a flaky shortening crust, fresh fruit filling spiced with cinnamon and cloves, and a sugared lattice top. The classic spring-into-summer pie baked in a square dish.

Caramel pecan pie with homemade caramel pastry cream, chopped pecans, and a golden meringue topping. Old-school holiday Southern pie tradition.

Elegant French pastry with puff pastry, vanilla pastry cream, and glazed apricot halves resembling sunny-side eggs. A playful Michel Richard classic.

Classic French creme patissiere made with egg yolks, sugar, milk, and vanilla. The essential pastry cream for tarts, eclairs, cream puffs, and fruit desserts.

Mini pumpkin pies that bake crustless in a muffin tin with Bisquick standing in for pastry. Cream cheese gives the pumpkin filling a cheesecake-like richness. Twelve individual pies in 30 minutes.

Italian pastry puffs with lemon-scented biscotti dough wrapped around silky vanilla-almond pastry cream. Baked in a cupcake pan until golden, these old-school treats are worth every minute.

Italian rum cake with a dense sour cream butter cake sliced into six layers, soaked with dark rum, and filled with lemon pastry cream. A showstopping celebration dessert.

Caramel-orange Bûche de Noël assembly with Grand Marnier buttercream, almond sponge, and pastry cream filling. The classic French Yule log cake for Christmas.

A classic French pear and frangipane tart: vanilla-poached pears arranged over almond pastry cream spiked with kirsch and crushed macaroons, finished with apricot glaze and pistachios.

Italian frangipane custard with ground almonds, cooked like pastry cream then cut into squares. Traditional holiday treat similar to Turkish delight in texture.

Zesty apricot cream filling combines apricot jam with sherry, lemon zest, and orange juice for a bright pastry cream. Egg yolks thicken it into a silken filling for tarts, eclairs, or layer cakes.

Lemon butter biscotti: buttery lemon-zest dough rounds layered with microwave vanilla pastry cream in cupcake pans, then baked into individual lemon cream pastries.

Apple pie with apricot glaze layers tart Granny Smith apples over a custard pastry cream and finishes with a layer of apricot preserves under the top crust. A French-style twist on classic American apple pie.

Italian crostata di frutta with a lemon-scented shortcrust pastry, homemade crema pasticcera, fresh seasonal fruit, and an apricot jam glaze. A classic bakery-style tart.

Bite-sized cream cheese pastry cups filled with walnuts, chocolate, and egg custard, served with rum-spiked whipped cream. These elegant tassies are a holiday cookie tray must-have.

French pear tart with almond frangipane, kirsch-soaked apricot glaze, and vanilla-poached pears. Crushed macaroons fold into the pastry cream for chewy depth, finished with green pistachios.