Fruit custard recipe

Fruit custard is a delicious creamy and rich chilled dessert made with custard powder, milk, seasonal fruits and nuts. Also known as fruit salad with custard, this is a popular dessert in India. Similar to other Indian desserts – Gulab jamun, Rasmalai and Carrot halwa, a chilled fruit custard makes its presence in most special meals and parties. Fruit custard can be a great summer treat to your friends, family and guests.

What is fruit custard?

Fruit custard is a dessert made by mixing chopped seasonal fruits with chilled cusard sauce. Custard is a saucy dish that was traditionally prepared with cream, milk and eggs. Today one can find so many ways of making a custard. The simplest way is to use a store bought custard powder like I have done for this post.

I have used a eggless custard powder that has no artificial colors and flavors. There are lot of brands selling custard powder.

Apart from basic vanilla flavor, it is also available in different flavors like banana, apple, pineapple and mango. But most of them are artificial flavors so I use only the basic one.

When you buy custard powder, do look for one that has no artificial colors & flavors. If you are unable to find custard powder then make your own following the instructions below

How to make custard without custard powder

Custard powder is nothing but corn starch or corn flour with flavoring ingredients added to it. So If you are not accessible to custard powder, you can make your own using corn flour (corn starch) or arrowroot powder.

To flavor the custard, just use vanilla extract or vanilla bean pod. To enhance the flavor of custard you can also use 3 to 4 tbsp dry milk powder.

Choosing fruits

Any seasonal fruits go well in this dessert. But most often I use banana, pomegranate, mango and apples. It is good to use sweet fruits and avoid sour ones.

Do not use citrus fruits like oranges, grapefruit, kiwi or mandarins. I also avoid grapes and pineapple too.

For more summer desserts, you can check
Kulfi
Rabri
Basundi
Falooda
Ice cream recipes

How to make fruit custard

1. Pour 2½ cups milk to a heavy bottom pan. Add 4 to 5 tablespoons sugar to it. Begin to heat it on a medium flame. Stir and dissolve the sugar.

2. Meanwhile add 3 tablespoons custard powder to a small mixing bowl. Pour ¼ cup milk (warm or at room temperature) and mix well. Using very hot milk sometimes curdles the custard.

3. The mixture has to be smooth without lumps.

4. When the milk turns hot (not boiling), regulate the flame to low and add 2 tablespoons of the custard milk to it. Immediately whisk or mix well to incorporate it with the milk.

5. You can use a whisk or a spatula to mix it. This avoids lumps.

6. Next pour another 2 tablespoons of custard milk & repeat whisking to avoid lumps. This way pour the custard milk in 3 batches until all of it is used up. Pouring all the custard milk at one time may make the mixture lumpy. You may taste it and add more sugar at this stage.

7. Regulate the flame to medium. Stir well as it continues to boil. With in few minutes, the mixture turns thick. Turn off the stove.

8. Keep it aside and whisk the mixture well to smooth custard. You can also add any other flavoring if you desire.

9. Cover it immediately otherwise a layer forms on the custard. When it cools down keep it in the fridge until chilled.

Preparing fruits

10. Rinse the fruits well. Chill them too while the custard chills.

11. Just before serving the fruit custard, chop them to bite sized pieces.

12. Add them to a serving bowl.

13. Whisk the chilled custard well until smooth.

Pour the custard over the fruits. Gently mix. Garnish fruit custard with some pomegranate seeds.

FAQs on fruit custard

Can I make custard recipe without fruits?

Yes you can make the custard recipe the same way and add some dry fruits and nuts instead of fresh fruits. You can completely skip the sugar in the recipe and add dates, figs, almonds, pistachios, jelly and tutti fruttis.

As my kids are fussy I do not add dates but just add nuts, jelly & tutti fruittis.

This dry fruits custard will make an amazing chilled dessert for kids’ parties. If you plan on this, just ensure to add the dry fruits & nuts only before serving.

Is is okay to serve fruit custard to young kids or toddlers?

When my kids were very young I never made fruit custard recipe with dairy milk. As fruits and milk make a incompatible combination they are most likely to disturb the tummy and digestive system.

So I would make my own almond milk and stir in some arrowroot powder. Then cook the custard until thick and then add fruits. I have added more details in the recipe notes to make fruit custard recipe with almond milk.

Variations

You can add 2 tbsps cocoa powder to the same recipe to make chocolate custard. This version can be made with brown sugar for intense chocolate flavor.

Another variation is to just add some chopped chocolate or chocolate chips to the custard and stir well.

1 cup of thick sweet mango puree can be stirred in the cooled custard to make mango custard. I haven’t tried with any other fruits yet.

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