Leave it to the French to find a way to make one of the richest preparations in all of pastrydom even richer. How do they do that? By employing egg yolks in their classic buttercream instead of an egg white foam. What impact does this have on taste and texture? As you’d expect it makes the finished product denser and still more buttery tasting, yet it renders this form of buttercream probably the silkiest and most luxurious of the lot. The ingredients are as follows:
6 egg yolks, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 pound unsalted, soft butter
Start by putting your room temperature yolks into the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whip attachment:
Turn the mixer on high and whip the yolks for five minutes or so, until they appear light in color and somewhat foamy.
While the mixer is going, prepare your sugar syrup. Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring them up to 248 degrees Fahrenheit. Oops, this is a little hot.
Immediately pour the syrup into a pyrex measure for easier handling.
Now then, as with Italian meringue buttercream, start drizzling the syrup into the yolks a little at a time. Do it with the motor off so as not to splatter it all onto the sides of the bowl where it won’t do your buttercream any good. Drizzle a little, run the machine a little, drizzle a little, run the machine a little until all the syrup is incorporated.
When all the syrup is in, you should have something that looks like this:
Whip this sweet yellow “foam” until it’s cool…about room temperature. Once that’s achieved, switch to the paddle (beater) attachment and start adding your butter, a piece or two at a time until it’s all in.
Oh no! Mayo!
Turns out my egg yolk and syrup foam was too warm when I started adding the butter, so my buttercream is almost soupy. What to do? If you said “beat it”, you get an A for this course.
Ah, there we go, a few minutes on high and all is well.
Now then, you can see from the way this French buttercream hangs off the beater that it’s not as good for piping as the meringue buttercreams. But then who says every buttercream has to be pipable? This stuff is a silken, butter lover’s paradise, and as it happens, my favorite buttercream for cupcakes.
As with the others, this is the time to add your flavorings and/or colorings. A teaspoon or so of vanilla for starters, then just about anything you want.
the first time i made french buttercream was for pistachio orange sans rival….lets say the f&b director loved it, the chef loved it, and the chef table’s guests had the silkiest dessert in town that night.. all hail the french
Ha! Well said…
This looks amazing – I can’t wait to try it. Would you mind telling me how well it keeps though? As in… what is the shelf life at room temperature? In the fridge? In warm weather? etc.
Thank you in advance
Sure Vivianne! Like all the real buttercreams that contain eggs, this will keep about a day at room temperature, a week in the fridge and two to three months in the freezer.
- Joe
I have been searching for years for this particular recipe!!! I have finally found it because of your web site. I have looked for this since I was a teenager and have tried many diferent “buttercream” recipes to no avail. I blame it on my parents because as a teenager they introducted me to French cooking via a quaint little bistro in town. Since they moved I have been searching. I am not a chef by no means so I am not the best at any particular cusine. I love to experiment and try new things all of the time. Thank you so much for posting this recipe! Store bought buttercream cakes are anywhere close to this texture.
Indeed, Alex! The only way to get real buttercream nowadays is to either buy a wedding cake, or make the buttercream yourself. Glad you found me! Come back soon!
- Joe
Thank you for posting this topic. Now I won’t get a mini heart attack when I attempt to do this. I was wondering if French buttercream is stable enough to withstand humid climate. I live in the Philippines and it’s very warm here. I always make SMB because it doesn’t easily melt. I like this one better, though. I’m just worried that it might melt the moment I spread it on cupcakes or meringue layers. Some cake shops here use half butter and half margarine compound or butter-flavored shortening when making French buttercream, to improve stability, I suppose. However, I find the taste “plastic-y”. It just isn’t the same when you use real butter. Anyway, your site is very helpful. Keep up the good work!
Thank you, Kathy! Yes, whenever the temperature gets up above the point where butter melts, buttercreams start to, well, come apart. French buttercream is one of the least stable in that regard. Italian meringue is the most stable, but even it doesn’t do well much above 85 degrees. Humidity isn’t as much of an issue, even though meringue is a component of many buttercreams — it’s the darn heat!
Good luck and thanks for the email!
- Joe
Thanks so much for this great recipe!! I made it last night and LOVE it! I’m making a wedding cake with french buttercream filling, and wanted to know how I could make this into a chocolate buttercream. I’ve read adding a few melted ounces of chocolate, but wanted to know if I’d need to skimp on the sugar, then? Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks again,
Ashlee
Hey Ashlee! Up to about four ounces of chocolate will work just fine. A darker chocolate will deliver more flavor, more body and less sugar. I’ve never found that chocolate adds a noticeable amount of extra sugar. If the chocolate tastes good alone and the buttercream tastes good alone, they’ll taste fine together, knowadimean?
Have fun!
