Custard Cookies
These are crisp, delicious, shortbread-based cookies flavored like vanilla pastry cream. That’s what these custard cookies are! Also, this simple and easy recipe uses custard powder, which gives these cookies the taste of pastry cream. And, this is an eggless recipe that takes less than 15 minutes to make.
Custard cookies, also known as custard shortbread cookies, are a type of cookie that combines the buttery richness of shortbread cookies with the delicate flavor of custard. These cookies are popular in many parts of the world and are loved for their melt-in-your-mouth texture and subtle sweetness.
Custard cookies are usually shaped into small rounds or balls and are often marked with a fork’s tines to create a decorative pattern on top before baking. These cookies are delightful to enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee due to their tender, crumbly texture.
What is custard powder?
Custard powder is a pantry staple used primarily to make custard, a creamy and sweet dessert sauce or pudding. It is a fine, flavored powder that typically consists of a combination of ingredients like cornstarch (cornflour), sugar, salt, and artificial flavoring, often including vanilla. Some custard powder brands might also contain coloring agents to give the custard a yellow hue.
To prepare custard using custard powder, you usually mix it with milk and heat it on the stove while stirring continuously until it thickens and becomes a smooth, creamy sauce or pudding. The result is a custard with a pleasant vanilla flavor and a silky-smooth texture.
Custard powder is a convenient way to make custard without the need for eggs or more complex custard recipes. It is often used as a topping for desserts like pies, tarts, and puddings, or served on its own in small dishes. Additionally, custard powder can be used in baking to impart a custard flavor to various recipes, as seen in custard cookies or custard-filled pastries.
It’s worth noting that custard powder brands may vary in ingredients and flavors, so you can choose one that aligns with your preferences or dietary requirements.
Why is this the best custard biscuit recipe?
- Flavor: This recipe uses custard powder to infuse the cookies with a unique custard flavor, which is different from traditional shortbread cookies. If you enjoy the taste of custard, you’ll likely appreciate the flavor profile of these cookies.
- Texture: Custard cookies made using this recipe have a tender, crumbly, and melt-in-your-mouth texture, which is a characteristic of shortbread-style cookies. The combination of butter and custard powder results in a delightful mouthfeel.
- Ease of Preparation: The recipe is relatively straightforward and easy to follow, making it accessible to both novice and experienced bakers. It doesn’t require any complicated techniques or specialized equipment.
- Customization: While this recipe provides a basic custard cookie, you can customize it by adding extras like chocolate chips, chopped nuts, or even a drizzle of icing for added flavor and decoration.
- Yield: The recipe yields 18 cookies, which is a convenient amount for most home bakers. It’s not too many to overwhelm you with leftovers, and it’s not too few to be insufficient for sharing.
- However, keep in mind that what makes a recipe the “best” for you can vary based on your personal taste preferences. If you enjoy custard flavor and the characteristics mentioned above, then this recipe could be a great choice for you. Ultimately, the best recipe is the one that suits your individual preferences and meets your baking needs.
Ingredients and substitutes
- Custard powder – Custard powder is cornflour/cornstarch with vanilla pastry cream flavoring. If you can’t find custard powder, you can also use cornstarch.
- All-purpose flour – It’s best to use all-purpose or plain flour (maida) rather than any other pastry flour. Since you get a nice crisp, melt-in-the-mouth sensation.
- Butter – I love full-flavor butter in this recipe. And yet, if you want, you can use margarine or even vegetable shortening. The veg shortening spreads a little more, but still tastes good.
- Vanilla – Custard powder does have vanilla flavor added to it, and yet, a little vanilla extract or bean paste does make a world of difference in cookies.
Custard biscuits
- Preheat your oven to 350°F / 180°C / Gas mark 4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease it.
- Dry ingredients – In a separate bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, custard powder, baking powder, and salt until well combined.
- Wet ingredients – In a large mixing bowl, cream together the softened butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and combine well.
- Combine – Gradually add the dry ingredient mixture to the creamed butter and sugar mixture. Mix until a soft and crumbly dough forms. You can use a spatula or your hands to help bring the dough together until it becomes smooth and uniform.
Pro tip – If the cookie dough is too dry and cracking when you shape a ball. Add one to two tbsp of water and try again. But, note that too much water can cause the cookies to spread too much. - Shape – Take small portions of the dough and roll them into 18 equal-sized balls. Place these balls onto your prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Using a fork, gently press down on each cookie ball to flatten it slightly and create a crisscross pattern on top.
Pro tip – If desired, sprinkle a small amount of granulated sugar over the top of each cookie for a slightly sweet finish. - Bake – Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 12-15 minutes or until the edges of the cookies turn a light golden brown.
- Cool – Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Once the custard cookies have cooled, store any leftovers in an airtight container to keep them fresh.
