Caramel Pastry Cream

Caramel pastry cream is a wonderful twist on the classic where the sugar is caramelized, giving it more depth and character. Perfect as a filling for cream puffs, eclairs, tarts and so much more!

Ingredients

• Milk: Whole milk, for richness and creaminess. You could replace part of the milk with heavy cream if you’d like an even richer and slightly thicker pastry cream.

• Sugar: We’ll start by preparing caramel so you’ll need white granulated sugar. I also like to save a small portion of sugar to whisk with the eggs later on. The sugar (along with the cornstarch) will protect the eggs from curdling when exposed to heat.

• Eggs: We’ll be using a whole egg and two egg yolks in this recipe to thicken the pastry cream. Egg yolks will also add richness, flavor and color to the pastry cream.

• Cornstarch: The cornstarch is also used as a thickener, along with the eggs. Using too little will yield a runny pastry cream. Too much, and you’ll end up with a rubbery cream. I use just enough for the pastry cream to hold its shape while remaining creamy. Feel free to adjust the amount depending on your preference and intended use.

• Butter: I like to add a little bit of cold butter to the fully cooked pastry cream. The butter will add even more richness and creaminess. It will also cool down the pastry cream faster.

• Salt: A little bit of salt, to make the caramel flavor shine even more!

How to Make Caramel Pastry Cream

Making caramel pastry cream is quite similar to making vanilla pastry cream. The main difference resides in what you do with the ingredients, more specifically the sugar. Instead of simply whisking it with the egg yolks, we’ll be caramelizing it first and then combining it with milk. I’ll walk you through all the steps in details but here’s a brief overview:

1. Prepare dry caramel: We’ll heat part of the sugar until caramelized. In case you missed it, I talked about the difference between wet and dry caramel in detail when making caramel sauce.
2. Add hot milk: Once the caramel is ready, we’ll slowly drizzle hot milk whilst stirring. The milk should be hot so the caramel doesn’t seize too much from the temperature difference.
3. Pour over the eggs: From this point onward, the process is very similar to the way you make classic pastry cream. We’ll pour the hot liquids (caramel milk) over a mixture of eggs, sugar and cornstarch.
4. Cook the pastry cream: We’ll pour all the mixture back into the saucepan and return it to the heat to cook it.

• Keep cooking until all the sugar has melted and turns amber. Note that the darker the caramel, the more bitter it will be.
• Remove the caramel from the heat. Keep the saucepan far from you then gradually pour the hot milk onto the caramel, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula. Note: Please be very careful not to burn yourself as it will bubble up a lot when you add the milk.
• Return to low heat, stirring occasionally, until the caramel has fully melted. Don’t bring it to a boil. You don’t want too much water to evaporate. Set aside.

Tip: Check for caramel that might be stuck to the bottom of the saucepan by carefully tilting it.

Making the pastry cream

• Whisk together the eggs (whole egg and yolks) and sugar in a large bowl until combined.
• Add the cornstarch and whisk once more to combine and break up any lumps.

• Tempering the eggs: Gradually pour the hot caramel milk over the egg mixture in a thin stream, stirring constantly to avoid scrambling the eggs.

• Pour the mixture back into the medium-sized saucepan (used for heating the milk).
• Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly. When the pastry cream starts to thicken (about 5 minutes), lower the heat if needed and check for bubbles forming (stop whisking occasionally to check). Once you see the bubbles, let it boil for about one minute and remove from the heat.

• Add the cold, diced butter and whisk until completely smooth.
• Whisk in the salt then pour into a wide heatproof container (to cool down quickly). Place a piece of parchment paper or cling film straight onto the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Cool down slightly at room temperature then chill until set.

I used this caramel pastry cream for a tart composed of an easy speculoos crust, a thick layer of pastry cream, sliced bananas and whipped cream. It was absolutely delicious!