- Joe
Dear Joe, Would this french buttercream be okay to make “strawberry buttercream”, or would the yolks make it too rich and strong for a fruitier flavor? I have always made the strawberry flavor using the swiss meringue style, thanks for your advice. bao kim
Hello Bao! A French buttercream would work splendidly with strawberry, so do go ahead with your plan. In fact I think the strawberry would be an especially good match there as French buttercream can be a little heavy feeling in the mouth. Please let me know what you think of the results!
- Joe
Dear Joe, I will be making a birthday cake for my niece this weekend, will report back after I tried the Strawberry French Buttercream! I just tried making the French Macaron, if I would like to use buttercream as the filling, which one do you recommend? The Swiss, Italian or French? I am just worried that the buttercream filling might melt if the macarons sit at room temperature for too long. Again, would really appreciate you advice. Thank you, bao kim
Hello!
Any of those buttercreams will hold at room temperature for at least a full day, provided the temperature of the room doesn’t rise much above 85. However meringue will provide a little extra holding power if things get warm, so I’d suggest either the Italian or Swiss. I should add that you can use lots of other things to fill macarons if you wish. Frostings, jams, curds, all will work well for that job and won’t have the melting/separation problems.
- Joe
Hi Joe, So here is my report! I made a strawberry Swiss buttercream and also a strawberry French buttercream to have a Taste Test side by side:) I find the Swiss buttercream tasted a bit fresher with the strawberry flavor, now with the French buttercream, I find that the Strawberry doesn’t taste as lively, I wonder if it’s because the egg yolks are richer therefore overwhelmed the strawberry flavor? The French buttercream definitely tasted Richer, but after leaving both buttercream sitting at room temperature for several hours, it seemed that the French buttercream got much softer than the Swiss buttercream. Is this the characteristic of French buttercream? Would it be out of the question to mix the 2 buttercreams together to get a firmer and still spreadable buttercream? Or would it totally destroy the BOTH buttercreams? I am very much a beginner in the buttercream department, I hope you dont mind my crazy questions:)
Thank you for all your help and advice, bao kim
Not a problem Boakim!
French buttercream gets softer because it doesn’t have a meringue base to help hold it up. Thus it behaves pretty much like butter at room temperature. But there’s no problem combining the two if you’d like. Beat them together and you’ll get something, well…sort of in between! It’s interesting that the Swis had a brighter strawberry flavor. But then the buttercream is lighter, it has a bit more air in it…that might be ther difference right there.
Thanks so much for the report, Boakim!
- Joe
Hi Joe-
Just a quick question – In your opinion, what works better for a cake frosting: IMBC or French? Would the French style be too butter-intense (if that even exists) for a cake…does it work better in smaller portions like cupcakes?
Thanks much!
megan
Hey Megan!
I prefer the Italian or Swiss for number of reasons…they’re a little lighter and they also hold up better as a frosting. French buttercream is best as a filling or in a very thin application on a cupcake. It’s pretty heavy duty stuff, butter-wise.
- Joe
Thanks for the quick response…I use your site constantly
I appreciate that, Megan!
Email me anytime!
- Joe
This is super helpful! I love the pictures. I had to make a nougat recipe that was similar with stirring in a hot syrup and the directions were horrible, which led to hard deposits of sugar on the bowl, and not enough goodness in the base! I had to redo it, similar to how you’ve shown here. I am definitely bookmarking this for future use.
Happy to be of help, Aly!
Thanks for the comment!
- Joe
Awesome, Joe! I just saw Martha Stewart and Julia Childs make this together on the PBS special for Julia Child’s 100th birthday. It looks super delicious!
I made this yesterday with leftover pate a bombe for some gluten free cupcakes. I mixed in a few ounces of melted semi-sweet chocolate. It. Was. Absolutely. Delicious. Despite the strange [read: different] consistency of the cupcakes. I cannot stop eating it by the spoon. Thank you, once again
That’s a very legitimate way to make French buttercream, Mariana, with pate a bombe. Wonderful solution! Next time invite me, K?
- Joe
Thank you for posting. I love french buttercream and it’s my favorite filling for macarons. I’d like to add coconut milk and pandan essence as flavoring. Do you know if the coconut milk would change the consistency of the buttercream?
Hi Melanie!
Coconut milk probably won’t help as much as coconut “cream” which you can find in the cocktail section of a liquor store or supermarket. Much more bang for the proverbial buck! Plus it won’t thin the buttercream as much as the milk will. Use about 1/4 cup.
That’s my best suggestion!
- Joe
Thank you. What is the best way to thaw this after being frozen?
Hi Melanie! You’ll want to let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then the next day let it come completely to room temperature over a period of about four hours…stirring it every so often. It will need to be re-beaten to fluff it up again. Don’t worry if it breaks, just keep beating it until it returns to its former consistency.
- Joe
Can I use an electric mixer instead of something like a kitchen aid for this or any other recipe?
You mean a hand mixer? Yes for sure!
- Joe
yes that is what I meant. Thank you !
Hey, I made a french buttercream and I must have done something wrong. It tasted like I was eating straight butter, it was really gross. Any idea what I might have done wrong?
