Our vegan pastry cream recipe only calls for five simple ingredients and takes 10 minutes to prepare.
This custard, another name for pastry cream, has multiple applications.
You can use it to make tarts, cakes, custard pies, cream puffs, pastries, and other vegan desserts. You can even eat it all alone, like pudding.
The delicious vegan chocolate pastry recipe is very flexible.
You can choose different ingredients to make vegan pastry cream with other flavors, such as lemon, vanilla, coffee, or peppermint. Your imagination is the limit.
Keep reading to learn how to prepare this easy recipe for a thick custard.
Delicious Vegan Chocolate Pastry Cream Recipe
Benefits of Chocolate consumption
Being born in Venezuela, where some of the best cocoa in the world comes from, I love any recipe with the word "chocolate" in it.
And this chocolate vegan cream recipe takes advantage of the best tropical chocolate flavor.
As someone born close to the cocoa production region of Barlovento, Venezuela, I have always had a sweet tooth for chocolate.
Barlovento produces the cocoa variety Criollo. Chocolatiers use Criollo cocoa to manufacture the best cocoa powder on earth.
Connoisseurs grade Criollo among the world's top 5% cocoa for its exquisite flavor.
According to Healthline's 7 Proven Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate, consuming dark chocolate should be part of a healthy lifestyle.
The perceived problems with chocolate-rich desserts and sweets might instead come from their refined white sugar content and not from any harm from the chocolate itself.
So don't let anyone make you feel guilty if you enjoy having your favorite chocolate treat.
What is a Vegan Custard?
The traditional pastry cream recipes include egg yolks, milk, and sugar.
Our vegan version replaces the dairy milk in the traditional custard with a substitute plant milk, such as soy or almond milk.
The best part about our vegan custard recipe is that it can be an ingredient in many vegan desserts, including simple chocolate, lemon, vanilla, and fruit tarts.
Our pastry can be used as an ingredient in custard pie and as pastry cream to fill croissants and doughnuts.
You can change the ingredients used in the recipe to get a pastry cream with your favorite flavor.
We share below how to prepare vanilla custard, coffee custard, and even pistachio custard in the flavor variants section.
Vegan Chocolate Pastry Cream Ingredients
Check the recipe card at the bottom of the post for the exact ingredient amounts.
Plant Milk: To produce a low-fat vegan custard, use any plant-based milk like soy, almond, or oat milk. You can use coconut milk or cashew milk instead for a higher-fat, creamier variant.
Cornstarch: It serves as a thickening agent. Cornstarch is hard to replace. But if you have an allergy, potato starch is a good substitute.
Sugar: We use white sugar in this recipe, but for a healthier alternative, choose brown cane sugar or coconut sugar. It makes no difference.
Vegan Dark Chocolate: Pick a brand with at least 70% cocoa.
Vanilla: Vanilla extract or Vanilla seeds if you don't mind the extra expense.
Chocolate Pastry Cream Preparation instructions
Combine the soy milk, sugar, and cornstarch in a small pot on the kitchen counter. Keep whisking the mix until all lumps are gone.
Keep stirring the milk mixture over medium heat until the liquid thickens into a creamy custard. Depending on the amount, it could take from two to five minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and continue stirring for an additional minute until you have nearly reached a creamy consistency. While the custard is off the heat, it will continue to thicken.
Add the chocolate and the vanilla at the very end. A delicate component like chocolate shouldn't be overheated.
We add it last, off the heat, for that reason.
Preparation problems and solutions
Improper cooling
The vegan custard will become lumpy when improperly cooled since the surface will dry off. While the custard cools, keep stirring to prevent that.
The quick, easy way to avoid that is to pour cold water into your sink.
Then immerse 3/4 of the pot and stir for 5 minutes, until the custard is nearly room temperature.
The stored pastry cream has turned lumpy.
There are two easy ways to correct this issue:
- 1Using the whisk, whip the custard vigorously. The lumps will be removed by whisking quickly. Then the vegan custard will go back to its original creamy state.
- 2Use a stand mixer to stir the custard. Blending the pastry cream will eliminate the lumps, but the custard will become more fluid.
Flavor Variations
Vanilla Pastry Cream Variation
The ingredients are similar, except leave out the chocolate.
Additionally, you must add:
Turmeric: Add a pinch of turmeric to give the pastry cream a nice yellowish color. Avoid adding too much, or the pastry cream will turn green and taste bad.
Follow the same instructions as above for the chocolate pastry cream.
Pistachio Custard
Roast pistachio nuts before blending them with plant milk to create smooth pistachio milk.
Next combine sugar, cornstarch, pistachio milk, and vanilla in a saucepan and prepare the custard according to the normal pastry cream recipe.
Coffee Custard
Add espresso or instant coffee to the plant milk, dissolve, then add the same ingredients as the chocolate recipe variant minus the chocolate. The preparation procedure is similar.
Storage
This vegan custard keeps well in the fridge for two to three days. Before putting the custard in the refrigerator, allow it to cool to room temperature while stirring.
When You need the custard, reheat it on low heat while whisking in a small amount of plant milk.
It's likely that as the custard cools, the surface could dry up and form a thin skin, which will cause bothersome lumps.
You can use a hand blender to mix the custard if the lumps are annoying you. It works because we tested it.
Unless you intend to use the custard to make ice cream, do not freeze it.
Additional Desserts you may also like
Since you liked this chocolate dessert you may also enjoy:
Delicious Vegan Chocolate Pastry Cream
Equipment
- 1 Hand mixer
Ingredients
- 2 cups soy, almond, oats, or rice vegan milk
- ½ cup Cornstarch
- ⅓ cups white sugar brown sugar or organic sugar another option
- 60 grs Dark Chocolate at least 70% cocoa for best results
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract seeds optional
Vegan Chocolate Pastry Cream Full Fat Version
- 1½ cups soy, almond, oats, or rice vegan milk
- ⅔ cups vegan cream soy cream, rice cream, coconut cream, or coconut milk
- ½ cups Cornstarch
- ⅓ cups white sugar brown sugar or organic sugar is another option. makes no difference
- 1 teaspoon Pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine the soy milk, sugar, and cornstarch in a small pot on the kitchen counter. Keep whisking the mix until all lumps are gone.
- Keep stirring the milk mixture over medium heat until the liquid thickens into a creamy custard. Depending on the amount, it could take from two to five minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and continue stirring for an additional minute until you have nearly reached a creamy consistency. While the custard is off the heat, it will continue to thicken.
- Add the chocolate and the vanilla at the very end. A delicate component like chocolate shouldn't be overheated.
Notes
Preparation problems and solutions
Improper cooling
The stored pastry cream has turned lumpy.
-
1Using the whisk, whip the custard vigorously, extremely hard. The lumps will be removed by whisking quickly. Then the vegan custard will go back to its original creamy state.
-
2Use a stand mixer to stir the custard. Blending the pastry cream will eliminate the lumps, but the custard will become more fluid.
Good post. I learn something totally new and challenging on websites I stumbleupon every day. Its always exciting to read articles from other writers and practice a little something from other sites.
Good post. I learn something new and challenging on blogs I stumbleupon on a daily basis. Its always exciting to read content from other authors and use a little something from other web sites.