115 pastry cream recipes

Kolache cookies with a cream cheese pastry dough folded around fruit jam and dusted with powdered sugar. A three-ingredient Czech-style pastry that melts in your mouth.

An elegant French strawberry chibouste-style dessert: pastry cream lightened with Italian meringue, set with gelatin, molded against fresh strawberries over a thin genoise base. A patisserie classic at home.

Jam tarts press tender cream cheese pastry around dollops of fruit jam for bite-size, flaky tea-time pastries with golden browned edges. A 7-ingredient throwback for the cookie tin.

Apple pie with apricot glaze layers tart Granny Smith apples over a custard pastry cream and finishes with a layer of apricot preserves under the top crust. A French-style twist on classic American apple pie.

Indian-style deep-fried pastries stuffed with a sweet filling of toasted coconut, cream of wheat, almonds, raisins, and cardamom. Crispy golden shells, fragrant spiced filling. Makes 1 dozen.

Flaky cream cheese pastry rolls filled with cocoa, semisweet chocolate chips, and walnuts. No yeast, no proofing, no laminating. Rolled jelly-roll style, sliced, and dusted with powdered sugar for an easy chocolate Danish.

Boston cream pie with two split sponge layers, thick vanilla pastry custard, and a warm chocolate glaze that drips down the sides. The Massachusetts state dessert built from scratch.

Quebec apple dumplings wrap whole apples in cheddar pastry, each cored and stuffed with rum-spiked mincemeat. Brushed with a brown sugar and lemon cream glaze, baked golden, and served warm with rum cream.

Flaky puff pastry shells filled with orange-scented cream cheese whipped cream and topped with cherry pie filling. A dinner party dessert that looks dressed up but takes 30 minutes.

Diabetic-friendly lemon cream pie with a blind-baked pastry crust, tart lemon custard set with gelatin, and a light whipped topping. Bright, creamy, and sugar-free.

Simple sweetened whipped cream filling with just three ingredients: heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla. Whip until stiff in 5 minutes for cakes, pastries, and pies.

Vegan Black Forest cake with whole wheat pastry flour, applesauce, and a kirsch syrup. Cashew-tofu icing replaces dairy whipped cream. Three layers of chocolate cake, cherries, and creamy frosting.

Hungarian cheesecake with sieved cottage cheese, sour cream, and lemon zest in a homemade pastry crust, layered with pineapple and raisins. A European-style baked cheesecake.

Kolacky cookies made with a tender cream cheese pastry dough filled with fruit spread, pinched into tri-cornered shapes, and baked golden. A Czech holiday cookie tradition.

Classic choux pastry profiteroles made with just 4 ingredients: water, butter, flour, and eggs. Light, hollow puffs ready to fill with cream, ice cream, or custard.

Layered pumpkin walnut pie hides a buttery brown-sugar walnut praline beneath a creamy, cream-cheese-rich pumpkin custard in a shortbread crust, crowned with baked pastry leaves. A Thanksgiving showpiece.