diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerProperties.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerProperties.java
index 13b17dee4f..902fdb7ddf 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerProperties.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerProperties.java
@@ -777,7 +777,7 @@ public class ServerProperties
 			if (getBasedir() != null) {
 				factory.setBaseDirectory(getBasedir());
 			}
-			customizeBackgroundProcessorDelay(factory);
+			factory.setBackgroundProcessorDelay(Tomcat.this.backgroundProcessorDelay);
 			customizeRemoteIpValve(serverProperties, factory);
 			if (this.maxThreads > 0) {
 				customizeMaxThreads(factory);
@@ -819,19 +819,6 @@ public class ServerProperties
 			}
 		}
 
-		private void customizeBackgroundProcessorDelay(
-				TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory factory) {
-			factory.addContextCustomizers(new TomcatContextCustomizer() {
-
-				@Override
-				public void customize(Context context) {
-					context.setBackgroundProcessorDelay(
-							Tomcat.this.backgroundProcessorDelay);
-				}
-
-			});
-		}
-
 		private void customizeRemoteIpValve(ServerProperties properties,
 				TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory factory) {
 			String protocolHeader = getProtocolHeader();
diff --git a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerPropertiesTests.java b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerPropertiesTests.java
index 0db14c7cf9..177c5f2dda 100644
--- a/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerPropertiesTests.java
+++ b/spring-boot-autoconfigure/src/test/java/org/springframework/boot/autoconfigure/web/ServerPropertiesTests.java
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ import org.springframework.boot.bind.RelaxedDataBinder;
 import org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.ConfigurableEmbeddedServletContainer;
 import org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.jetty.JettyEmbeddedServletContainerFactory;
 import org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat.TomcatContextCustomizer;
+import org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer;
 import org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.tomcat.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory;
 import org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.undertow.UndertowEmbeddedServletContainerFactory;
 import org.springframework.boot.web.servlet.ServletContextInitializer;
@@ -140,6 +141,7 @@ public class ServerPropertiesTests {
 		map.put("server.tomcat.protocol_header", "X-Forwarded-Protocol");
 		map.put("server.tomcat.remote_ip_header", "Remote-Ip");
 		map.put("server.tomcat.internal_proxies", "10\\.\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3}");
+		map.put("server.tomcat.background_processor_delay", "10");
 		bindProperties(map);
 		ServerProperties.Tomcat tomcat = this.properties.getTomcat();
 		assertThat(tomcat.getAccesslog().getPattern()).isEqualTo("%h %t '%r' %s %b");
@@ -150,6 +152,7 @@ public class ServerPropertiesTests {
 		assertThat(tomcat.getProtocolHeader()).isEqualTo("X-Forwarded-Protocol");
 		assertThat(tomcat.getInternalProxies())
 				.isEqualTo("10\\.\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3}\\.\\d{1,3}");
+		assertThat(tomcat.getBackgroundProcessorDelay()).isEqualTo(10);
 	}
 
 	@Test
@@ -352,6 +355,29 @@ public class ServerPropertiesTests {
 		testRemoteIpValveConfigured();
 	}
 
+	@Test
+	public void defaultTomcatBackgroundProcessorDelay() throws Exception {
+		TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory container = new TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory();
+		this.properties.customize(container);
+		assertThat(
+				((TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer) container.getEmbeddedServletContainer())
+						.getTomcat().getEngine().getBackgroundProcessorDelay())
+								.isEqualTo(30);
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void customTomcatBackgroundProcessorDelay() throws Exception {
+		Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>();
+		map.put("server.tomcat.background-processor-delay", "5");
+		bindProperties(map);
+		TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory container = new TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory();
+		this.properties.customize(container);
+		assertThat(
+				((TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer) container.getEmbeddedServletContainer())
+						.getTomcat().getEngine().getBackgroundProcessorDelay())
+								.isEqualTo(5);
+	}
+
 	@Test
 	public void setUseForwardHeadersTomcat() throws Exception {
 		// Since 1.3.0 no need to explicitly set header names if use-forward-header=true
diff --git a/spring-boot/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/tomcat/TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.java b/spring-boot/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/tomcat/TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.java
index 5e2015a335..8aaa3a3b94 100644
--- a/spring-boot/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/tomcat/TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.java
+++ b/spring-boot/src/main/java/org/springframework/boot/context/embedded/tomcat/TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory.java
@@ -129,6 +129,8 @@ public class TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory
 
 	private Charset uriEncoding = DEFAULT_CHARSET;
 
+	private int backgroundProcessorDelay;
+
 	/**
 	 * Create a new {@link TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory} instance.
 	 */
@@ -176,7 +178,7 @@ public class TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory
 	}
 
 	private void configureEngine(Engine engine) {
-		engine.setBackgroundProcessorDelay(-1);
+		engine.setBackgroundProcessorDelay(this.backgroundProcessorDelay);
 		for (Valve valve : this.engineValves) {
 			engine.getPipeline().addValve(valve);
 		}
@@ -765,6 +767,15 @@ public class TomcatEmbeddedServletContainerFactory
 		return this.uriEncoding;
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Sets the background processor delay in seconds.
+	 * @param delay the delay in seconds
+	 * @since 1.4.1
+	 */
+	public void setBackgroundProcessorDelay(int delay) {
+		this.backgroundProcessorDelay = delay;
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * {@link LifecycleListener} that stores an empty merged web.xml. This is critical for
 	 * Jasper on Tomcat 7 to prevent warnings about missing web.xml files and to enable