Our vegan custard is a smooth, creamy and delicious recipe that you can make in 10 minutes with 5 simple ingredients.
You can use this custard in tarts, cakes, pastries and other desserts. You can also flavour it with vanilla, lemon, chocolate and much more. Here, we’ll show you how.
What is vegan custard?
Custard is usually thickened by the coagulation of egg protein, generally made by combining the egg yolks with milk and sugar.
Our vegan version uses cornstarch as a thickening agent, a tiny bit of turmeric for colour, and plant milk – such as soy, almond or coconut – to replace dairy milk.
The best thing about this vegan custard recipe is that you can use it in many vegan desserts, such as our easy vanilla cake, tangy lemon tart, or a fresh and summery fruit 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 flavoured 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.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Plant milk: we use soy milk, almond milk, or oat milk to make a low-fat vegan custard. We use coconut milk to make a richer, full-fat one.
- Cornstarch: we use it as a thickening agent. We find this hard to replace. If you are allergic, then potato starch is a good replacement.
- Sugar: we use white sugar. Any sugar will work.
- Vanilla: this depends on your budget really. Most often we use vanilla extract, but if we feel like splurging, then we use the real seeds of a vanilla pod.
- Turmeric: this is optional, but we like to add a tiny pinch of turmeric when we want to give the pastry cream a yellow colour.
Do not add too much or else your custard will turn to a fake yellow-greenish colour, and it will taste like turmeric. You can replace turmeric with saffron powder. - Lemon: this is optional, but we like to add lemon peel to our basic vegan custard. We also make a mean vegan lemon custard, see variations chapter below for that one.
How to make vegan custard
In a pot, off the heat, add all the ingredients: plant milk, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, turmeric and lemon peel. Stir with a whisk till all lumps are gone.
Then on medium heat, stir continuously until the liquid thickens into a creamy custard. It can take between 2 to 5 minutes, depending on the quantities.
When you have almost reached the consistency that you like, take off the heat and keep stirring for another minute. The custard will keep thickening while off the heat.
TIP: to check if your custard is ready take a wooden or silicone spatula, dip it in the custard, then run a finger through it. If the spatula stays clean, the custard is ready.
Tips and troubleshooting
Cooling down
If cooled down improperly, the vegan custard will dry up on the surface, and the dry parts will create lumps. To avoid that, keep stirring while the custard cools down.
The fastest and easiest way to do that is to fill up your sink with cold water, then submerge 3/4 of the pot in the water and stir for 5 minutes, or until the custard is close to room temperature.
Getting rid of lumps
If your custard makes lumps, do not worry. There are two ways to fix it:
- Whisk the custard very vigorously with a whisk. Like really hard. The fast whisking movement will remove the lumps and the vegan custard will go back to super creamy.
- Blitz it up with an immersion blender. This will also remove the lumps, but this way the custard will be more a little more liquid after blending it.
You can use these two tricks also if you reuse the custard after storing it away in the refrigerator. It will get more thick and gelatinous, so you’ll need to blend it or whisk it to make it creamy again.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, our vegan custard recipe is gluten-free as it’s made with cornstarch, a thickener derived from corn.
Corn is naturally gluten-free, however, some lower quality brands might make their cornflour in a machine that has previously worked wheat flour. So, if you want to be sure check the label.
You can eat custard poured over fresh fruit, in cakes, tarts with lemon or strawberries, pies, croissants, doughnuts, danish rolls, and more. You can also eat it with a spoon.
Yes, but we do not recommend freezing it. It takes longer to thaw than to make from scratch and the taste won’t be the same. You could however turn it into homemade vegan ice cream.
To do this, place it in the freezer, then whisk it every 30 minutes until it turns into smooth ice cream. It should take you about 3 hours.
You can also just freeze the custard, and after 3 hours blend it in a power blender or food processor. It’s delicious!
Believe it or not, it seems that custards have been around since Ancient Rome. I can definitely picture Marcus Aurelius dipping grapes in some freshly made roman custard during his stoic meditations.
