How to Make the Ultimate Boston Cream Pie
Bridget teaches Julia how to make the ultimate classic Boston Cream Pie.
Get the recipe for Boston Cream Pie:
Buy our winning large saucepan:
ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America’s Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.
If you like us, follow us:
My mouth is watering for some Boston Cream Pie.
I feel so nostalgic watching you two. I used to watch you on PBS growing up.
INGREDIENTS…
——— Pastry Cream ———
6 egg yolks
½ cup granulated sugar
1 pinch salt
¼ cup all-purpose flour (usually it’s a cornstarch slurry)
2 cups half-and-half
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
—— Hot Milk Sponge Cake ——
¾ cup whole milk
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp salt
3 large whole eggs
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
——— Chocolate Ganache ——
½ cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp corn syrup
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
INSTRUCTIONS…
——— Pastry Cream ———
Whisk together yolks, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl until smooth. Whisk in flour. Set aside.
Bring half-and-half to a simmer in a large sauce pan over medium heat.
Use ½ cup of hot half-and-half to temper egg mixture.
Add yolk mixture to half-and-half and cook, whisking constantly, over medium heat until it just starts to thicken (about 1 minute). Reduce heat to medium low and continue to whisk while cooking until thickened (about 8 minutes). Raise heat to medium and continue to cook, while whisking, about 1 minute.
Remove from heat and whisk in butter and vanilla. Strain into clean bowl to remove any lumps. Cover with greased parchment paper, making sure the parchment is in contact with the entire surface in order to prevent a skin from forming.
Chill at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.
—— Hot Milk Sponge Cake ——
Heat milk and butter over low heat until butter is melted. Add vanilla and swirl to combine. Remove from heat and cover with a lid. Set aside.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Place the eggs and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat on high speed until foamy and pale, about 5 minutes.
Whisk in the hot milk mixture by hand. Whisk in the dry ingredients until combined.
Pour batter equally into two 9” round greased and parchment lined cake pans.
Bake at 325°F 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the tops are light brown.
Cool cakes completely in the pans on a wire rack.
——— Assembly ———
Flip one cake onto a wire rack and peel off parchment. Re-flip cake, pretty side up. Repeat with second cake.
Peal parchment off pastry cream and stir with whisk until spreadable. Pour onto center of cake bottom. Spread evenly over cake with offset spatula. Place second layer evenly on top. Set aside in fridge while making ganache.
——— Chocolate Ganache ——
Place cream and corn syrup in a medium sauce pan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts and is evenly distributed throughout cream (about 30 seconds). Let rest 5 minutes. It should thicken a little.
Pour ganache in center of cake. Use an offset spatula to distribute ganache evenly to edges. Leaving plenty on the top push ganache over the edge in a few places to create drips down the sides.
NOTES:
In this recipe flour is used to thicken instead of cornstarch (the thickener more commonly used in pastry cream). Cornstarch is pure starch (amylose) which can be broken down by the amylase enzyme in egg yolks. Flour contains starch, as well as protein and a small amount of fat which help prevent the egg enzymes from breaking down the starch.
Boston Cream Pie was traditionally made with a Genoise cake which is replaced with a close relative: hot milk sponge cake. This is less likely to deflate and has a richer flavor to balance the sweetness of the other components.
Corn syrup is the secret ingredient to stabilize the chocolate ganache so it sets up without becoming brittle.
Other chocolate, such as milk or semisweet can be substituted.
… I used almost same recipe for pastry cream, while back. They are correct about using flour instead of starch. I used starch instead and it broke down next day in fridge.
Without a doubt I say a Boston Cream Pie is the most delicious and elegant dessert ever made!
How can we get d written recipe w/o going to free access?
I made too much pastry cream for eclairs so this was the perfect solution of what to do with the extra…it was either that or eat it with a spoon.
My favorite dessert!! I always use an old recipe for chocolate glaze we used on pound cake when I was a kid. It's easy to make and stays soft even when cold. And you don't need heavy cream!
Fudgy Chocolate Glaze
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon clear corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
Combine first 5 ingredients in small saucepan. Cook at low simmer and stir over medium-low heat until completely smooth.
Remove from heat, and beat in the sifted powdered sugar until smooth.
Drizzle over cooled cake immediately, while glaze is very warm.
Allow to cool and firm up before cutting cake.
You answered my question within the 1st min. Thnyou!
I was looking for cornstarch substitute. I also appreciated the scientific explanation🙌
Im off to make this odd pie request. I wonder if you've heard of it ..