Tips for Success
- Use High-Quality Ingredients: The quality of your ingredients, especially the custard powder and butter, will greatly impact the flavor and texture of the cookies. Choose a good-quality custard powder for the best results.
- Softened Butter: Make sure your butter is properly softened at room temperature. This allows it to cream well with the sugar, resulting in a smoother dough.
- Creaming Butter and Sugar: Cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy, usually for about 2-3 minutes. This step helps create a tender and airy texture in the cookies.
- Sift the Custard Powder: Sift the custard powder and other dry ingredients before adding them to the wet ingredients. This ensures that they are well-distributed and prevents lumps in the dough.
- Do Not Overmix: Once you start adding the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, mix only until the dough comes together. Overmixing can lead to tough cookies.
- Chill the Dough: If the dough becomes too sticky or soft, you can chill it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before shaping the cookies. Chilled dough is easier to work with.
- Evenly Sized Cookies: When rolling the dough into balls, try to make them as uniform in size as possible. This ensures even baking.
- Fork Pattern: When pressing the cookies with a fork, dip the fork in a little flour or custard powder to prevent it from sticking to the dough. Press gently to avoid flattening the cookies too much.
- Baking Time: Keep a close eye on the cookies as they bake. They should be lightly golden around the edges when done, which typically takes 12-15 minutes in a preheated oven. Overbaking can make them dry.
- Cooling: Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. This helps them set without breaking.
- Storage: Store the completely cooled cookies in an airtight container to keep them fresh. They should stay delicious for several days.
Frequently asked questions
Custard powder is a flavored powder used to make custard sauce or pudding. It’s typically made from ingredients like cornstarch, sugar, salt, and flavoring. You can find custard powder in the baking aisle of most grocery stores or online.
These eggless custard cookies will be kept in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. You can freeze the dough for up to a month or freeze the cookies for up to three months. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. If you want to keep them soft, add a piece of bread to the container to help retain moisture.
Yes, you can freeze Custard Cookies. Place them in an airtight container or a freezer bag, separating layers with parchment paper to prevent sticking. They can be stored in the freezer for up to three months. Thaw them at room temperature before serving.
To prevent excessive spreading, make sure your dough is well-chilled before baking. You can refrigerate it for 30 minutes before shaping and baking the cookies.
These cookies have a good shelf life as dough as well as cookies.
The dough, if wrapped well, can usually stay in the fridge for 5 to 6 days before coating and baking.
You can also place the unbaked cookies on a parchment-lined tray, wrapped well with cling wrap, for about 3 to 4 days.
In addition, this snickerdoodle dough can be frozen for a month or more if covered well.
Yes, you can replace some of the all-purpose flour with almond flour. Or you can try my soft almond sugar cookies; however, they are not eggless
While vanilla extract can add a pleasant flavor to your cookies, it won’t replicate the custard flavor. If you want to make Custard Cookies, it’s best to use custard powder for that unique taste.
Custard Cookies (Eggless)
What are custard cookies? Crisp, delicious, melt in the mouth shortbread based cookies flavored like vanilla pastry cream. Yes, that’s what these custard cookies are! This simple, easy and effortless recipe will give you cookies that taste like vanilla pastry cream. Also, this is an eggless recipe that takes less than 15 minutes to make.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250 g) All-purpose flour
- ½ cup (8 tbsp) Custard powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ¼ tsp Baking powder
- 1 cup (227 g) Unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup (60 g) Powdered sugar or granulated sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- Additional granulated sugar for dusting optional
Method
- Preheat your oven to 350°F /180°C/ Gas mark 4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly grease it.
- Dry ingredients – In a separate bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, custard powder, and salt until well combined.2 cups All-purpose flour, ½ cup Custard powder, ¼ tsp Salt, ¼ tsp Baking powder
- Wet ingredients – In a large mixing bowl, cream the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and combine well.1 cup Unsalted butter, ½ cup Powdered sugar, 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- Combine – Gradually add the dry ingredient mixture to the creamed butter and sugar mixture. Mix until a soft and crumbly dough forms. You can use a spatula or your hands to help bring the dough together until the dough becomes smooth and uniform. Pro tip – If the cookie dough is too dry and cracking when you shape a ball. Add one to two tbsp of water and try again. But, note that too much water can cause the cookies to spread too much.
- Shape – Take small portions of the dough and roll them into 18 equal-sized balls. Place these balls onto your prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Using a fork, gently press down on each cookie ball to flatten it slightly and create a crisscross pattern on top.Pro tip – If desired, sprinkle a small amount of granulated sugar over the top of each cookie for a slightly sweet finish.
- Bake – Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 12-15 minutes or until the edges of the cookies turn a light golden brown.
- Cool – Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Once the custard cookies have cooled, store any leftovers in an airtight container to keep them fresh.Additional granulated sugar for dusting
Equipment you will need
Nutrition
Tried this recipe?
