Italian Cream Pie
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The best authentic Italian Cream Pie recipe! Passed down for generations it uses homemade Italian cream and a sweet crust dough for the perfect dessert! This post is sponsored by my friends at Bob’s Red Mill.
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Introducing: my all time favorite dessert, Italian Cream Pie! Sweet crust filled with chocolate and vanilla Italian cream, baked until golden brown and chilled for the perfect texture.
This Italian pie has been a favorite of mine since I was a little girl! My Gram has made this every year for Easter ever since I can remember. The recipe comes from her mom (my great Gram!) and it is absolutely divine.
This pie definitely doesn’t fall in the ‘clean eating’ category, but so many of you have expressed interest in my Gram’s authentic Italian recipes that I had to share it with you. (We also shared our favorite homemade cavatelli recipe!)
While we love our veggies and protein… dessert is our favorite part of any meal, and these classic recipes have a special place in my heart.
Making pies can be intimidating, which is why I’m breaking down every single step of this recipe for you below! I promise, if you follow the steps – you can make a perfect pie and impress your family and friends with how delicious it is! Anyone can make this!
How to make Italian Cream Pie Crust:
We’re using our favorite Bob’s Red Mill Unbleached White All-Purpose Flour in this recipe. This is my go to flour whenever I’m baking.
We love their paleo baking flour and oat flour for healthier treats, but the all purpose flour is our go to when baking. We use it in everything from cookies, to pies, pizza dough and more!
In order to make Italian Cream Pie Crust you’ll need:
- Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Flour
- milk
- sugar
- an egg
- butter
- baking powder
- vanilla extract
Making this pie crust is pretty straight forward.
- Combine butter, sugar, vanilla, egg + milk. Slowly add in flour + baking powder until dough is formed. It should come together pretty quickly (only about 30 seconds!).
- Once your dough has been formed, wrap it in saran wrap and put it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to roll it out.
How to make Italian Cream:
Once your dough is formed, it’s time to make the Italian cream. You’ll need:
- whole milk
- orange/lemon rind
- cocoa powder
- Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Flour
- egg yolks
- sugar
- vanilla extract
Making the Italian cream is the most difficult step in this process!
- Mix together all of the ingredients for the Italian cream except cocoa powder. Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. (Step 4)
- See below for tips for straining the cream. Once strained, add lemon/orange rind to the mixture and begin to cook.
- Turn stove on medium heat and add pot to stove. Stir mixture constantly in the same direction, using your spatula to scrape along the bottom so the cream doesn’t stick. The mixture might get lumpy, but keep stirring for about 5 minutes. When the cream mixture starts to boil, boil it very low for 3-5 minutes.
- Turn off heat. Remove rinds from the cream mixture and throw away, using a spatula to scrape the cream off the rings. If your cream is lumpy, you can run it through a strainer again. (Tips for this below)
- Take 1 cup of cooked cream and put it aside in a small dish.
- Mix together the cocoa powder with the 1 cup of cream off to the side until smooth to make your chocolate cream.
How to Make Italian Cream Pie:
Once your Italian cream pie is done:
- Prepare a greased 9” pie plate. Roll out pie crust on a lightly floured surface. Place rolled out bottom crust in the pie dish. Press gently until it’s smooth against the pie dish.
- Put vanilla cream around the edge of pie + chocolate cream in the center.
- Add top of crust to pie. Form edges of crust with your knuckles
- Using a sharp, small paring knife – slice vents into the top of the crust. You can make a little design like I did, or just give a few slices.
- Bake at 375° for 20 minutes.
Allow pie to cool, and place in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours before serving. When ready to serve, dust with powdered sugar + enjoy!
Helpful Tips for Italian Cream Pie:
Straining: Straining the cream/mixture is an important part of this recipe. The first straining is done before you cook the cream to ensure you don’t get clumps of egg and flour in your cream. You may need to strain the cream mixture twice. If you find that there are a lot of flour /egg clumps, use a spatula to gently press them through a thin metal strainer. Here is the strainer I use and here is a link to a spatula we use!
You should only have a few clumps of flour stuck in the strainer. You need most of the flour in the cream to help it thicken, so try to really press it through to get out the clumps.
