Ahh Custard Cream biscuits! An absolute British classic, and who would have thought they could be made vegan? Actually, custard powder is naturally vegan and unsurprisingly it’s the magic ingredient in these easy-to-make biscuits.
Before we go any further let me just say that of course you don’t need a special Custard Cream biscuit cutter. You can cut the biscuits into any shape you darn well please, I just had a set of classic British biscuit cutters in my cupboards that I excitedly bought a few years ago and consequently forgot about, so of course I wasn’t going to miss a chance to finally use them! You can use plain old squares, hearts; anything that’s about two-mouthfuls in size is perfect.
If you use a similar cutter or one of a similar size then this recipe should make 16 Custard Creams–so 32 individual biscuits.
I used the classic Bird’s Custard Powder as it only includes cornflour, salt, vanilla, and colour. The colour is annatto which is from a tree seed, so perfectly vegan safe. Obviously do check if you use a different brand that there aren’t any hidden nasties.
(As usual, if you aren’t from the UK and need some guidance on our names for ingredients then please do check out the UK ingredients glossary for translation and/or recommended alternatives)
- 100 g Vegan butter
- 50 g Caster sugar
- 100 g Plain flour
- 50 g Custard Powder
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
- 150 g Icing sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp Custard powder
- 50 g Vegan butter
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Cream together the vegan butter and caster sugar until it's nice and smooth.
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Sieve the flour and custard powder into the bowl with the creamed butter and sugar. (You can skip sieving the flour if you wish but don't be tempted to skip sieving the custard powder or you'll have hard lumps in your biscuits).
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Add the vanilla extract and stir everything together with a wooden spoon until it comes together in a soft dough. If it's too soft to work with then refrigerate before the next stage.
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Flour up your countertop and rolling pin and roll out your dough to about 5mm thickness. Cut out your chosen shapes making sure you have an even number.
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Put the shapes onto baking sheets covered with baking parchment. Pop them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up--it helps them to keep their shape as they cook.
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While the biscuits are chilling you can make the custard cream filling. Put the icing sugar into a bowl and sieve the custard powder over the top. Add the vegan butter and mix until you have a soft spread.
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If you're going to pipe your filling onto the biscuits you can fill your piping bag now while the mix is pretty loose and then put the piping bag into the fridge. If you're spooning on your filling then put the bowl into the fridge.
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Heat your oven to 180C/350F. When the oven is up to temperature and your biscuits have chilled, put the baking sheets into the oven for 10 minutes. The biscuits are done when they are slightly golden on the edges. We're looking for a mostly pale finish. Leave to cool.
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Once the biscuits have cooled (it won't take long) you can begin to add the filling. The recipe here makes quite a lot of filling--if you put in the amount you get in storebought Custard Creams then you'll have a lot leftover, so be as generous as you like. Pipe or spoon your chosen amount onto the smooth side of a biscuit and place another biscuit on the top. Be fairly gentle but the biscuits are quite sturdy.
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Store in an airtight container and enjoy.
This recipe creates a nice, short, crumbly biscuit akin to the original, so isn’t a hard biscuit but can carry the filling well. They do get a little softer after a few days, but still nice and biscuity (not soft and cakey or anything weird), and frankly they don’t usually last much longer than that in our house so I’m not entirely sure of their shelf life 😀
If you want to use the same cutters that I used, to get all the authentic details on your Custard Cream biscuits, they are available from Amazon and the set also includes a bourbon biscuit, a jammy dodger, and an iced ring cutter. They’re pretty cool! I also have a post on how to make Jammy Dodgers so you can get good use from your cutters, and I’ll be covering bourbon biscuits and iced rings in the future.
Hi! I’ve just made custard creams and in my opinion they’re better than the real thing! Thank you so much for the recipe. Who knew being vegan could be so much fun!
They are better than the shop ones aren’t they?!?!? So glad you liked the recipe.
Hi what sort of butter did you use? I tend to use flora plant block but I would never be able to pipe the filling using the quantities given as it would be too firm. Should I use something else? Thank you. Can’t wait to try these.
Hi Carley. I use either Flora or Vitalite and it works fine. Don’t think I’m familiar with the plant block. If it’s like butter then maybe you just need to get it to room temperature first. I’ve never had any problems with the filling being too firm. Hope you give it a go because they really are yummy.