Name: French Buttercream
Prep time: 20 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 5 egg yolks; ⅔ cup white granulated sugar; 3 tbsp water; 1⅓ cups unsalted butter (room temperature, not too soft); 1¾ tsp vanilla essence/extract; 1 pinch salt

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French buttercream is literally the creamiest frosting you will ever have! Made with egg yolks, this recipe is super rich, not too sweet and is great for frosting and filling cakes, cupcakes and macarons!

What is French buttercream?

French buttercream is made using egg yolks, hot sugar that is boiled to the ‘soft ball stage’, and butter as it’s main ingredients. The use of egg yolks results in an incredibly creamy, custard like buttercream that your taste buds are going to love!

Much like Swiss meringue buttercream, it’s not too sweet and has a super smooth texture.

Does French buttercream taste like eggs?!

Although egg yolks are the star of this buttercream, you’ll be happy to know that it does not taste like eggs at all! 🙂

How stable is this frosting?

Because French buttercream is made using sugar syrup that is heated to the soft ball stage, this adds a fair bit of stability to the frosting. However, because this frosting uses egg yolks as opposed to egg whites, it isn’t as stable as an Italian meringue buttercream which utilizes a similar method. This makes French buttercream more sensitive to hot weather.

How to make French buttercream

Start by separating your egg yolks from your egg whites.

Next add your egg yolks to the bowl of a stand mixer, and using the whisk attachment, mix on a medium-high speed until the yolks are a pale yellow colour. This should take about 5 minutes.

While your egg yolks are mixing, you can start working on your sugar mixture. Add your sugar and water to a saucepan and mix it together so that the water coats all the sugar granules.

Place your saucepan on a low-medium heat and without stirring, heat the sugar until it reaches 115°C. This is known as the ‘soft ball stage’ when heating up sugar.

Once the sugar has reached 115°C, take if off the heat immediately and begin slowly pouring it into the egg yolks while the mixer is on a low-medium speed.

Once all the sugar is added in, turn up the speed to medium-high, and mix for 5-8 minutes until the mixture has cooled down. Next, add in your unsalted butter a tablespoon at a time.

Once all your butter is added in, the last step is to add in your vanilla and salt, and then continue to mix for a few minutes until the frosting is smooth.

Your frosting is now ready to use! 🙂

French Buttercream

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Servings: cups

Ingredients

▢ 5 (90 g) egg yolks
▢ ⅔ cup (140 g) white granulated sugar
▢ 3 tbsp (45 g) water
▢ 1⅓ cups (302 g) unsalted butter - room temperature, not too soft
▢ 1¾ tsp vanilla essence/extract
▢ 1 pinch (1 pinch) salt

Instructions

Begin by separating your egg yolks from your egg whites. Once separated, add your egg yolks to the bowl of a stand mixer, and using the whisk attachment, mix on a medium high speed for 5 minutes until the yolks are a pale yellow colour.
While your egg yolks are mixing, begin working on your sugar mixture. Add your sugar and water to a saucepan, and mix until the sugar granules are coated in the water. Place your saucepan on a low-medium heat, and without mixing, let the sugar heat to a temperature of 115 °C.
Once the sugar reaches 115 °C, take it off the heat immediately and with your mixer on a low-medium speed, begin slowly pouring the bubbling mixture into your egg yolks (see note 1).
Once all the sugar is added in, turn your mixer up to medium-high speed and mix for 5-8 minutes, or until your bowl is cool to the touch (see note 2).
Once the egg yolk/sugar mixture is at room temperature, begin to add in your unsalted butter a tablespoon at a time, letting each tablespoon mix in well before adding the next.
Once all the butter is mixed in, add in your vanilla and salt, and then continue to mix for a few minutes until your buttercream is smooth.

Video

Notes

Note 1. Once the sugar has reached 115°C, you need to start pouring it into the egg yolks immediately while it's still bubbling, otherwise your sugar will start to crystallize as it cools. This will result in little specks of gritty sugar throughout your frosting, which isn't a HUGE deal, it still tastes great, BUT it's better when the frosting is smooth so just keep this in mind 🙂

Note 2. It's important that your egg yolk/sugar mixture is cool before you start adding in your butter, otherwise your butter will melt and you'll end up with soupy buttercream. If this does happen, then pop your buttercream into the fridge for 30 minutes, and then rewhip it.

Nutrition

Nutritional information are estimates only as they are automatically calculated by a third party application. Actual values may differ based on brands and types of products used.

Keyword: egg yolk buttercream, french buttercream, french frosting

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