You can also strain the cream after it has been cooked if there are clumps. You’ll notice in my photos I did include an image to show you that I did strain the cream. Sometimes when cooking it can get clumpy. It’s not necessary to strain it, but if you want a smooth Italian cream it may be worth the extra step!
Refrigerating Dough: Refrigerating the dough before you roll it out will be helpful. You don’t want the dough to be hard, but you also don’t want it to be mushy. 30 mins-hour in the fridge is perfect. You can make this dough 24 hours in advance and leave it in the refrigerator. You will need to leave it out for about 1 hour before trying to roll it.
Keeping dough covered: Keep your dough covered with saran wrap before using it. You do not want the dough to dry out.
Storing/Serving Cream Pie
You must chill this pie for at least 24 hours before serving. The cream needs to set. I’ve found it is helpful to put the pie in the freezer for 1 hour before serving to make it easier to slice.
This pie will last for 5 days in the refrigerator.
Substitutions for Italian Cream Pie
We always try to provide substitutions for our recipes, but this is one that doesn’t have many substitutions. Baking is a science, so there really isn’t too much room for swapping ingredients. Here are some notes for you.
Gluten Free: I have not tried this recipe with Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-1 flour but I think it would work.
Dairy Free: Unfortunately I don’t think you can make this pie dairy free. I haven’t tested it, but I think it would be very difficult to mimic the taste/consistency without butter or milk
Maraschino cherries: My gram usually adds in ¼ cup chopped maraschino cherries. After filling the pie (Step 11) she will press in small pieces of the cherries into the filling. You don’t want to leave them on top of the cream because they will turn the crust red. Gently press them into the cream by about 1/4 inch and smooth the cream over the top if you’d like to add them
We hope you love this pie as much as we do! It’s a classic dish that has been made and served in my family for years. I hope you can enjoy it with your family and friends for a treat this season!
Italian Cream Pie
Ingredients
Pie Crust:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup butter room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
Italian Cream Filling
- 6 egg yolks
- 1 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Flour
- 1 quart whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 rind from 1 orange
- 1 rind from 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder OFF TO THE SIDE
Instructions
- First, make pie crust dough. Combine butter, sugar, vanilla, egg + milk. Slowly add in flour + baking powder.
- Divide dough in half. Roll into two circles. Wrap in saran wrap and put in the refrigerator until ready to use. You *must* wrap the dough to avoid it from drying out.
- Make the cream. Add all ingredients except rinds + cocoa powder into mixing bowl. Mix using a whisk or whisk attachment.
- Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the mixture into a pot. This part is important to help get the bits of egg/flour and avoid clumpy cream. See above for notes on straining. You may need to strain twice.
- Add lemon and orange peel to the pot with strained cream mixture.
- Turn stove on medium heat and add pot to stove. Stir mixture constantly in the same direction, using your spatula to scrape along the bottom so the cream doesn’t stick. The mixture might get lumpy, but keep stirring for about 5 minutes.
- When the cream mixture starts to boil, boil it low for 3-5 minutes.
- Turn off heat. Remove rinds from the cream mixture, using a spatula to scrape the cream off the rings. If your cream is lumpy, you can run it through a strainer again.
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Take 1 cup of cooked cream and put it aside in a small dish.
- Mix together the cocoa powder with the 1 cup of cream off to the side until smooth to make your chocolate cream.
- Prepare a greased 9” pie plate. Roll out pie crust on a lightly floured surface.
- Place rolled out bottom crust in the pie dish. Press gently until it’s smooth against the pie dish.
- Put vanilla cream around the edge of pie + chocolate cream in the center. See above for photo.
- Add top of crust to pie. Form edges of crust with your knuckles (see above for guidance)
- Using a sharp, small paring knife – slice vents into the top of the crust. You can make a little design like I did, or just give a few slices.
- Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.
- Allow pie to cool at room temperature for about an hour and place in the refrigerator for to chill at least 24 hours before serving.
- When ready to serve, dust with powdered sugar + enjoy!
I love this recipe. Only one question: can I make this with just a bottom crust? Do I need to precook the crust before filling it with the cream?
I’m sorry – but I wouldn’t recommend making this any other way besides the recipe. The cream needs to bake to set, and if you don’t have a top crust, the cream would burn if you baked it in the oven.
