An extremely rich and chocolatey, gluten-free & low carb chocolate pastry cream which is perfect for filling pastries and pies, an ice cream base, or thinned for pudding.
As you probably know by now, I love puddings and pastry creams and anything chocolate. This chocolate pastry cream brings the total of recipes for pastry cream on this blog to a grand total of three. I have a dairy-free coconut milk pastry cream, a basic low carb vanilla pastry cream and now, this uber thick and rich chocolate pastry cream – which is basically a super thick low carb chocolate pudding.
As I’ve said in several posts, I think everyone should learn how to make some of the basics – like pastry cream. The basics are the jumping-off points for great recipes. If you have a few basic pie crust recipes in your repertoire, you can make almost any pie. A few basic things like lemon curd or pastry cream can be turned into pie filings, tart fillings, parfaits, trifles, cake fillings or frozen treats.
Knowing a few good basic recipes frees one from having to follow complex recipes and fosters creativity. Honestly, most more complex recipes are really just variations of basic techniques or several basic recipes put together.
I really love this recipe. It’s thick enough that it can be whipped a little to lighten the texture, it can easily be used as a layer for a birthday cake – either on its own or lightened with whipped cream, it’s a great base for ice cream, mixed with whipped cream it makes a terrific pie filling, and thinned with some almond milk it becomes the perfect pudding.
Low Carb Chocolate Pastry Cream = 3 net carbs per serving
[Disclosure: This recipe contains affiliate links.]
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup erythritol
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (sift before measuring)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch or arrowroot powder
- 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 large whole eggs
- 3 large egg yolks
- 2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon stevia glycerite
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Ready a strainer by the stove, finely chop the chocolate and have the butter ready.
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Place the cream and almond milk in a medium sauce pan or pot (about a 6 cup capacity), and turn the heat to medium - low.
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Add the erythriltol, cornstarch, xanthan gum, cocoa powder and salt to a medium heat-proof mixing bowl and mix together with a small whisk. Add the 2 whole eggs and the three yolks to the dry ingredients in the bowl and whisk together.
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If bubbling and simmering hasn't occurred around the sides of the saucepan, turn the heat up to medium until it does. Then turn-off the heat and while whisking the egg mixture continuously, pour all of the cream into the mixing bowl in a thin stream.
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Put the pot back on the stove and scrape the egg and cream mixture into the pot. Quickly rinse out the bowl, swipe with a paper towel, and set next to the stove with the strainer over the top.
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Turn the heat to medium low and begin whisking the pastry cream mixture. Nothing will happen for about 2 1/2 minutes and then it will start to thicken-up slightly. Whisk a little faster. At about the 3 - 3 1/2 minute mark, it will begin to thicken. Whisk briskly and cook for 1 minute more BUT don't let the mixture boil or the eggs will scramble. A lazy simmer is fine.
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Turn off the heat and remove the pot from the stove, still whisking briskly for another minute. Whisk in the vanilla, stevia glycerite, chopped chocolate and butter. Then, pour the pastry cream through the strainer, catching any cooked egg bits.
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To cool, push a piece of plastic wrap right on top of the surface of the pastry cream and place in the refrigerator OR make a water bath by putting ice and water in a large bowl, setting the smaller bowl with the pastry cream into the water bath, and stirring until cool. Then cover and refrigerate for 4-6 hours or best if overnight. Makes about 2 cups.
1 serving equals 1/2 cup.
Is there a substitute (like stevia) for the erythriltol?
Erythriltol REALLY doesn’t agree with me.
Hi Deborah. Have you tried stevia glycerite? I find it much less bitter than other liquid stevia. Also, Sukrin USA has a tagatose product called Tagatesse. It is twice as sweet as sugar so use half of the amount called for in recipes. It has a small amount of calories and carbs. I love it. You can find all of the information about it on the Sukrin USA website. You can ask the owner questions. She is very knowledgeable and very nice. People have been talking about a new sweetener called Bocca Sweet. It is made from Kabocha squash. I bought some, then researched… It seems that it is not really a low carb sweetener but has a much lower glycemic index than sugar. It has a clean sweet taste just like sugar and does not cool like erythritol. I mixed it half and half with generic erythritol to use it up and it was just fine. However, I’m sure my baked goods had more carbs than they usually would.
