Vegan Custard (Pastry Cream)

Our vegan custard is a smooth, creamy, and delicious recipe that can be made in 10 minutes with five simple ingredients.

You can use it in tarts, cakes, pastries, croissants, donuts, pancakes, and many other desserts.

The best part? You can flavor your vegan custard with vanilla, lemon, chocolate, pistachios, and more. Here, we’ll show you how.

Traditional custard is thickened by the coagulation of egg protein and is made by combining egg yolks with milk, flour, and sugar.

Our vegan version uses cornstarch as a thickening agent, a tiny bit of turmeric for color, and plant milk – such as soy, almond, or coconut – to replace dairy milk.

The best thing about this vegan custard recipe is that it’s versatile and can be used in many vegan desserts, such as our vegan apple cake, zesty lemon tart, refreshing fruit tart, and summery strawberry tart.

It can also be used as a pastry cream to fill doughnuts and croissants or baked to make custard pies.

Finally, this basic vegan custard recipe can be easily tweaked and flavored with several ingredients.

In the variations section below, we show you how to make coconut custard, lemon custard, chocolate custard, coffee custard, and even pistachio custard.

Quantities are in the recipe box at the bottom of the page.

Non-dairy milk

We usually use almond milk.

You can substitute your favorite plant milk, such as soy, oat, or rice milk.

Add coconut milk to make a more decadent and creamier vegan custard.

Cornstarch

Cornstarch is our thickening agent, making the custard creamy.

Our quantities below will produce a medium-thickness custard.

Reduce the cornstarch if you want a more liquid custard, or add a little more if you want a thicker one.

You can replace cornstarch with rice starch or potato starch, although the texture of the pastry cream will be slightly different.

Sugar

You can use white or brown sugar. Sugar is used for flavor, not for structure, so you can substitute any other sweetener for it.

Try maple syrup, agave syrup, coconut sugar, or palm sugar.

Vanilla extract

You can substitute the seeds of a vanilla pod for the extract.

Turmeric

We recommend adding a small amount of turmeric—1/4 teaspoon for 2 cups of milk—to give the milk a beautiful yellow color.

Don’t add too much turmeric; your custard will turn an unappealing yellow-greenish color and taste of turmeric. You can replace turmeric with saffron powder.

Lemon peel

Lemon peel is optional. If possible, use an organic lemon. Slice the peel with a vegetable peeler, add it to the milk, and remove it before serving the custard.

Avoid grating it, as that will ruin the texture of the pastry cream.

It adds a wonderful lemon flavor to the custard. For even more lemon flavor, follow our vegan lemon curd recipe.

In a saucepan, off the heat, add all the ingredients: 2 cups plant milk, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder, and the peel of half a lemon.

Whisk until all lumps are gone and the cornstarch is dissolved.

Bring the pot to the stovetop and stir continuously on medium heat until the liquid thickens into a creamy custard.

Depending on the quantities, this can take 2 to 5 minutes.

TIP: To check if your custard is ready, dip a spoon or silicone spatula in it and run a finger through it. If the spatula stays clean, the custard is ready.

When you have almost reached the consistency you like, remove the pan from the heat and fish out the lemon peel.

Keep stirring for another minute. The custard will continue thickening while off the heat.

Coffee custard: Add espresso or instant coffee to the plant milk, dissolve, add the other ingredients, and proceed with the recipe. This one does not contain lemon or turmeric.

Lemon curd is tangy, fresh, and packed with lemon flavor. It’s a keeper for those who love lemons and tart flavors. This one is excellent for vegan lemon bars or lemon tart.

Baked custard: To make a great vegan baked custard, we recommend cooking it in a saucepan for about 2 minutes, then using it to fill a vegan pie shell, and then baking it in the oven for about 30 minutes.

With this method, you can make a lemon tart, vegan fruit tart, or custard pie.

Crème anglaise, or vanilla custard sauce, is a lightly thickened pouring custard flavored with vanilla extract and no lemon flavor.

To make it, cut the amount of cornstarch in half. Bring the ingredients to a boil for a minute, stirring continuously, and keep stirring on low heat until lightly thickened.

Pastry cream is perfect for filling vegan doughnuts, croissants, custard rolls, lemon cake, or vegan vanilla cake.

Classic pastry cream is generally vanilla-flavored and does not contain lemon. To make it, just cook the custard for longer.

Boil it for about 3 minutes while stirring, then take it on low heat and keep stirring until you reach your desired consistency.

Make ahead: You can make vegan custard in advance. If you do, cool it down to room temperature while whisking to prevent lumps from forming. Then, store it covered with plastic wrap, touching the custard.

Refrigerator: Cool it to room temperature first, then store it in the fridge for 2 to 3 days. It’s best to cover the custard with plastic wrap touching the custard.

Reheat: Warm the custard on low heat by adding a dash of plant milk while stirring.

Remove lumps: During the cooling process, the custard may dry out on the surface, forming a thin skin that will result in annoying lumps.

You can blend the custard with an immersion blender to remove lumps.

Freezing: We do not recommend freezing the custard unless you want to make ice cream.

Similar recipes

• Apple cake filled with custard
• Fruit tart
• Vegan lemon tart
• Brioche rolls with custard
• Strawberry tart
• Vegan Italian croissants
• Vanilla cake
• Sweet dough balls
• Apple fritters with custard
• Torta della nonna “grandma’s custard pie”

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