The Indispensable Dairy-Free Custard You'll Need For Baking
A dairy-free custard with a smooth, creamy mixture made with soy milk, sugar, egg yolks and cornstarch. It contains 20% less sugar than the normal custard cream.
Vanilla Custard Cream, also known as Crème Pâtissière or Pastry cream, is a rich, creamy custard that is fundamental to many desserts. It's the most common filling for éclairs, cream puffs, fruit tarts, and more.
However, we will skip the dairy butter and use plant-based milk instead. This recipe uses low-sugar, organic soya milk. Oat or rice milk also works as long as they're neutral in taste.
Since this vanilla custard is also gluten-free, cornstarch is the main thickener instead of custard powder, which is highly processed and may contain wheat flour and unnecessary additives.
Substitutions
Oat milk is the best alternative to soy milk. However, some oats are not 100% gluten-free, so you must read the labels. Rice and almond milk also work, but watch out for the taste. The rule here is to use any non-dairy milk substitute that tastes neutral.
Cornstarch may be substituted with potato starch. However, potato starch thickens very quickly, so adjust the amount accordingly. I do not recommend this, but potato starch must be the best alternative if you can't consume cornstarch.
Vanilla Custard Cream
500 g soy milk, no sugar, gluten-free
120 g egg yolks, beaten
80 g sugar
60 g cornstarch
1 vanilla pod or 1/2 tsp vanilla powder or 1 tbsp vanilla extract
60 g vegan butter, Naturli block is preferred
Method
Warm the soy milk in a saucepan. In a bowl, combine 1/3 of warm (not hot) oat milk, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla, and cornstarch. Stir the mixture thoroughly until the cornstarch is fully dissolved.
Mix the custard mixture into the remaining warm milk. Cook over low-medium heat while constantly whisking until it thickens.
Take the off the heat and strain the cooked custard to remove lumps.
Notes:
You can store egg whites in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days or freeze them for future baking.
Cooking the custard over high heat will make the custard lumpy due to the fast cooking of egg yolks and the thickener.
How to Store Custard Cream
Refrigeration: Store in an airtight container with cling wrap pressed onto the surface to prevent skin from forming. It will keep for up to three to five days.
Freezing: You can freeze custard cream for up to two months in a freezer-safe container.
Thawing: Several hours in the fridge or overnight depending on the amount of frozen custard.