I don’t have much experience with the new monk fruit sweeteners that don’t contain erythritol. When I used it, years ago, it was only available in liquid form. I have used the Lakanto Montfruit sweeteners but they are eryhtritol based. There are pure monk fruit sweeteners available.
I hope I answered some questions and offered some things for you to check into and didn’t confuse the issue further! Have a nice weekend. -Kim
Why can’t I get my cream to thicken, it’s not even pudding thick !
Hi Robin. With the eggs and the cornstarch (or arrowroot) and then the melted chocolate, it should be plenty thick. I can only thing that it wasn’t cooked long enough or at high enough temperature. Every stove is different so my medium low may be different than yours.
Pastry cream takes a few times to get right. It’s either cooked at too high a temperature resulting in scrambled egg bits in the pastry cream or cooked too low and it doesn’t thicken. It becomes thickest after sitting overnight. -Kim
Hello Kim, I was wondering if we make this recipe as a “milk” chocolate cream instead of a dark chocolate, and how might we do that? My family is a huge fan of your other recipes, but not a fan of dark chocolate. Thank you so much 🙂
Hi Timi Lisa. Yes, you can. First, make sure to sift your cocoa before using because clumps means the ingredient is compacted and you will use more. Try using half of the cocoa powder and half of the chocolate and see if you like it. If you are using this in the chocolate lasagna recipe, I would add 1/2 tablespoon more of the cornstarch or arrowroot so that it will be stiff enough for the layer. I hope this helps. -Kim
I have made this wonderful pastry cream for a birthday cake filling before and it turned out fantastic, however tonight I made it as a pie filling, same method but after I placed it in the pie shell, it separated badly. I now have a pie filled with thick chocolate pudding which is suspended in oil. Any ideas where I went wrong?
I don’t know, what happened. Did you use the cornstarch/arrowroot Powder? Did you cook to long and scramble the egg? I always refrigerate the pastry cream then mix with a hand mixer to loosen and homogenize the texture. Did you try mixing with a mixer after refrigeration and before filling the pie? I’m sorry that happened. -Kim
Do you have an actual pastry recipe …like a croissant type pastry?
Hi Cindy. I have all kinds of pie crust recipes and a few tart recipes as well as a cake recipe that use pastry cream. It can also be used as a cake filling. -Kim
Hey there! How would you modify this to be a vanilla flavor? Is there a similar recipe? Thank you for your time!
Hi Sandy. Yes, I have a Vanilla Pastry Cream recipe on the site. You can find it by using the search function. -Kim
Kim, just wanted you to know this recipe also made a great ice-cream base! I made a slight modification to reduce the freezing point and added bits of low-carb coconut-pecan frosting to make a sort of German chocolate cake ice-cream (I was feeling too lazy to make the cake). I have a binder full of your recipes, but if you published a cookbook, I would buy it in a minute.
So happy to hear the recipe doubles as an ice cream base. I love how you turned into German Chocolate Ice cream. How wonderful. Thanks for sharing your idea. Have a wonderful week. -Kim
Oh my goodness… This pastry cream is the BOMB DIGGETY! Seriously – it is so chocolately, rich, and creamy.
I got a little worried while making it: everything was perfect until I added the stevia, and then the mixture thickened up A LOT and got kind of grainy-looking in texture. I kind of had a sort of slimy, yet grainy-appearing, chocolate lump of goo. I decided to trust that I followed the directions, put it in my fridge and forgot about it till the morning. That’s when Igot worried again. I noticed that some of the “cream” had sort of oozed out of the mixture, and the chocolate lump was now more like a grainy-looking brick. I had no idea how I was going to whip this mass of gunk, let alone make a dessert with it. BUT, lo and behold: as soon as I added a bit of coconut milk (and I mean VERY LITTLE in comparison to what I thought I would need to thin this out), it turned into a velvety, chocolatey, creamy DREAM COME TRUE!
