Crema pasticcera is the heart of Italian pastry.
Silky, fragrant and delicately flavored with vanilla and lemon, it’s the filling you’ll find inside countless Italian desserts—from tiny pastries displayed in bakery windows to elegant fruit tarts and family celebration cakes.
Once you’ve mastered crema pasticcera, you’ve mastered one of the foundations of Italian baking.
WHAT IS CREMA PASTICCERA?
Crema pasticcera is Italy’s classic pastry cream.
Unlike many custards, it is thick enough to fill pastries yet delicate enough to eat by the spoonful.
Every Italian pastry shop has its own version, but the ingredients remain remarkably simple:
fresh milk,
egg yolks,
sugar,
flour (or sometimes starch),
vanilla,
and often a strip of lemon zest.
The result is rich without being heavy, smooth without being overly sweet.
WHERE YOU’LL FIND IT IN ITALY
Once you start noticing crema pasticcera, you’ll see it everywhere.
It’s piped into bignè, layered inside cakes, spread over fruit crostate, filled into maritozzi, cannoncini and countless regional pastries.
It’s also delicious served on its own, perhaps with a few simple biscuits to dip into it.
One recipe.
Dozens of desserts.
WHAT CAN YOU MAKE WITH CREMA PASTICCERA?
Once your crema pasticcera is ready, you are only one step away from dozens of Italian desserts.
Use it to fill bignè, fruit crostate, cannoncini, millefoglie, layered cakes—and, in Puglia, bocconotti or pasticciotti.
These small shortcrust pastries are filled with crema pasticcera and baked until golden, sometimes with sour cherries hidden inside.
They are one of the many reasons why learning a good pastry cream recipe is so useful: one basic preparation opens the door to an entire world of Italian desserts.
Italian crema pasticcera
the authentic Italian crema pasticcera recipe
Ingredients
- 17 oz cow milk 500 ml
- 1 vanilla bean
- 1 pinch of salt
- 4 egg yolks
- 5.3 oz white sugar 3/4 cup or 150 gr
- 1.8 oz 00 flour 4 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons or 50 gr
- the zest of one lemon optional
Instructions
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Freeze a bowl (wet it for it to freeze in a shorter time).
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Bring milk to a boil in a medium saucepan, turn off the heat and add salt, lemon zest and the vanilla bean (carved to release beans and aroma). Let it infuse for a few minutes.
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Meanwhile beat together egg yolks and sugar until frothy. Sift the flour and add it to the yolks and sugar mixture. Mix well. Add a few scoops of milk (remove the vanilla bean first) through a fine sieve, and mix well. Add the remaining milk and incorporate it completely.
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Return the crema to the saucepan and cook it, over medium/low heat, stirring continuously until it thickens.
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Pour the crema into the frozen bowl and stir energetically for a minute.
-
Ready!
Recipe Notes
If that’s it for today, and you're not going to cook anything else, just dip some cookies in your crema: the quintessence of dessert.
A FEW SIMPLE SECRETS
Perfect crema pasticcera doesn’t require complicated techniques.
Just patience.
Heat the milk gently.
Whisk continuously.
Cook only until the cream becomes silky and thick.
Then cool it quickly to preserve its smooth texture.
Sometimes the smallest details make the biggest difference.
Enjoy your pastry cream and all the delights you’ll use it for!
Claudia