An easy and delicious recipe for Chocolate Creme Patissiere (Chocolate Pastry Cream)! A rich, creamy custard with deep chocolate flavor. This recipe is gluten free and dairy free friendly.
Just like my classic creme patissiere (pastry cream) recipe, this too is a type of custard dessert that can be used as a base for many other dessert recipes!
Check out my recipe here for a basic vanilla creme patissiere.
Learning how to make pastry cream is a basic skill that any type of baking requires, because Pastry Cream is the basis for many desserts.
I’ve talked about all of that and covered the basic tips and the recipe for vanilla creme patissiere (vanilla pastry cream). and my detailed guide on custard desserts.
Here, I’m sharing the recipe for Chocolate Creme Patissiere (Chocolate Pastry Cream), perfect for chocolate pudding, chocolate eclair, profiteroles, and other pastry recipes. This pastry cream features quite often in many classic French pastries and desserts.
I have used both cocoa powder as well as bittersweet chocolate to make to make this chocolate pastry cream. The cocoa powder adds a deep chocolate flavor, while bittersweet chocolate enhances that flavor.
The cocoa butter in bittersweet chocolate makes the chocolate creme patissiere richer. So the combination of the two types of chocolate ensures that your chocolate pastry cream has great depth of chocolate flavor as well as creamy richness.
Because of the bittersweet chocolate in the pastry cream, this recipe yields a slightly thicker chocolate pastry cream than its vanilla counterpart which I previously shared.
That’s due to the cocoa butter in it, which is a solid at room temperature. I also add extra milk (compared to the classic, vanilla pastry cream) to keep the custard creamy and smooth.
I also made something quite similar to chocolate creme patissiere in this no bake chocolate pudding pie. The filling for that pie is a chocolate pudding which is basically a chocolate creme pat, BUT richer (with more egg yolks and butter), and made with more chocolate and no cocoa powder.
You can use either of these two recipes for chocolate pudding. The chocolate creme patissiere that I’m sharing here is thicker and therefore can be piped on or used to fill any type of pastry.
It’s perfect for trifles (like this chocolate brownie trifle), chocolate cream puffs (profiteroles filled with chocolate pastry cream), eclairs, and even no bake pies.
And with a few additional ingredients, you can transform your chocolate creme pat into other delicious flavors as well.
This chocolate pastry cream recipe is the base of mocha pastry cream, bourbon/rum chocolate pastry cream, cinnamon chocolate pastry cream, and jaffa pastry cream (chocolate orange pastry ream). All of these variations are included in the recipe below.
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Chocolate creme patissiere (Chocolate pastry cream)
Ingredients:
- 2 ¼ cups milk (Or a plant based milk like coconut or almond)
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 egg
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 ½ tbsp cornstarch
- ¼ tsp salt
- 6 oz bittersweet chocolate
- 2 tbsp butter, softened (Or vegan butter)
Instructions:
- Add the milk and vanilla into a saucepan. Heat the milk over medium high heat and bring it to a boil.
- While the milk is being heated, place the sugar, egg and yolks, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl. Whisk until you have a thick, smooth mix. Place this egg mix on a towel or napkin (to prevent it from slipping), and then set it aside until the milk comes to a boil.
- As soon as the milk starts to boil, remove it from the heat. Slowly pour about one half of the hot milk in a thin stream, into the egg mix, WHILE WHISKING CONSTANTLY to temper the egg mix. When the eggs have been tempered, add the egg mix back into the hot milk in the saucepan.
- Heat the custard base, over medium heat, while whisking vigorously until it starts to thicken – this should take about 2 – 5 minutes (depending on the heat level).
- While whisking, let the custard release some bubbles (come to a boil gently). When the first bubbles break the surface, lower the heat to low and immediately add the bittersweet chocolate chips. Whisk until the chocolate is completely melted.
- Remove from the heat and add the butter. Whisk in the butter, until that too is completely mixed into the custard.
- Pour the custard into a bowl and immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap is touching the whole surface. This is to prevent a custard skin from forming on top.
- Let the custard cool down to room temperature and then let it chill in the fridge for a few hours, until it’s completely chilled.
- Use as needed after the chocolate pastry cream has been chilled. You may need to whisk the pastry cream to make it smooth again before use.
Tips & Tricks
- For a richer creme patissiere, you can substitute the whole egg with 3 egg yolks (6 egg yolks in total).
