Fruit Custard

My dad and my granddad love this dessert. So this delicious custard made a hearty appearance, along with puris and bataka vada for their birthdays and other special days! So I know, where my love for this fruit custard comes from. My family calls this fruit salad.

What is a Fruit Custard?

This recipe is a deliciously rich and creamy milk-based Indian dessert flavored with vanilla and cardamom. Fruits with different textures are added to the prepared custard. Usually, citrus fruits like oranges, pineapples, and other fruits like papaya are avoided. I like to add fruits like mangoes, apples, bananas, pomegranates, chikoo and grapes. This covers mostly different textures of fruits, so you get to experience different textures in every bite.

How to Make Custard without Custard Powder

You can find the custard powder at any Indian grocery store. I use this Custard Powder to make this recipe. But, don’t worry if you can’t find custard powder. You can make it at home. You will need cornstarch, vanilla and milk powder to make this custard powder at home. If you wish to replace cornstarch with a healthier substitute, you can use arrowroot powder. You will need 3 tablespoons of cornstarch, 1 tablespoon of milk powder, and you can also add 1 tablespoon of sugar. Mix it all and keep it aside. We will add vanilla extract while making the custard.

Choose the Right Fruits

You need ripe fresh fruits to make this recipe. My favorite ones to add to this recipe are apples, chikoos, strawberries, mangoes, bananas, grapes, and pomegranates. You want to make sure you add fruits with different textures. I like the bite with a pop of pomegranates, sweet and sour bites of strawberries, and grapes. Sweet and tart firm bites on apples and soft sweet bites of bananas and mangoes. All these fruits beautifully also complement the vanilla-flavored custard. You want to avoid citrus, watery, and very tart fruits like oranges, grapefruits, watermelons, cantaloupe and pineapples. Other fruits like papaya, dragon fruit, etc, also don’t work in this recipe.

Make it Vegan

You can easily make fruit custard vegan, it is healthier and is better to add fruits to plant-based milk than dairy. I make it both ways, and my favorite milk to use is almond milk and coconut milk to make this recipe.

Variations You Might Want to Try

I know mixing fruits and milk is proven to be hard to digest. So this dessert rarely appears on our table. But it is so delicious and hard to resist. But here are a few variations you can add to the custard!

Add dry fruits like almonds, pistachios, cashews and raisins. Try to add dates and roasted makhanas (foxnuts) to it. You can make mango custard, by adding mango puree and cut mango pieces along with almonds and pistachios.

Expert Tips, Serving Suggestions and Storage

Cook the milk, until it comes to a boil. Then bring the flame to low, and add the prepared custard puree while constantly stirring it. If you don’t do so, the custard will form lumps. Most custard powders available in the market are eggless but double-check to make sure, if you are a vegetarian. Cut the fruits, right before you are ready to add them to the custard. Cut the fruits finely, to enjoy a bite of different fruits in a bite. Serve the custard chilled. It is so delicious on hot summer days. Add the fruits right before serving the custard, this way the fruits don’t react with milk. To make it refined sugar-free while using dairy, add maple syrup. If you are using plant-based milk to make this recipe then, add jaggery. Store the fruits and custard milk separately in the refrigerator. The custard stays fresh for about 3 days in the refrigerator.

Ingredients to Make the Recipe

There are only a handful of ingredients you need to make this recipe. The list of ingredients have substitutions mentioned too.

Milk - Use regular full-fat whole milk, for this recipe. If you wish to make it Vegan, you can use either almond milk or coconut milk. Custard Powder - I like to buy vanilla-flavored store-bought custard powder, but if you wish to make your own, I mentioned a quick recipe in the blog above. Half and Half - A little bit of half and half to add to the thickened custard to make it creamy and pouring consistency. It is totally optional, but I like to add it, as my mom adds it too. Sugar - I use regular castor sugar for the recipe. If you want to make it refined sugar-free, add maple syrup. If you are using plant-based milk you can also add jaggery powder. Fruits - I like to use red Honeycrisp apples, frozen chikoos that I chop finely, ripe bananas, grapes, strawberries, and pomegranates. Flavorings - Add cardamom powder and a little splash of vanilla to perfume the custard milk. It adds so much depth of flavor!