Avoid that pesky milk powder in shop bought biscuits with this recipe for vegan Custard Creams! Homemade is always better and this dairy-free recipe is easy and fun to make.
So, it turns out custard powder is actually vegan.
Better yet, I found a custard powder that is completely natural (no nasty artificial colours or flavourings) in my local health food shop.
Once I discovered this, I knew I had to make some custard creams!
They’re a classic British biscuit and a particular favourite of mine.
I used the same biscuit base recipe as I did for the Vegan Jammie Dodgers I made a couple of weeks back and even experimented with a gluten-free option which I’m pleased to say tasted really good!
Simply swap the plain flour for gluten-free all purpose flour and making sure the custard powder you’re using doesn’t contain any hidden gluten ingredients.
I couldn’t find a rectangular cookie cutter so I improvised and use a lid of a Colman’s mustard tin!
Worked perfectly… although ideally I would have loved to use this custard cream cookie stamp – how cute is it??
But since it’s Valentines day soon I used some small heart shaped cookie cutters to emboss some heart patterns on the top instead :-)
More British Biscuits Veganised:
📖 Recipe
Vegan Custard Creams
A classic British biscuit made vegan-friendly with a gluten-free option too!
Ingredients
- 150 g / ⅔ cup vegan butter, I used Vitalite dairy-free spread
- 2 tbsp custard powder
- 75 g / ⅓ cup caster sugar
- 180 g / 1½ cups plain flour, can substitute equal amounts of gluten-free all purpose flour
Custard cream filling
- 75 g / ⅓ cup vegan butter, I used Vitalite dairy-free spread
- 125 g / 1 cup icing sugar
- 2 tbsp custard powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C / 370F and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
- In a large bowl, cream together the vegan butter, custard powder and sugar until smooth.
- Add the flour in a small amount at a time and continue to mix the dough until completely smooth and it balls together. If it's still crumbly, keep mixing or add a little more butter.
- Knead the dough until smooth and roll to about ½ cm thickness. Use a rectangular cookie cutter to cut out the cookie shapes and transfer them to the baking sheet.
- Bake for 10 minutes until lightly golden brown. Leave to cool whilst you prepare the custard filling.
- Whisk the vegan butter and gradually add in the icing sugar and custard powder. Don't thin it out as it needs to be thick.
- Once the biscuits are cooled, pipe (or spoon) the custard buttercream filling on half the biscuits and sandwich with the rest of the cookies.
- Keeps for 3 days in the fridge or 1 day at room temperature. Enjoy!
Julie says
I wonder if there is a way to make these lower in sugar? they are absolutely beautiful and would love to give it a go!
Aimee says
Hi Julie :-) My favourite sugar substitute is xylitol which you could try using in equal amounts to the sugar in this recipe to make it low-sugar. Perhaps you could consider using a low carb biscuit base with ground almonds too? Let me know how you get on if you try it out!
Cate says
What a great recipe! I’m really keen to give these a try when I have an oven again! I also love the biscuit cutter, I made vegan Tim Tams a few months ago, and getting them the same size was the biggest challenge.
Aimee says
Yes I had to be quite resourceful! Glad you like my recipe, let me know if and when you give them a try yourself :-) PS. I can’t imagine being without an oven!!!
India says
Ah these are so cute, I bet they taste amazing! Especially compared to shop bought custard creams. I definitely need to try them :)
India / Touchscreens & Beautyqueens
Aimee says
Thanks India, homemade is always better :-)
Ala says
That’s adorable that you made these lid-shaped! And I never knew about custard powder, period, so I’ll have to check that out. Yay for such cute vegan snackies!
Aimee says
Lid-shaped cookies are going to be all the rage now!
Mariana @The Candid Kitchen says
So happy to know that custard powder is vegan!!! This recipe is so amazing, I am well impressed. Also love that you used the lid of Colman’s mustard as a cookie cutter :)
Aimee says
Thank you Mariana :-) I was delighted to discover it was vegan, I’m so tempted to put it in all my baking now…