My aunt was the consummate Easter pie baker. Her pantry would be filled with pies each with a toothpick holding a little tag saying who it belonged to. There was a cream pie for my husband as that was his favorite. I inherited her recipe box and it was filled with multiple versions of each pie!
When I saw your pictures I saw her pie!!!
The pie was absolutely wonderful and my husband was thrilled! The only adjustment I made was a little more cocoa and I was out of milk so I used half and half. I cooked it about 30 minutes.
Perfect! Thank you so much! It brought back wonderful memories.
I made this pie for Easter and it was so good. I will make again for sure
any cream pie can become dairy free today, creamy oat milk, silk whipping cream. I even use almond milk.
The butter substitute is plant based butter. works the same, you may want to add a little extra flour but I have no problem substituting for cream or butter; healthier anyway.
No, every pie can not become dairy free. This entire pie is made with all dairy ingredients – we don’t recommend changing ingredients without testing them ourselves first. 🙂 Nondairy milks do not have the same makeup as dairy milks and can work completely differently in recipes.
You can absolutely substitute oat milk or almond milk for cow milk and plant butter is a perfect substitute for real butter. I make it every year at Easter. Dairy Free.
Have you made this exact recipe with plant butter and oat or almond milk? Every recipe is different so unless you’ve tried this one I wouldn’t recommend it!
Try it for Thanksgiving & my family, and my In-law love it I gave them the recipe
I left a review last week but got so excited and wanted you to know that this pie which I made for my friend and her family was a big hit. They loved it and asked me to make another for a birthday coming up. They loved loved this pie. This is a keeper. Thank you
So glad you liked it, Debi! Thank you so much!
This is my go to and best Italian cream pie favorite. I make it every holiday.
Quick question can I make ahead of time and freeze the pie or will it affect the taste and quality.
Unfortunately this pie does not freeze well at all. I wouldn’t recommend making it more than 2 days in advance. It’s best made 24 hours before you’d like to serve it!
Easy and the best Italian Cream pie!
Thank you so much, Debi! I appreciate it!
This pie was everything I dreamed of and more! The custard was so yummy that I was worried I wouldn’t have enough to fill my pie by the time I was done stealing little tastes! Definitely will be making this again!
Thank you so much, Christiana! I’m so glad you enjoyed it – it’s seriously one of my favorite desserts!
This recipe is delicious and super easy. I was nervous but it came out perfect. Thank you again for great recipe!!
So glad to hear it, Megan! Enjoy!!
I made this for Easter dessert and it turned out so well! The directions are clear and easy to follow. It was hard not to eat all of the cream before it made it to the pie though.
The only issue I had was my mistake—I should have rolled the crust a little more thin. It has a delicious almost sugar cookie texture but was too thick.
I think I’ll lower the sugar next time, only as a personal preference.
My Italian husband gave it a hearty two thumbs up!
So glad you liked it, Charity! It sounds delicious 🙂
I made this today for Easter Sunday. I sampled the cream, and it came out perfectly. I did sub in a bit of heavy whipping cream (like ½ cup) for some of the whole milk just to add more richness. The crust is a *little* delicate when rolling out, and getting in the pan, but it’s very very forgiving and easy to patch up or even just ball up and roll out again. I live in a very dry area, so it could just be my climate too.
Overall it’s an amazing recipe. Super authentic and just like I remember growing up.
I’m so glad you liked it, Lauran! Next time try chilling the dough for 20 minutes or so -that should help with rolling it out!
This was so delicious! From the second I saw Liz post it I knew I had to make it…and it did NOT disappoint! The pie dough was so easy to shape and deal with, not like others! And the cream/custard… oh my god so amazing! Definitely will be making this again!!
I’m so glad you liked it, Diane! The Italian cream is definitely the best part 🙂 Enjoy!!
This is seriously delicious. Worth the extra steps and work!! WAs skeptical to try because I’m not much of a baker but I’m glad I did!
So glad you liked it, Joann! Thank you so much!!
Omg, this looks amazing and I know I would love it. My mother used to make a a cream dessert that this reminds me of called Crema but unfortunately I am dairy free 🙁
Thanks, Melina! It’s so yummy! Such a bummer.. I wonder if this would work if you used one of the higher fat almond/coconut milk and some cornstarch? Can’t say for sure but it might be worth a try!