Flavour Variations
Chocolate custard: made with the same simple ingredients (no lemon, no turmeric). Just add your favourite brand of vegan dark chocolate at the end, off the heat. Stir for a minute and enjoy!
Pistachio custard: roast pistachio nuts first, then blend them with the plant milk, till you have smooth pistachio milk.
Now add sugar, cornstarch, pistachio milk, and vanilla to a pot, and proceed as for the classic custard.
Coffee custard: add real espresso coffee or instant coffee to the plant milk, dissolve, add the other ingredients and proceed as for the classic custard. No lemon or turmeric in this one.
Texture variations
Baked custard: to make a great vegan baked custard we recommend cooking the custard in a saucepan first for about 2 minutes, then using it to fill a pie shell, and then baking it in the oven for about 30 minutes.
This is how we made our lemon tart, vegan fruit tart, or custard pie.
Crème anglaise: also known as vanilla custard sauce, is a lightly thickened pouring custard flavoured with vanilla extract and no lemon flavour.
Bring to a boil for a minute then while stirring continuously, keep stirring on low heat until lightly thickened. Cut the amount of cornstarch in our base recipe in half.
Pastry cream: perfect to fill up doughnuts, croissants, custard rolls, or vanilla cakes. Classic pastry cream is generally flavoured with vanilla and no 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.
Storage
You can store this vegan custard in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days. Cooldown the custard while stirring before putting it in the refrigerator.
You can reheat the custard on low heat by adding a dash of plant milk while stirring.
It is possible that during the cooling process the custard will dry out on the surface and make a thin skin that will result in annoying lumps.
If you are annoyed by the lumps then you can blend the custard with a hand blender. We tried and it works.
We do not recommend freezing the custard unless you want to make ice cream out of it.
YouTube
Double click/tap to watch video-recipe on YouTube.
Vegan custard
Equipment
- Whisk
Ingredients
For a low-fat lighter custard
- 2 cups plant-milk soy, almond, oats, rice
- ½ cups cornstarch
- ⅓ cups sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ lemon peel
For a full-fat richer custard
- 1½ cups plant-milk soy, almond, oats, rice
- ⅔ cups plant-cream soy cream, rice cream, coconut cream or coconut milk
- ½ cups cornstarch
- ⅓ cups sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- To a pot off the heat, add all the ingredients: plant milk, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla and lemon peel. Stir with a whisk till all lumps are gone.
- On medium heat, stir continuously until the liquid thickens into a creamy custard. It can take between 2 to 5 minutes, depending on the quantities.
- When you have almost reached the consistency that you like, take off the heat and keep stirring for another minute. The custard will keep thickening while off the heat.
- TIP: to check if your custard is ready take a wooden or silicone spatula, dip it in the custard, then run a finger through it (careful it's hot). If the spatula stays clean, the custard is ready.
Video
Nutrition
If you liked this recipe, you might also like these other vegan recipes made with vegan custard:
Did you try this recipe at home? Let us know in the comments below, we love to hear from you!
Buon appetito!
Nico
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Wait, when you say unless you want to make ice cream? For a mint choc chip, do I merely have to do a plain custard (obviously swapping vanilla for peppermint extract and green food colouring instead of turmeric), allow to cool, stir in some roughly chopped dark chocolate and then freeze?
Side note: lactose intolerant, flexitarian.
Hi Stacey, basically yes. This custard is the perfect base for icecream.
But when you freeze the custard, it would be best to blend it with an immersion blender every 40 minutes or so as it freezes, until it firms up. This way it’ll get super creamy, just like ice cream.
Hope this helps!
Have a great day.
Nico
I don’t eat corn, xanthan or psyllium. Do you have a suggestion for a substitute for cornstarch? Tapioca or potato starch maybe? Or a flour, other than wheat or oat? Thanks!
