Tarte à la Crème (Pastry Cream Tart)

Tarte à la Crème ("Pastry Cream Tart") is just that : a pie crust filled with delicious pastry cream. This French tart is very easy to make (and even easier to eat !).

Lire la recette de la tarte à la crème en Français

I told you you'd need to know how to make pastry cream !

Just like tarte au sucre, tarte à la crème is one of those desserts that takes me right back to my childhood. Tarte à la crème literally translates to pastry cream tart, and it is just that : a pie crust filled with pastry cream.

Preheat your oven, start baking the pie dough (I usually use pâte brisée, which is your regular pie crust dough, but I've also made it with pâte feuilletée (puff pastry) or pâte sablée (shortbread crust). Brisée is my favorite !). While the pie crust is starting to bake, make your pastry cream. Here is my how-to post on making pastry cream. Once the pastry cream has thickened, don't let it cool ! Take the pie crust out of the oven, pour the cream into it, spread evenly, and back to the oven it goes for about thirty minutes, until the dough is baked.

You can head to my Instagram story highlights to see how to make the tart :)

The hardest part of this recipe is waiting for the pastry cream tart to cool down completely so you can eat it. ;)


Here's how to make Tarte à la Crème (or pastry cream tart) :

TARTE À LA CRÈME (Pastry Cream Tart)
by A Cup Of Sprinkles

Tarte à la Crème ("Pastry Cream Tart") is just that : a pie crust filled with delicious pastry cream. This French tart is very easy to make (and even easier to eat !).

Cook time : 45 minutes
1 tart

Ingredients :
1 pie/tart dough
160g of sugar
1L of milk
2 tsp of vanilla extract
100g of flour
2 eggs
20g of butter, melted

Instructions :

Preaheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Roll out the dough and place it in a tart/pie pan. Using a fork, gently poke the bottom of the dough. Start baking.

While the pie dough starts baking, make the pastry cream : In a saucepan, whisk together the milk, sugar and vanilla extract.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, eggs, and melted butter.

Set the saucepan on low heat until the sugar is dissolved, then bring the milk to a boil.

Once the milk is boiling, remove from the heat. Add 2 tablespoons of milk to flour/egg and stir until combined. Then, while stirring, slowly pour about half the milk to the flour/eggs.

Transfer the milk/flour/egg back to the milk remaining in the saucepan (while stirring), and set it on low heat, stirring constantly, until the pastry cream has thickened.

Once the pastry cream has thickened, take the pie crust out of the oven. Fill the crust with pastry cream and spread evenly. Make sure not to overfill the crust !

Bake for another 30 minutes, until the pie crust has a golden color.

Let cool completely before eating.

Let me know in the comments if you make tarte à la crème/pastry cream tart ! You can also share a picture on Instagram by tagging @acupofsprinkles and using the hashtag #acupofsprinkles !

See other French recipes.
See other tart & pie recipes.