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.
What is vegan custard?
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.
Ingredients for vegan 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.
How to make vegan custard
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.
Tips and troubleshooting
Cooling down
If cooled down improperly, the vegan custard will dry 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 your sink with cold water, submerge 3/4 of the pot, and stir for 5 minutes or until the custard is near room temperature.
Getting rid of lumps
If your custard is lumpy, do not worry. There are two ways to fix it:
- Whisk the custard vigorously. The fast whisking movement will remove the lumps, and the vegan custard will return to velvety creamy.
- Blitz it up with an immersion blender. This will also remove the lumps, but the custard will be a little more liquid after blending.
You can also use these two tricks if you reuse the custard after storing it in the refrigerator.
It will become thicker and gelatinous, so you’ll need to blend or whisk it to make it creamy again.
Frequently asked questions
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 corn flour in a machine that has previously worked with wheat flour. So, if you want to be sure, check the label.
Custard can be eaten poured over fresh fruit, in cakes, tarts with lemon or strawberries, pies, croissants, doughnuts, Danish rolls, and more. It can also be eaten 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 and blend it with an immersion blender every 30 minutes until it turns into smooth ice cream. It should take about three hours.
You can also freeze the custard and blend it in a power blender or food processor after 3 hours. It’s delicious!
Believe it or not, custards have existed since Ancient Rome. I can definitely picture Marcus Aurelius dipping grapes in some freshly made Roman custard during his stoic meditations.
Flavor variations
Chocolate custard: made with the same simple ingredients but without lemon and turmeric.
Once the custard is almost ready, add your favorite brand of vegan dark chocolate, chopped with a knife, off the heat. Stir for a minute, and enjoy!
Pistachio custard: Roast the pistachio nuts first, then blend them with the plant milk until you have smooth pistachio milk.
Add sugar, cornstarch, pistachio milk, and vanilla to a pot and proceed with our recipe.
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.
Texture variations
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.
Storage
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”
Vegan custard
Equipment
- Whisk
Ingredients
For a low-fat lighter custard
- 2 cups plant-milk almond, oats, rice, or soy
- ½ cups cornstarch
- ⅓ cups sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ lemon only the peel
For a full-fat richer custard
- 1 cup plant-milk almond, oats, rice, or soy
- 1 cup coconut milk the one that comes in a can
- ½ cups cornstarch
- ⅓ cups sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- To a saucepan off the heat, add all the ingredients: 2 cups plant-milk, ½ cups cornstarch, ⅓ cups sugar, ⅛ teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and the peel of ½ lemon.Whisk until all lumps are gone.Tip: Peel the lemon with a vegetable peeler.
- Whisk on medium heat until the liquid thickens into a creamy custard.It can take between 2 to 5 minutes, depending on the quantities.Tip: To check if your custard is ready, dip a spoon in the custard, then run a finger through it (careful it's hot). If the spoon stays clean, the custard is ready.
- When you have almost reached the consistency you like, remove the pan from the heat and discard the lemon peel.
- Keep whisking for another minute off the heat. The custard will continue thickening. Then you are ready to serve or use it in your favorite desserts.
Video
Notes
- Whisk the custard vigorously. The fast whisking movement will remove the lumps, and the vegan custard will return to velvety creamy.
- Blitz it up with an immersion blender. This will also remove the lumps, but the custard will be a little more liquid after blending.
- Thinner custard: Reduce the cornstarch down to 1/3 cup (40 grams) or even 1/4 cup for a more liquid custard.
- Thicker custard: Increase the amount of cornstarch to 3/4 of a cup. Your custard will be very thick with this much cornstarch.
Your ingredients do not match the ingredients in the recipe.
1 or 2 tsp of vanilla also 2/3 cup of sugar or 1/3 ? And the milk has 2 different measurements also.
This is very confusing. It came out terrible
Can you substitute maple syrup, honey, or agave for the sugar?
Hi Vicky,
Yes you can. Remember to add the cornstarch, as it plays a vital role in the thickening of the custard (especially when sugar is omitted) ๐