The Best and Easiest Vegan Pastry Cream (Crème Pâtissière)

This decadent, yet light and airy vegan pastry cream or crème pâtissière is perfect for filling your favorite vegan pastries, pies, or tarts. It’s smooth, creamy, delicious, and super easy to make.

This decadent, yet light and airy vegan pastry cream or crème pâtissière is perfect for filling your favorite vegan pastries, pies, or tarts. It’s smooth, creamy, delicious, and super easy to make.

Desserts are my jam. Fun fact: I used to run a cake and dessert business. I would design cakes and treats for special occasions and sell seasonal desserts like pies and pastries for the holidays. As much as I enjoyed creating desserts, I found myself a bit stressed out by the business of it all and decided to find another way to channel my love for cooking and baking.  That’s when Quirky Pineapples was born, and I have to say, one of my favorite things to do for the blog is to create vegan desserts that are simple to make, impressive, and taste as similar as possible to their non-vegan counterparts.  I truly believe this recipe fits the bill.

INGREDIENTS FOR VEGAN PASTRY CREAM

• Plant milk: I like to use almond milk because it is light and easy to flavor, but soy milk and coconut milk (not coconut cream)  also work for this recipe.
• Cane Sugar: To sweeten the cream. To ensure this is vegan, I use organic sugars only.
• Unsalted Vegan Butter: This will help the pastry cream to become smooth and silky and add the much-needed fat element.
• Corn Starch: To help the cream to thicken.  This will give the cream its pudding-like texture.
• Vanilla Extract: to add warmth and flavor. You may also use vanilla bean paste or a vanilla bean pod to replace the vanilla extract for a deeper flavor.
• Salt: to heighten the flavors of the cream and balance the sweetness.
• Nutritional Yeast: gives the cream a slight egg-like flavor. Traditional pastry cream recipes are made with eggs, so this definitely helps to mimic the full flavors of non-vegan pastry cream.
• Turmeric: This is just for color and can totally be left out if you don’t have it on hand. But it gives the cream the same color that egg yolks give regular pastry cream.

HOW TO MAKE VEGAN PASTRY CREAM

1. Room temperature. Pour the non-dairy milk into a medium-sized saucepan and allow it to come to room temperature for about 30 minutes.
2. Whisk.  Vigorously whisk the cornstarch into the milk 1 tablespoon at a time until all of the cornstarch is dissolved. It is okay if there are a few small lumps.
3. Add the sugar, vanilla, and salt.
4. Simmer. Whisking frequently, bring the cream to a simmer over medium-low heat.
5. Reduce the heat to low and allow the cream to continue to simmer and thicken for about 10-15 minutes.
6. Add the nutritional yeast and turmeric and whisk until fully combined.
7. Remove the saucepan from the heat and whisk in the vegan butter until it is fully melted and incorporated.
8. Transfer. Carefully transfer the pastry cream to a heat-safe bowl.
9. Cover. Carefully lay plastic wrap or parchment paper directly on top of the cream, being sure that there are no air bubbles between the cream and the cover.
10. Chill. Place the covered pastry cream in the refrigerator to chill and set for at least 2 hours.
11. Whip. The cream will be thick and gelatinous after chilling, so when you’re ready to use it, whip the cream with a stand mixer or hand mixer using a whisk or padel attachment until the cream is smooth again.

HOW TO USE VEGAN PASTRY CREAM

A great pastry cream recipe is helpful to have on hand because it is used for so many different desserts. So far, I’ve used this vegan pastry cream for banana pudding and for my delicious strawberry croissants recipe. But the fun doesn’t stop there! Pastry cream is great for filling pastries, like eclairs and puffs.  It’s also great for donuts, pies, and tarts or it can be used on its own as a vegan custard recipe for a delicious vegan crème brûlée. 

I hope you love this vegan pastry cream recipe. If you try it or any other QP recipes please let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment or rating below.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

MORE VEGAN DESSERT RECIPES YOU’LL LOVE:

• Easy Vegan Strawberry Shortcake Popsicles | Good Humor Copycat
• Easy Vegan Biscoff Banana Pudding
• The Best Vegan Strawberry Croissants (Cream Pan Copycat)

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