I’ve been trying to perfect a chocolate mousse/pudding type of dessert that is low carb, tastes good, and doesn’t harden into a hard lump in the fridge. THIS is the recipe I have been waiting for!!! I am so excited for my sister and mother to try it – its just the right amount of sweetness for me, and just the lightest amount of sweetness for them at the same time – and oh so chocolately.
I made this for the chocolate lasagna, which I cannot wait to try tomorrow when I get home from work. It really looks like a piece of art, and from all of the taste testing I did while preparing it, I can tell it is going to be banging! (BTW, thanks for the warning about how much this makes. I scaled it down to 1/4th the original recipe and STILL had a ginormous dessert, enough for at least 6 people).
Already I am trying to figure out when I can make more chocolate pastry cream AND vanilla pastry cream, and of all the different ways I can use it..
Thank you for your hard work and for sharing your knowledge and expertise with the rest of us!
Wow! Well, I’m glad you like the recipe, Kelly, but I’m laughing over here. What you are describing is not what I see when I make the pastry cream at all. Lol. I’m glad it worked out for you! Lol. I have a big question mark over my head at the moment. Overnight, the pastry cream will stiffen-up because of the chocolate, but beat it well before doing anything to it. Did you know that the recipe card will scale the recipe for you? If not, try it next time and it will save you some time. After your explanation I am a little worried. Let me know how you dessert turns out. Have a great night! -Kim
Hi Kim,
Yes, I did utilize the scale feature. Thankfully so, or I would have been out on the street corner feeding the homeless with all the leftovers!
Actually, the chocolate lasagna came out fantabulous and extremely tasty. My mother took one bite and made me promise I would send her home with some (as a diabetic, she knows she is not supposed to have sugar; she thought this was made with “bad” stuff since it was so good!). She realized I was serious about it being sugar free when I gave her enough to last a few days (I’m a nurse and would NEVER do that with sugar-laden treats).
Even my sister loved it! And she is extremely difficult to please in terms of food ever since she was a child. I think there was about a 10 year period where all my mother could get her to eat was ice cream, pickles, and potatoes (true story!).
I really did have a lot left over, even with scaling it down and sending some home with my mom. So I packed up the rest and will bring it in to work for my coworkers to enjoy. They will love it, I’m sure.
Not sure why my pastry cream did that either, but either way, the end result was delicious!
Fantastic, Kelly. I’m so glad your mom and sister liked the recipe. Thanks for letting me know how it turned out. Enjoy the rest of your week. Take care. -Kim
Can I use swerve in place of erythritol?
THANKs!
Swerve is and erythritol and fiber based sweetener, Melissa, absolutely. Enjoy! -Kim
How do you get away with using cornstarch? Scary to me, that’s all.
Hi Linda. It only adds 1 carb per serving. I tested this recipe extensively will all thickener combinations and amounts. This combination produced the best product with acceptable carb counts to me. Using xanthan gum made the pastry cream gummy and slippery while using glucomannan made it gloppy. I only use starchy thickeners when I believe it’s the best option. I try my best to offer recipes as close to the real thing as possible with as low a carb count as I can get without sacrificing texture or flavor. Ultimately, you can tweak the recipe to suit your needs. I hope this helps. Enjoy your week. -Kim
Can I use 4 T cocoa powder and cornstarch instead of xanthum gum in this recipe ?
Yes you may Brenda, but I suggest to make the recipe as written if you are going to make the Low Carb Chocolate Lasagna. The only reason I say this is because I has previously tried to change the recipe to lower the carbs, and it didn’t work in the chocolate lasagna recipe. Please see my previous answer for more information on subs. -Kim
What can you use in place of xanthum gum if u don’t have it? And I only have cocoa powder. Can I use 4 T to make it enough chocolate flavor?