I'm told it's a 'vanilla type custard pie in a graham crust & meringue topping- ( I'm new to the neighborhood- gents are Irish/English descendants)🥧
(Recipe transcribed below- but still watch the video as you make it to see their tips and consistencies)
I made this for my fiancé’s birthday and here are our thoughts: I was scared of the pastry crème not getting thick enough so we spent a really long time whisking it (he helped) because I thought it didn't quite look as thick as theirs and another comment mentioned it not getting thick enough. But then it ended up being too thick and a tad rubbery when we ate it, so I’ll try less hard next time lol. For the chocolate glaze I used 6 oz of chocolate like another comment suggested (semisweet). I am glad that it doesn’t set into a brittle chocolate, but I think we would have liked it to set a little more; ours was kind of sticking to our knife pretty badly and not cutting as cleanly as theirs seems to have. Not sure what to change, but I think I might make a double batch of chocolate next time cause it’s tasty. My fiancé thought the cake component was pretty perfect though, and I definitely plan to make this again and just work on the crème.
Pastry Crème:
6 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
¼ all-purpose flour
2 cups half and half
0.5 cups half and half
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract.
Vegetable oil cooking spray
Cake:
6 tablespoons of unsalted butter
¾ cup whole milk
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract.
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1.5 teaspoons of baking powered
¾ teaspoon of salt.
3 whole large eggs
1.5 cups granulated sugar
Vegetable oil cooking spray
Chocolate Topping:
0.5 cups of heavy cream over
2 Tablespoons of corn syrup.
4 oz. of bittersweet chocolate finely chopped. (Sweet or semisweet is also fine)
Pastry Crème Instructions:
Whisk sugar and salt into egg yolks. Add flour and whisk again. Bring half and half to simmer over medium heat. Take a half a cup and put it in the egg mixture to temper. Mix in, then put entire egg mixture into the rest of the half and half in the pot over medium heat. Cook for about a minute while continuing to whisk. Turn heat to medium low and whisk for about eight minutes. Turn up heat to medium and whisk for about another minute. Take off heat and whisk in butter and vanilla. Put through sieve. To keep skin from forming, make circle of vegetable oil spray on a piece of parchment paper and press it down on top of the bowl of cream and put in oven. Can be made up to a day in advance.
Cake Instructions:
Put butter and whole milk in a pan, melt butter over low heat, then swirl in vanilla. Take off heat, put to side with lid on to keep it warm. Wisk salt and baking powder into flour. Put eggs and sugar into electric mixer. Beat on high speed until it is foam and pale, about five minutes. Wisk in hot milk mixture, then dry ingredients. Put into two nine-inch cake pans sprayed with vegetable oil cooking spray and with parchment paper in just the bottom. Put into 325 degree oven for about 20-22 minutes. Toothpick inserted in center should come out clean and top should be nice light brown. Cool the cake layers. Use a plastic knife to go around edge of pan, flip out onto rack. Apply pastry creme to one layer and put second layer on top, making sure both cakes are right side up.
Chocolate topping instructions:
Put heavy crème over medium heat, add corn syrup. When it simmers, take it off the heat and add chocolate. Wisk until melted, about 30 seconds. Let sit five minutes. Put it on top of cake.
Put in fridge for at least three hours. You can also make it up to a day in advance.
You’re done!
1) Instead of a bowl, put the pastry cream in a pie pan that's the same size of the cake – then you just 'plop' it on.
2) That cake was ugly as hell.
Instructions unclear: gf pregnant
The cake portion came out very dense. Is there any way to aerate it so its consistency leans more spongey and less pound cake?
Thank you!!!
Thank you so much I am making this for my dad – It is his absolute favorite dessert and you made it doable. You probably don't realize what a wonderful thing that is, but you need to know.
i'm going to make this keto style… you guys have all the fun. looks delish.
It stinks that to get this recipe you have to give all your personal information and credit card information to get a free 2 week trial! I just wanted a recipe for Boston cream pie. Guess I will go elsewhere. THANKS FOR NOTHING AMERICAN TEST KITCHEN!
How do you keep the cake layers from doming?
This looks DELICIOUS! I'm one of "those people" who use either organic or NON-GMO ingredients. So, my question is: Can I skip the corn syrup step all together? Thumbs up! Thank you.
Custard
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
Whisk
1/4 cup flour
Whisk
Simmer 2 cups half and half on medium heat
Take 1/2 cup of milk to egg mixture
Pour egg mixture into pot
Whisk until thick
Turn to medium- low heat
Pour 4 tbs unsalted butter
Add 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Strain custard
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours
Cake
3 cup milk
6 tbs butter
Melt over low heat with pot covered
Dry ingredients
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
Beat in stand mixer until foamy:
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
Whisk in milk
Whisk in dry ingredients
Transfer to two 9-inch pans
Put in 325 oven for 20-22 minutes or until light golden brown
Take out custard and give a
Stack other half of cake
Chocolate ganache
Heat over medium heat:
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tbs corn syrup
Take off heat
4 oz bittersweet chocolate
Whisk until melted
Pour ganache over cake
I baked this cake and my pastry cream is soft, in the fridge all night and is more like a pudding. Just waste lots of ingredients
If I substituted corn starch for the flour in the pastry cream, would it be the same amount?
I just made this today. Not a fan of the cake part (texture was like bread, but sweat). The pastry cream had great flavor, but an odd texture that I assume is due to flour used. I am going to remake this using a Jiffy box cake, and try using corn starch for the pastry cream. The chocolate ganache was AWESOME!! I molded the pasty cream in a cake pan so it was already round and flat and just needed to be placed between the cakes.