Hi JJ,
Yes, potato starch can work as a good alternative. Let us know how you like it 💪
Kindest, Louise
Hi Louise, I just replied to Nico with the details about my apple custard pie. I did use potato starch and it was too thick to pour. It also tasted rather weird, tho when baked in with the apples it was OMG fantastic! I think I’ll try tapioca starch next time. Any thoughts on that? I also used maple sugar instead of cane.
Hello, looking forward to trying this custard recipe. What can I replace the sugar with? Thank you
HI there,
you can replace the sugar with any other sweetener, like coconut sugar, palm sugar, or your favorite sugar-free sweetener.
Hope this helps!
Nico
I’m trying to recreate a childhood memory: apple custard pie. I’m wondering if you’d make any adjustments to this custard to bake with apples in a pie at 400 degrees for 35-45 minutes. I’ll be using potato starch rather than cornstarch.
Thanks!
Hi JJ,
That’s a great question. I baked this exact same custard recipe in an apple cake and it turned out perfect. But it was more of a cake than a pie, with more crumb to help the custard thicken.
I also baked this custard for our fruit tart and it thickened well.
So, no, I wouldn’t do any adjustment to the recipe. I think it’ll work. The potato starch should be fine too. But it needs to cool completely before you cut through it (like 3 hours at least).
Hope this helps! Let us know how it goes 🙂
Nico
Hi Nico!
I finally made this and it was over-the-top fantastic! I made nut milk (almond, pecan, pine nut, coconut flakes) and used 3/4 c plus 3/4 c Malibu Mylk flax milk plus coconut cream. I made the nut pulp into garam marsala crackers and lined the bottom and sides of a baking dish with those for the crust – stroke of genius! 😉 I tossed apple slices with lemon juice and cinnamon (no sugar). The custard was too thick to pour so I mixed it with the apples in a bowl and then into the baking dish. I baked it for 50 minutes at 350* and let it cool to just warm. Holy moly, that gooey, creamy apple mixture and crunchy cracker crust made me swoon! That’s definitely a keeper!
Also, I haven’t done it yet because I don’t care about the color, but I’ll try saffron rather than turmeric since it’s on my sensitivities list and it just plain tastes nasty!
Thanks so much for your site!
JJ, that’s fantastic.
I’m very happy you liked it, and was able to make it yours. Thank you very much for your kind feedback.
All the best,
Louise
Yum! What is the measurement used when adding nuts like pistachios? I’m thinking of trying almonds with espresso! Thoughts? xx
Hi Sarah, here’s the link to the pistachio custard recipe with all the measurements. Hope this helps!
Nico
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I’m making this recipe this morning for a friend’s birthday.
When the recipe calls for 1/2 lemon peel, should the peel be grated?
Hi Mac,
We mean a big chunk of lemon peel that we remove after the custard is thick and has gained a lemon-y flavor. Thanks for clarifyng!
Kindest,
Louise
Hello from Greece! The custard was excellent, thank you very much. I was happy to get the right consistency, which is my usual problem with creams that must thicken. I don’t know if people in other countries eat this cream as it is – without adding it to a dessert, for example. Here we put custard cream in bowls and eat it as a sweet or dessert. This is exactly what I will do in a moment. Thank you again!
Hi Liana,
You’re welcome, I’m really happy you liked the consistency! We eat it exactly like you, sometimes with fresh berries and mint leaves on top 😉
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment. All the best,
Louise
Excellent
1/2 a cup of cornstarch! I thought it sounded like too much but put in anyway and it was like concrete! It needed another pint of milk to dilute it
I, too, thought 1/2 cup of cornstarch (although I use potato starch) was overboard, but put it in. It was waaay too thick and I had to add at least a pint of milk to compensate. I just kept adding until it came to the right consistency. To me it was meh…
Hi! I will try this recipe tonight, can’t wait! Quick question: when you say coconut milk…do you mean canned coconut milk? Thanks!
Hi Marta, yes correct, it’s canned coconut milk. It adds a wonderfully creamy flavor to the custard.
Happy cooking.
Kindest,
Louise