- For a thicker consistency add only 2 US cups (480 mL) milk. This consitency is even thicker and is good for piping shapes that are stiffer than this recipe.
- Mocha Pastry Cream – Instead of the vanilla (or in addition to the vanilla) – add ½ tsp of instant coffee granules. Allow the instant coffee to dissolve in the milk and then proceed with the recipe.
- Bourbon Chocolate Pastry Cream – Use ¼ cup less of the milk/half and half for the custard. Add 3 tbsp of bourbon along with the butter and whisk it in until well mixed with the custard.
- Jaffa Pastry Cream – Add 1 tsp orange extract along with the vanilla extract and then proceed with the recipe.
- Cinnamon Chocolate Pastry Cream – Add ½ tsp cinnamon along with the vanilla into the milk and then proceed with the recipe.
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
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Jessie says
Could I use fresh milk
Dini says
Hi Jessie
If you mean raw milk, yes you can!
Otherwise I usually use full fat regular milk from the supermarket.
I hope that helps!
devina says
i love the taste of this creme recipe.. but i still failed at the texture, i already try twice but have the same texture which is not smooth, can you give me some advice? where is my fault? i already success at your vanila cream recipe and thats very good texture and taste.. i still courious with the chocolate cream.. pls give me some advice.. thanks for share this recipe
Dini says
Hi Devina
This hasn’t happened to me, so I can’t be certain why it’s happening to you.
It could be the brand of cocoa powder or chocolate that you use, that create a grainy texture because it doesn’t dissolve into a smooth consistency.
I hope that helps.
Marianne says
I stumbled upon your page and tried this recipe today. It’s my first time making a patissiere. Your instructions are very detailed and clear and I love how you explain the variations. Excellent in flavour as well!
Wanted your advise if I want to make a white chocolate version in order to pipe some flowers. Do you have any ideas on how to achieve this?
Dini says
Hi Marianne
Thank you! I’m glad that you liked this recipe!
I don’t have a white chocolate pastry cream recipe unfortunately. However, I don’t think you would be able to pipe flowers with pastry cream because they wouldn’t be stiff enough to maintain the definition of the petals.
I recommend using a buttercream like American buttercream or swiss meringue buttercream for piping flowers.
Aasiya says
Can i use this cream for kitkat cakes ? Heard that pastry cream is used in kitkat cakes , not whip cream ? Which is better? Or should we thicken the chocolate ganache and pipe it ?
Dini says
Hi Aasiya
I’m not familiar with kit kat cakes unfortunately. If it’s the cakes that have kit kats stacked around it, I think they use whipped cream to balance out the sweetness from the kit kat bars.
This is sweeter and richer in comparison to whipped cream, but you could use whatever you like.
Kai says
Hi! What if I skip the cocoa powder? How should I adjust the amount of chocolate?
Dini says
Hi Kai
I wouldn’t know unfortunately.
I haven’t made this with just chocolate because I like the flavor that both add to the pastry cream. Plus the cocoa powder also thickens the pastry cream more than chocolate does as well.
You can add a little extra and see if it’s the consistency you like, but I’m unable to give you a 100% reliable answer.
Fuz says
Hi can i fold in whipped cream into this to make it like a mousse?
Dini says
Hi Fuz
You can add whipped cream to pastry cream.
When whipped cream is folded into pastry cream, it’s called Crème Légère. To make it more stable, sometimes gelatin is added to the mix. When gelatin and whipped cream is added to pastry cream it’s called, Creme Diplomate (diplomat cream). I prefer adding gelatin because it sets the mixture more and keeps it stable.
I hope that helps!
J says
Can I replace gelatin with agar-agar or jelly powder?If possible, Is it one to one ratio?
Dini says
Hi J
I haven’t tried to. Theoretically it’s possible, but the texture might be different because agar has a different texture than gelatin.
But in this recipe for pastry cream, I don’t use gelatin. I recommended gelatin only if they wanted to add whipped cream to the pastry cream to lighten the mixture, while keeping it stable.
I hope that helps
Pricilia says
I love this recipe!! I reduced the sugar to 80 gr and it was amazing, but I think the texture is too thick because of the cocoa powder and cornstarch maybe, but the taste is delicious
Pia Hutar says
Hi, i want to make this with cream puffs/profiterols and i’m wondering how many cream puffs does this recipe fill?
