This is a simple recipe for vegan pastry cream (crème pâtissière) that uses Just Egg. This is the pastry cream we use to fill the eclairs in our recipe for vegan eclairs as well as our vegan cream puffs. The pastry cream recipe below is for a standard vanilla flavor, but you can use a wide variety of extracts, mix-ins, or other flavorings to make the pastry cream work with your dessert. We also have recipes for vegan chocolate pastry cream and vegan praliné pastry cream. Enjoy!
If you try this recipe, leave us a comment below to let us know how it goes. We would love to hear from you!
Vegan Pastry Cream (Crème Pâtissière)
A vegan version of a versatile cream that can be used in various dessert pastries. Makes 1 ¼ cups of pastry cream.
Equipment
- rubber spatula
- whisk
- mixing bowl
- small saucepan
- plastic wrap or pipng bag
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened soy milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- ¼ cup sugar
- ⅓ cup Just Egg
- 3 tbsp vegan butter
Instructions
- Do this step first to avoid running around to get it together when the time comes! Place a medium or large sieve over a mixing bowl. Set aside the butter in one tablespoon pieces.
- Add the soy milk, vanilla extract, and pinch of salt to a small sauce pan. Mix to combine and leave to simmer on medium heat. It will simmer pretty quickly, in a few minutes.
- In a small or medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, and Just Egg.
- Mix with a whisk until evenly combined.
- Once the milk mixture has started to simmer, slowly whisk in half of it into the Just Egg mixture.
- Next, slowly whisk in all of the mixture from the mixing bowl back into the pot with the remaining milk mixture. Whisk continuously on medium heat to cook and thicken the mixture. It should be thick enough to see the streaks of the whisk in it.
- Turn off the heat. Scoop the mixture from the pot into the sieve you prepared earlier. Using a rubber spatula, press it through the sieve to get rid of any lumps in the mix. Don’t forget to scrape the outside bottom of the sieve to get any of the mix that collects there.
- Mix in one tablespoon of butter at a time while the mixture is still warm. The butter should melt and incorporate into the pastry cream. Cover with plastic wrap touching the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. You could also place it into a piping bag instead. Allow to cool in the fridge for a few hours to then use in your favorite recipe!
Delicious!
Thank you! 😊
This pastry cream is absolutely delicious! So creamy and sweet, it just melts in your mouth. I used it for the éclairs.
Thank you so much! So happy the recipe worked out well for you.
Loved it! Went perfectly with your chocolate eclair recipe.
It was easy and delectable! After so many years without tasting pastry cream, this was a huge treat. Thank you!
Wow! This is a fantastic creme patisserie that could definitely hold its own against (even supercede) a traditional dairy laden version. I admit, I was a bit skeptical about using the Just Egg. I was concerned that some of that mung bean flavor or a bit of graininess might come through, but not at all. This is lush, silky smooth, with a perfect hit of vanilla. It’s a ‘keeper.’ Bravo!
The vegan cream is delicious. To lighten it up, I whipped a can of Thai Kitchen coconut cream (the best, in my opinion), added 1 tablespoon of maple syrup and 1 tsp of vanilla, then folded it into the vegan pastry cream/custard after it had been cooled in the fridge for several hours. It works like a charm. Even my non vegan friends and family love it!
I have made this several times and loved it. I have found that it is pretty adaptable, too. For example, I made a pretty nice peanut butter version. I halved the vanilla and cornstarch and added two tablespoons of peanut butter (more than that and the creams loses a lot of its softness).