24 pastry cream recipes

A show-stopping rhubarb tart in an almond pastry shell, served with fresh strawberry-kirsch sauce and homemade cinnamon ice cream. Three components, one unforgettable spring dessert.

Hungarian tarts with a cream cheese pastry shell and five filling options: almond, pecan, walnut, coconut, and farmer's cheese. A traditional holiday baking project.

Lemon cream and nut cookies, buttery shortbread ovals spread with homemade lemon curd and crowned with toasted almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, prunes, rum-soaked raisins, and candied orange. A jewel-box holiday cookie.

Ukrainian almond crescents with a tender sour cream yeast pastry rolled around a ground almond and brown sugar filling. Flaky, nutty, and golden, these Eastern European cookies melt in your mouth.

Kolachky dough made with cream cheese, butter, egg yolks, and flour. An overnight pastry dough that rolls out flaky and tender for filling with fruit or nuts.

Old-fashioned stovetop apple dessert with layers of pastry squares and spiced apples cooked in a kettle. This vintage pot pie simmers until tender, then gets served with cream.

Rigo Jancsi, the classic Hungarian chocolate cake with two layers of rich sponge filled with rum-spiked chocolate cream and topped with a glossy chocolate glaze. An elegant European pastry.

Black Forest rugalach pastries with a cream cheese dough wrapped around boozy cherry, dark chocolate and walnut filling. The Jewish bakery classic given a chocolate-cherry overhaul straight out of the German cake playbook.