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great recipe. I whipped it up late one night as I was hankering for a bickies, and here is Australia my gran used to make these, sandwiched together with a vanilla icing, called Custard creams. my 16yo daughter just said… mum make some more, need to take them to school! Partner has taken wee baggies,to her employees for morning tea. Sent the recipe to uni daughter in text ‘ These bickies. you love. Easy. get ingredients. get trays . turn on oven first. follow instructions…. Do it before drinking. Thank me later’ . I’m about to do a super double batch. One with finely chopped, slithered dark choc, the other with cranberries, macadamia and orange zest. I use a small cookie scoop which produces 2 bite bickies. really glad this recipe is the same as I grew up with, and I found it to keep sharing down the line.
Thank you so much for the lovely feedback Meg, So happy you enjoy these so much. I have fond memories of these too.
Can you please clarify the measurement for the custard powder? One half cup of Bird’s Custard Powder weighs more like 70 grams than 10 grams; should I follow the volume or the weight? 10 grams is closed to one-and-a-half tablespoons.
Its about 8 tbsp Mel. Thanks
Didn’t work for me, followed to a T and were super dry and tasted like flour 🙁
Sorry to hear that, KP. Shortbread cookies can be tricky. As the recipe states you can add a tablespoon of water if the dough is too dry.
Veena made these today. OMG they’re delicious. Just like Mom used to make!
The dough was perfect for rolling into balls, didn’t need to add any liquid.
Instead of using Fork Tines to flatten the cookies, I used the embossing portion of one of my Snowflake Cookie embosser/cutters. Beautiful!!
Cookies I will have no qualms about giving to family and friends.
Thank you for the recipe.
Merry Christmas / Season Greetings to You and Yours!
Thank you for the lovely feedback, Barb. Happy you enjoyed these cookies. Happy holidays to you.
This sounds like a cookie my late Mom used to make that I can’t find a recipe for. Will be trying it as soon as I get more Custard Powder!
Thanks Barb.
Hi Veena! I just happen to have a can of Birds in my cupboard, and I’m excited to try this recipe.
BUT – had I not read the comments, & if I was a novice baker, I’d have been waiting. And waiting. And waiting for the cookies to bake @ 150°F..
You acknowledged in one of the comments that the correct temperature is 350°F, so WHY hasn’t the recipe been corrected – to ensure that even novice bakers can make them successfully?
Thanks for what I’m sure is going to be a very tasty treat!
From Alberta, Canada ??
Hey Terry, Sorry but doesn’t the recipe say – Preheat the oven at 350°F/ 177°C/ Gas Mark 4
That’s what I see here too. THanks
I only baked them for 11 minutes. Am I correct in saying these are small cookies? I think people have problems with the edges slitting because they flatten them too much. Anyway I like the cookies. I’ll add some icing and see what the grandkids think. Thanks for a different recipe to add to my selection.
Barbara, the dough is like shortbread not too dry but not so wet either. It does hold shape and does not spread too flat. The balls are small as you can see so yes the cookies are not too big.
Hello Veena, when Christmas looms closer, it’s Shortbread time in my Family, and have been searching for something other than my Traditional Shortbread.
I have been following you for years & your Devils Food Chocolate Cake recipe is my all time favorite.
I made these last night & could barely wait for them to cool down. Such an easy recipe and sooo delicious – your description of the Pastry Cream was spot on – Thank you so much.
Thank you for the lovely feedback, Charleen. I am so happy you are enjoying my recipes.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe, I am so excited to try this out I already ordered the custard powder off of Amazon. I will be making these sugar free for my uncle who has diabetes but misses custard pie.
Super easy receipe mine came out great thanks for the receipe.
Happy you enjoyed these cookies, Vijaya. Thank you for the lovely feedback.
Thanks for sharing this recipe, it looks very interesting ! Will try this out with my kid.
If you have any more such recipes with custard powder, especially no bake recipes, I would love to hear from you !
You’re missing a liquid do I add water?
No, these are shortbread-type cookies, and the dough is fairly dry but not crumbly. At most you can add 1 to 2 tbsp of water but too much water can cause them to spread.
These turned out perfectly. Thank you for including grams as well (I’ve always preferred to weigh out butter than try smosh it into a cup!)
These reminded me of the cookies I used to make as a child growing up in South Africa. A nice reminder on Heritage (SA) day as I now live in Canada that I can bake these with my friends and be reminded of home.
Wonderful recipe!
Thanks you for the lovely feedback, Ella. Happy you enjoyed these cookies.
I only needed two tablespoons of water and probably could have made due with one. But Andre is correct that it’s surely supposed to be cooked at 350F, not 150F. My oven doesn’t even go that low! Should be easy to fix. Otherwise, cookies were excellent.
Thank you for the feedback, Greg. Yes, the baking temperature is 350F/177C. All flour gets absorbed differently so you may or may not need 2 tbsp of water.