Great questions, Brenda. The baking chocolate helps the pastry cream firm up if you are using this as part of the Low Carb Chocolate Lasagna, I would follow the recipe but add 1 teaspoon more of cornstarch or arrowroot if you are skipping the xanthan gum. If this is going to be a pudding, add more cocoa powder to taste to sub for the bakign chocolate and don’t worry about the xanthan gum. -Kim
Kim, I made the chocolate lasagna dessert for Christmas last year and it was amazing! This year, I put my twelve-year-old in charge of the pudding, and after four hours in the fridge it’s not whipping up and is milkshake consistency! Did my daughter likely skip a step, or does it just need longer? My daughter did her best and I don’t want to cross examine her about whether she followed the recipe correctly!
Tania. It could one of two reasons. It could be that it wasn’t cooked long enough or it could be because I reduced how much cornstarch (or arrowroot) was in the recipe because I got so many complains about it not being low carb. I can’t get to my computer (I’m with my mom in the hospital). Let me look at the recipe and I will reply again. -kim
Okay Tanya, try 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and it should be better. Also, make sure that the pastry cream is hot enough to very slowly bubble if stirring. I’m sorry, but I won’t be near my phone much during the weekend and upcoming week. I’ll be in the hospital. So sorry. -Kim
could you sub coconut cream for the whipping cream?!??!? This looks TOO good!
Sure, Monika! It would be awesome! -Kim
I can’t wait to make this!….so many ideas. Thank you!
You’re very welcome Diana. Happy creating! -Kim
Could you use coconut milk instead of almond milk?
Absolutely, Gayle! Enjoy. -Kim
Kim, this looks so lovely! Question, where do you get your erythritol? We don’t have a Whole Foods and I don’t think Harris Teeter carries it…. But we have a tiny local health food store that might have it. Would it be where the sugar is? Thanks. xoxo
Love your new picture, Katie! Great question. To test my recipes, I order the cheapest 5 pound bag from Amazon. It is cheaper than what I can get locally at the healthy food store. You don’t have to worry about a non-gmo or organic source, once it is extracted from plant fiber and refined it becomes a pure compound with nothing of its source remaining. Erythritol has 60% the sweetness of sugar so I augment with stevia. Some erythritol brands add stevia or chicory root fiber to bump the sweetness to that of Sugar. A popular brand is Swerve – available in granular and powdered form. I like Sukrin that I buy from the Sukrin USA site. It is mixed with stevia. Check out this article about what is available in low carb sweeteners. I hope this helps Katie! Ttys. -Kim
Lovely (new) photo, Kim!!
Thanks’s Fran. I appreciate it! Have a nice weekend. -Kim
Oh wow, this looks all chocolaty, creamy, and yummy! Thanks 🙂
Oh this looks SO good! And very useful!
This would be so good a dip for strawberries!
This needs to be in my mouth RIGHT NOW! I probably would just eat it by the spoonful! It looks amazing!
Lol. Thanks, Sarah! It was good whipped and eaten like pudding. Then, I made it into a pie! Yum! -Kim
This looks wonderful! What are you going to make with it next? 🙂
Thanks. Maya. Maybe a chocolate pie! -Kim
Instead of worrying over the eggs cooking, could you also cook the ingredients and add the eggs and vanilla at the end…similar to making a cream pie? Then you would not have to strain it.
Kim, that’s a great question. All of the recipes I have seen for pastry cream or homemade pudding recipes call for tempering and then cooking the eggs to form a custard. I’m not sure that the eggs would cook completely nor the pastry cream be thick enough with out that step (actually, with all of the chocolate, it may be). The straining is really just a fail-safe just in case some of the whites cooked hard…
So to clarify, you’re saying to add the salt, sugar, and cornstarch to the pot and stir, add the liquids and stir, bring to a simmer and then add the chocolate and stir to melt. Then add the eggs and vanilla right at the end (off heat?) using the residual heat to cook the eggs? I haven’t tried it. Can you link to a recipe so I can see the procedure? I’m interested. Thanks! -Kim
Do you have a breakdown on this recipes ingredients? I don’t see how these ingredients can add up to 40 grams of Carbohydrates and 10 grams of fiber.