Dini says
Hi Pia
It really depends on how big the pastries are, so I can’t give you a certain amount. I usually make 1 1/2 – 2 batches of this pastry cream to fill pastries from my recipe here.
I hope that helps
Janet says
This was delicious! Do you think it would work in an ice cream maker? Or do you think it would get too icy?
Dini says
Hi Janet!
Thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed this 🙂
I wouldn’t recommend putting this in an ice cream maker because it might end up being too dense. Also, custard thickened with cornstarch doesn’t freeze too well either.
BUT I do have a recipe for an incredibly delicious, fudgy chocolate ice cream that you may like. You can find that recipe here.
I hope that helps!
Alex says
Can I half this recipe? I want to make half a batch of your regular crepe pat and half of the chocolate crepe pat for my brother’s birthday!
Dini says
Hi Alex
Yes you can halve the recipe. But it would be difficult to halve the 3 egg yolks + 1 whole egg, so I recommend going with 3 egg yolks for a thicker consistency and 2 egg yolks for a thinner consistency. I usually always use 3 egg yolks when I halve this (or the regular pastry cream) recipe.
I hope that helps!
Billie says
This looks like a great recipe and I’m going to use it in a mousse cake. In the recipe it just says sugar but is it powdered or caster?
Dini says
Hi Billie
You can use either granulated or caster sugar. Powdered sugar usually has cornstarch in it, so it cannot be used interchangeably with regular sugar.
I hope that helps!
Milena says
Thanks for the recipe!
Is it supposed to taste quite like dark chocolate? I wasn’t able to follow the recipe 100% because I only had unsweetened chocolate, but I googled how to substitute it by adding sugar and decreasing the amount of chocolate. the consistency was fine. I also absent-mindedly added dark cocoa powder instead of the natural kind. So the custard ended up tasting quite bitter. I was able to fix it somewhat by adding more sugar and a bunch more vanilla to soften the flavor… But I think I generally prefer a milkier taste. Also, when I tasted it right off the bat, it was a bit gritty – should I have cooked it longer to get rid of the starchy texture? I followed the recipe instructions to add the chocolate upon the first bubbles and take off the heat once chocolate was melted 🙂 It was quite easy to make and the consistency is great.
Dini says
Hi Milena
I used bittersweet chocolate, so it does have a more intense chocolate flavor. Using unsweetened dark chocolate will make the chocolate flavor more intense (even though you added more sugar and less chocolate, it can still make the pastry cream more bitter). For a milkier taste, you can add semisweet or milk chocolate instead – however, this will lessen the chocolate intensity (hence you will get a milkier taste).
If it was gritty, it could be that the egg scrambled a little or the cornstarch wasn’t cooked off. It could also be the quality of the chocolate too. Since you did allow the first bubbles to come through (boiled the custard), the cornstarch should have cooked well at this stage.
You can also use dark cocoa powder (dutch cocoa) or natural cocoa. I almost always use dutch cocoa because that’s what I stock in my pantry.
If you do try this recipe again, I recommend using a semisweet chocolate or milk chocolate to have a milkier, sweeter/smoother taste.
I hope that helps!
Bethany says
I made this to fill cream puffs this week. It is amazing! Rich & decadent in flavor, yet not too difficult to whip up. I’ve never had better! Thank you for posting!
Tourista says
This is great! Have you tried making a German buttercream with it? Or do you think it would work in a German buttercream?
Sue says
Hi Dini! I made your creme Patissiere as a base for Thai milk tea choux and it was delicious. I’m thinking of using ur chocolate creme Patissiere for Nutella Creme Patissiere. Do you think it will work if I replace the 6oz bittersweet chocolate with Nutella?
Thank you in advance!
Dini says
Hi Sue!
I love Choux milk tea! I’m glad you liked the pastry cream recipe 🙂
You could use Nutella instead of chocolate, but it will be less chocolatey, and sweeter than this recipe (because nutella has more sugar and less chocolate than bittersweet chocolate). Because of the soft texture of nutella, the pastry cream may also have a softer texture too.
Jenny says
Is this recipe enough for a 10in tart?
Dini says
Hi Jenny
It would depend on the height of the 10 inch tart pan and how thick the crust is.
I would make at least 1.5 times the recipe, so that I wouldn’t end up running out of the custard.