This is a promisingly different recipe (with the hot milk cake and the flour in the custard) but I've made the custard twice and found it to be grainy and dull, not smooth, creamy, and shiny. The flour needs work to dissolve in the eggs, and even with lots of whisking doesn't fully dissolve until you add the milk. For the effort and grainy result, I think the custard recipe is not worth it. Use other Boston Cream Pie custard recipes with cornstarch and cook them a little longer to get the firmer texture. No need to go the flour route. Sometimes ATK makes standard recipes more complicated without any additional payoff.
Can whole milk + some butter be substituted for the heavy cream in making the ganache? I had a hard time using up the rest of the heavy cream last time.
Dose it matter if the corn syrup is light or dark?
Thank you for not using corn starch
Cooking spray? Please…
Made the Boston Cream Pie from this today….it was perfect….my third recipe trial to get the right one…very happy with this…thank you for the recipe…and tips
So helpful!!! Thanks america's test kitchen… people 🙌
corn starch works fine. you need a turntable for when you spread cream and ice cake. plastic wrap neatly tucked into corners with no air works fine to prevent skin no need to use parchment and spray
I made this just a few hours ago, and I do have a few notes for some people who might be also looking to make this, too! I am an ametuer chef/baker, so these are real-life observations from someone who doesn't do this all day, every day.
First, my pastry cream did not come anywhere close to how thick it was in the video (it ended up with a "slightly thicker than ketchup" consistency, not the buttercream frosting-esque one in the video), but it still solidified very nicely and only oozed out from between the layers a small amount when I assembled it. If I had to go back, I would have probably continued cooking it longer than the 8 minutes recommended, possibly up to 10 or even 11 minutes to get that extra thickness. Also, you REALLY need to mix it vigorously, not just stir it. Your arms should be tired by the time it's the right consistency (if you haven't tapped out and tagged another person in lol). Also, make sure your heated half and half is less than 165°F (I aim for 150°-155°) when you mix in the egg mixture, because no matter how much you temper the mix, eggs scramble in anything higher than 165°, regardless.
Second, I have a cooking scale which helped keep the batter amounts even when distributing them into the pans, and I highly recommend you do that as well. Also, when I checked the cakes at the 20 minute mark, they were still pretty raw in the middle, and my wooden skewer ended up taking a gob of raw-ish cake with it, leaving a small divot in the top of the cake. I think I ended up baking them for a total of 26-29 mins, and they were fine, so don't be afraid to extend it a little if they need it (they are also very spongey and sticky if you handle them after they are cooled, and mine had a slight dome on the top of each cake which I had to cut off so the chocolate topping didn't just all slide off onto the sides and not stay).
And thirdly, the chocolate topping. Same issue as the pastry cream, mine was not as thick as the video's was (which is probably due to different kinds of cream and chocolate), and even after 5 minutes was still VERY hot and too thin to pour onto the chilled cake. I let it cool sitting on the counter in the saucepan, stirring it occasionally, for about 15-20 minutes total. Only then did I pour it out, and it worked like a charm. It needs to be the consistency of hot fudge for the best results, and after some testing I found using 6oz of chocolate works better at achieving that than 4oz.
I hope this helps any bakers out there!
This was the best recipe. Everything came out great
How beautiful those two women ❤️
Yummie!
Loved the video until they said, "great invention." It's a recipe, not an invention. Just like peanut butter. Sorry George Washington Carver.
Everything but the cake was good.. The cake is dense and dry..IMO
Cake needed to cook significantly longer than 22 minutes. Anybody else?
It's cool how they explained the science of corn starch vs. flour as a thickener.
I made this for my moms birthday today and she loved it! It’s really easy, just time consuming, I totally recommend it though!
Sometimes Boston Cream Pies bought in stores have a covering that is too thick and too firm– more like a fondant. It's very disappointing. This version seems perfect.
ATK – I made this recipe, and the cake and chocolate turned out perfect. But the filling cream turned out too hard – almost chewy. Anyone have a suggestion as to what I did wrong? Maybe I didn't get it hot enough, or possibly I over stirred it? I could barely get it through my wire strainer.
This is my dad's favorite pie/cake/pie, and I know he was disappointed with my last effort.
Excellent recipe. Followed it exactly and it came out perfect👍
This on my mom's pudding recipe for banana pudding. I make it a lot. I will make this for my husband. I have learned to cook again since we need to stay home more. Some are winners, some are loosers, mostly winners.
I'm glad Julia asked about substituting for the bitter-sweet chocolate. It's my least favorite part about BCP.
Just made this and it’s amazing. The sponge cake is perfect and stops the ganache and pastry cream from being too heavy and also not too sweet either just a really light vanilla flavour. It’s absolutely amazing with a cup of coffee. Will definitely be making it again!
R.I.P egg in the background… 6:20