Hi Margie. Thanks for your question. I type the raw weight of all ingredients in my recipes into a program called MasterCook. It does all of the calculations for me. So, no, I don’t have an itemized breakdown of the nutrients in each ingredient – the program doesn’t work that way and I’m not interested in presenting the recipe that way. But I hope this helps explain…
The heavy cream does contain carbohydrates and there is 1 cup in the recipe, the eggs are about .33 carb per each, the cocoa powder has 3 carbs and 3 grams of fiber per tablespoon, and the baking chocolate has 9 grams of carbohydrates and 5 grams of fiber per square. It all adds up. If you are using this as a pudding, whip it on high for about 1-2 minutes and it should expand as it traps air bubbles giving you a larger serving size – about 1/3 cup or 89 mls. I hope this helps answer your question. Have a great day – Kim
Could coconut cream be substituted for the heavy cream? I would love to have this, but unfortunately dairy and I are not friends even though I wish we could be. 🙁
Oh, yes, Jill. It would be amazing! Let me know how it works. -Kim
I made this last night- so delicious, it’s hard to believe it’s virtually carb-free. My new favourite dessert (and sometimes breakfast. .. shhhh!) Thank you so much!
Katy. I’m so happy you like it. I love it, too. Rich, chocolate pudding is the best! I don’t blame you for having it for breakfast! Your secret is safe with me! -Kim
We are doing a Diabetic Walk on Saturday and my question is can I make this the night before because we will be leaving early that day Thganks
Just came upon your sight today and have found many recipes and good reviews that is what I like to see.
Thank you sooooooooooooo much.
Hello, Cecelia. Yes, absolutely! The pastry cream can be made several days before. I know that this question is in regards to the Low Carb Chocolate Lasagna so I will answer in regards to that.
I would make the whole dessert the day before because it gets better as it sits. Just to let you know. If you make the pastry cream a day or so ahead, it will get stiff in the fridge and it may be a little stiff to spread on the cream cheese layer. Take it out an hour before you need it and whip it really good with a hand beater before adding the milk. Then it should be good for spreading. Have fun on the walk. -Kim
Can i substitute xanthum gum for the cornstarch?
Thanks for your question Jeff. I have found that xanthan gum makes the pastry cream a little slimy and rubbery and doesn’t thicken in the same way. You could substitute arrowroot powder for the cornstarch or leave the starch out, but it will produce a pastry cream that is a little less firm. If you are making this as part of the Low Carb Chocolate Lasagna, then I would reduce the amount of milk in the “pudding” layer or perhaps leave it out. Let the pastry cream get really cold and see how stiff it is after beating with a hand mixer. If it is stiff and not the consistency of pudding, then add a little milk. Go slowly, because it won’t firm back up if too much is added. If you are making the pastry cream for another application like a pie filling and are mixing it with whipped cream, then add 1/8 teaspoon to the whipped cream and it will help with the texture. I hope this was helpful! -Kim
This looks delicious! Quick question:
The recipe calls for 2 eggs and then 3 eggs. Do I use 2 or 3? Or 5?
When I separate the eggs, do I add all to the recipe or just the yolks?
I can’t wait to try this!
Thanks!
Hi Sarah, thanks for your question. The recipe uses 3 large egg yolks and 2 large whole eggs, so a total of 5 eggs will be needed, but 3 egg whites will be left over. Is that any clearer? Let me know. Have a nice day! -Kim
Pictures don’t lie (unless it’s my Facebook profile picture)! This looks marvelous! And my doctor would approve. Excellent!
Hi David. I don’t look like my facebook picture either! LOL. Thanks for the nice compliment. Have a nice weekend. -Kim
Will arrowroot work in place of the cornstarch?
Hi Malainie. Yes! In fact, I made both lemon curd & vanilla pastry cream with arrowroot the other day. It worked great. Have a nice weekend! -Kim