This Dairy-free custard offers a deliciously creamy, silky, and indulgent dessert option for those with dairy or lactose intolerance, without compromising on taste or texture. You can enjoy it on its own, or pour it over your favorite crumble.
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🌟 Recipe Overview
- Only 6 ingredients
- Offers two methods to make it (with and without tempering the egg)
- Creamy with a pourable consistency,
- It can be served hot or cold over ice cream, cakes, brownies, tarts, and pies.
💭 What is custard?
Custard is a culinary preparation where the eggs are blended with milk or cream. The traditional custard uses dairy products to make it and is usually thickened using only eggs. However, there are also many recipes that use cornstarch to help thicken the custard.
Custard comes in different forms from creamy to pourable (creme anglaise). You can also find custard in various set desserts such as creme caramel, creme brulee, or flan.
📔 Ingredients & Substitutes
Soy Milk. You can use any plant milk of choice, however, I've had the best results with soy milk due to its mild flavor.
Egg. Most custard recipes use only egg yolks, however using the whole egg gives the custard a creamier structure. If you would prefer to use egg yolks, you can substitute the egg for two egg yolks.
Vegan Butter or any plant-based butter will work here.
Sugar. You can add more or less sugar depending on how sweet you want your custard.
Cornstarch. The cornstarch helps to thicken the custard. If you need to make it corn-free, you can use arrowroot starch.
Salt brings out the flavor in desserts so don’t skip on it.
Vanilla Bean gives a stronger vanilla flavor, however, if you want to skip tempering the eggs you can use vanilla extract or paste. You can read more about this below.
🥣 How to make this custard
STEP 1 - INFUSE THE MILK
Into a pan add soy milk (or any other plant-based milk of choice), 2 tablespoon of sugar, vegan butter, salt, and vanilla. Add both the seeds and pod to the milk and then bring to a boil over low-medium heat.
Just when it starts to boil turn off the heat and remove the vanilla pod from the mixture.
STEP 2 - MAKE THE EGG MIXTURE
While the milk is cooling down, make the egg mixture.
In a separate bowl mix the egg with 1 tablespoon of sugar and cornstarch. And whisk well, until you have a yellowy cream consistency.
STEP 3 - COMBINE
Next, pour the warm milk mixture into the egg mixture in small amounts slowly and gradually into the bowl of egg mixture, whisking well between each addition. This helps prevent the eggs from cooking if you keep the mixture in motion while adding the milk.
STEP 4 - THICKEN THE CUSTARD
Transfer the mixture back to the pan and cook on low medium, whisking constantly until it starts to thicken. Make sure not to boil the mixture as this can ruin the custard.
🔖 How to make custard without tempering the eggs
If you don’t want to temper the eggs then you will need to use a vanilla paste or extract because that way you won't need to heat the milk to infuse it.
This is how to make a dairy-free custard without tempering the egg. In a saucepan together the egg, sugar, and salt until the sugar dissolves. Next, add the starch with about ¼ cup of soy milk (or any plant-based milk that you are using). Whisk until the starch dissolves, then whisk in the rest of the milk.
Place the pan over medium heat and cook while whisking constantly. As in the other method, make sure the mixture doesn’t boil. Whisk until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
📖 Storage instructions
You can store the custard covered in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
👩🏻🍳 Expert Tips
- If you are tempering the eggs, pour in the milk in small amounts and very slowly, to avoid cooking the eggs.
- Make sure to not boil the custard because this can ruin the texture.
- If you make a mistake and your custard turns lumpy you can save it by passing it through a fine mesh sieve.
🍮 Ways to use this recipe
- As is (like a vanilla pudding) topped with fresh berries.
- Use it to make profiteroles.
- As a base for a trifle.
- Pour it over chocolate cake, brownies, crumble, or fruit tart.
- For custard-filled donuts
- Poured over Sticky Toffee Pudding or Christmas Pudding
💬 FAQ
I don’t recommend freezing this custard as it contains cornstarch which can turn spongy when defrosted.
You can get lumpy custard if you don’t temper the egg properly or if you overcook the custard. To prevent lumpy custard you need to pour the milk into the egg mixture very slowly while whisking constantly and you need to cook the custard on a low temperature while also whisking constantly and make sure it does not start to boil.
Yes, you can add different extracts like banana or coconut. I would recommend staying away from ground spices such as cardamom because they can make your custard texture gritty. If you want to use spices to flavor your custard it is better to use them in their whole form to infuse the milk mixture and remove them later in the process (like we did with the vanilla pod in this recipe).
🍰 More Dairy-Free Desserts
Did you make this? Tell me about it! Leave a ⭐ REVIEW and COMMENT below!
Recipe
Dairy-Free Custard
Ingredients
- 1 cup soy milk*
- 1 tablespoon vegan butter
- 1 vanilla bean*
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoon sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
How to make custard with the method of tempering the eggs
- Into a pan add soy milk (or any other plant-based milk of choice), 2 tablespoon of sugar, vegan butter, salt, and vanilla. Add both the seeds and pod to the milk and then bring to a boil over low-medium heat.
- Just when it starts to boil turn off the heat and remove the vanilla pod from the mixture.
- While the milk is cooling down, make the egg mixture. In a separate bowl mix the egg with 1 tablespoon of sugar and cornstarch. And whisk well, until you have a yellowy cream consistency.
- Next, pour the warm milk mixture into the egg mixture in small amounts slowly and gradually into the bowl of egg mixture, whisking well between each addition. This helps prevent the eggs from cooking if you keep the mixture in motion while adding the milk.
- Transfer the mixture back to the pan and cook on low medium, whisking constantly until it starts to thicken. Make sure not to boil the mixture as this can ruin the custard.
How to make diary-free custard without tempering the eggs
- In a saucepan together the egg, sugar, and salt until the sugar dissolves. Next, add the starch with about ¼ cup of soy milk (or any plant-based milk that you are using). Whisk until the starch dissolves, then whisk in the rest of the milk.
- Place the pan over medium heat and cook while whisking constantly. As in the other method, make sure the mixture doesn’t boil. Whisk until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
- You can store the custard covered in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
Notes
- If you are tempering the eggs, pour in the milk in small amounts and very slowly, to avoid cooking the eggs.
- Make sure to not boil the custard because this can ruin the texture.
- If you make a mistake and your custard turns lumpy you can save it by passing it through a fine mesh sieve.
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