pastry cream

noun

: a thick custard that is made of eggs, sugar, milk, flour or cornstarch, and usually flavoring and that is typically used as a filling for pastries and other baked goods

Once you've become comfortable with the technique for making pastry cream, opportunities abound for the versatile baker's staple. You can use it as a filling for cream puffs, éclairs, fruit tarts, and cakes …—

Kristina Razon

Pastry cream is an anomaly among custards. Although overheating a typical custard can lead to curdling, it's vital to bring pastry cream almost to a boil. Doing so sets the eggs and activates the starch, thereby ensuring a proper consistency.—

Bryan Roof

Guests will go wild for these little pies. They're at once delicate and decadent, the airy puffs of crisp meringue giving way to rich, vanilla-flavored pastry cream and a sprightly mix of fresh fruit.—

Lillian Cho

Examples of pastry cream in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The delightful peach roll-up cake had a delicate, moist sponge and coconut pastry cream, while the clove canelé — a riff on the classic French custard pastry — is a mung bean, cassava cake with a crunchy, sugary crust. —

Meira Gebel, Axios, 12 Aug. 2024 According to the official tasting notes, the result is a bright whiskey with a malt-forward flavor that has notes of vanilla pastry cream, caramel sauce, and lavender green tea on the palate. —

Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 6 Aug. 2024 To gild the lily, éclairs get both a sweet icing and filling, typically a pastry cream or crème pâtissière in French. —

Cece Pascual, Washington Post, 19 July 2024 The pastry is twisted into the size of a giant muffin, drizzled with cinnamon sugar and filled with pastry cream. —

Bon Appétit Contributor, Bon Appétit, 15 July 2024 The food faux pas, like Howie Mendel dropping an entire bag of corn starch into a pastry cream, was wildly entertaining. —

Dominique Fluker, Essence, 11 July 2024 At Marvel Cake, these variations on the croissant theme are rolled and stand upright, with a wisp of pastry cream filling revealing the flavor inside. —

John Metcalfe, The Mercury News, 8 July 2024 My mother had it as a World War II pastry, but now there are variations of it—some have chocolate pastry cream in them instead of ricotta. —

Devorah Lev-Tov, Condé Nast Traveler, 25 June 2024 Perched on lipped white plates are Sonoran wheat guava and pastry cream Danishes, curry empanadas with potatoes and nopales and shortbread cookies made with blue corn. —

Bahar Anooshahr, The Arizona Republic, 4 June 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pastry cream.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.