Sounds like you did it right! Though the butter may have had a particularly strong flavor for some reason. But buttercream — especially the French style — tastes like butter, no question. You know how they are with their dairy products!
- Joe
Joe, I have made your recipe several times and it is absolutely fantastic! I searched for almost 4 years to perfect a buttercream icing recipe and this by far is the best! I do have a question though. I prefer a “softer” icing and I have noticed that this icing firms up pretty quickly in cold weather. Sometimes I let my cupcakes go tanning to soften the icing up a bit by letting them sit under a low heat lamp! Do you have any ideas of letting the icing stay at room temperature? I follow the recipe exactly but am wondering if I’m doing something wrong?
I visit your site often and love it!
Thank you,
Heather
Hey Heather!
Great to hear it’s been working so well. But yeah, it behaves pretty much exactly like butter, there being so much butter in there. If it’s cool out, it’ll want to firm up. I can’t think of any ways to soften it per se…I mean, adding a little milk or cream would do it, but it could probably make it too loose to spread or pipe well.
My suggestion would be to go over to a buttercream that’s less sensitive to temperature, like Swiss meringue buttercream. The air bubbles inside give it a little more…give, shall we say.
Best of luck!
- Joe
Hi joe,
Am new in buttercream. I like French buttercream. But from the previous comments, I understood that it is less stable. Can we add butter flavoured shortening instead of butter to get more stability,like to pipe flowers and borders. My daughters bday is coming, pls give me a quick reply.
Hi Faseela!
Yes you can use shortening instead. This will give you a result much more like an American buttercream, a recipe for which is also on the site. Just look under “Pastry Components”, then “Buttercreams.”
- Joe
Hi joe,
Thank you for ur response. I have already tried American buttercream with shortening, but it is slightly grainy. So that I thought to make french buttercream with shortening in order to avoid that grainy texture and to make it rich.I didn’t have any professional training in baking. Thank u once again for ur response.
Let me know how your experiments go, Faseela. Other readers will want to know!
- Joe
Let me know how it goes, Faseela!
- Joe
Hi joe,
I tried it, more stable at room temperature, we can pipe roses. But personally I didn’t like the taste of French buttercream, eating like a stick of butter. So am going to try mousse line buttercream. Hot sugar syrup will kill salmonella or not.
Hi Faseela! Another name for that is Italian Buttercream and I have a recipe for that on the site as well. You can’t count on the heat to kill salmonella, however the sugar probably will do the job. Also microbes don’t grow well in fat. It’s not a complete assurance of safety, but it’s enough for me!
Let me know what you think and thanks for checking back in!
- Joe
Hi Joe, I made your French buttercream the other day! It was awesome, we loved it. Definitely on the rich side… especially after I added one pureed banana and a generous helping of dulce de leche for flavor… yum yum!
I filled and iced a cake (lightly) with it, and have plenty left over…how long would you say does it keep in the fridge?
Thanks in advance!
Fleur
Hi Fleur!
Great news! I’d say about a week. You’ll need to let it completely return to room temperature before you re-beat it. Don’t worry if it breaks at first, just keep beating it until it re-emulsifies.
- Joe
Dear Joe,
I have been using your great recipe for a while now so thanks for posting! As I use buttercream a few times a week I was wondering if its possible to make using cold sugar syrup. It would speed up the process substantially if I didn’t have to melt the sugar each time I make the frosting. Thanks,
Charlotte
Hi Charlotte!
That’s an interesting idea…make-ahead syrup. The trouble is that once it cools it’ll get awfully darn firm. But that wouldn’t preclude you making a larger quantity, then simply re-heating it until its pourable again. In theory it should work!
Let me know how it goes!
- Joe
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Ever since I learned that French buttercream existed I’ve been DYING to try it… And I got my chance tonight!
I added a bit of rum flavour and put it on coconut cupcakes—the results were scrumptious, but guilt-inducing (so buttery!). I will definitely have to bear in mind that cupcakes do not need a thick layer of this icing at all.
I found that half this recipe was MORE than enough for 12 cupcakes.
Thanks so much for the recipe!! I will definitely be trying (and tweaking) it some more. =)
Hey Cathryn!
Oh yes, this recipe will do much more than a dozen cupcakes, for as you point out, a little buttercream goes a long way. We’ve all been conditioned to put too much special sauce on our cakes and cupcakes, when just a dab will do you!
Glad you liked it overall, however. And what a great improvisation on it,
- Joe
Hi Joe,
I just found your website today for the first time.
I have bookmarked so many recipes today,…..
I am in love with you
What fun I will have this summer trying out so many of these exquisite recipes, my friends all love my cooking and fussing.
My arsenal just got 10 x’s bigger !
Thanks so much for the kind, kind note, Vivienne!
Please don’t hesitate to write in should you have any questions about anything on the site. I’m generally around!
Your friend,
- Joe