The classic British biscuit, home made custard creams are even better than the shop bought favourites.
There’s two treats that I remember my own Granny baking. The first one is of course her infamous Coconut Ice. And the second is Custard Creams. Even Granny raves about this recipe as being the best custard creams recipe she’s ever used. High praise indeed!
It has been long regarded as the favourite biscuit of us Brits but nothing really beats one fresh from the oven and sandwiched with homemade buttercream. In our house it’s a definite family favourite, with a batch lasting little less than a few hours, because you can’t just have one!
There’s not much more that can be said about these classic little biscuits because they really do speak for themselves. So what are you waiting for? Whip up a batch of the best ever Custard Creams you’ll ever taste! You can thank me later.
What are Custard Creams?
Custard Creams are one of the most popular biscuits here in the UK. They are delicious shortbread-esque biscuits, with a light custard flavour, sandwiched together with a sweet buttercream.
Shop bought custard creams always come in the iconic rectangular shape, with the words “custard cream” pressed onto them, surrounded by a squiggly design. You can buy cookie cutters that allow you to replicate this, but we go with the good old fashioned fork-press finish…just like Granny used to make!
How do you make Custard Creams?
This recipe for custard creams is super easy to make. You start by mixing your butter and icing sugar in a bowl, before adding your flour and custard powder to make a thick paste (ie. soft dough). You then shape that into balls before pressing with a fork, and baking.
Once baked and completely cool, you mix up a buttercream with butter and icing sugar. Finally you sandwich your biscuits together with a nice spreading of the buttercream, before enjoying with a cup of tea!
Love this? Try this:
Custard Creams
Ingredients
For the Biscuits
- 170 g Butter or Margarine ((at room temperature))
- 55 g Icing Sugar
- 170 g Self-raising Flour
- 55 g Custard Powder
For the Filling
- 50 g Butter or Margarine ((at room temperature))
- 100 g Icing Sugar
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 180°c (160°c for fan assisted ovens or Gas Mark 4) and grease a couple of baking sheets with a little butter.
- In a large bowl cream the butter/margarine & icing sugar until light and fluffy.
- Gradually add the flour & custard powder a little at a time until the mixture forms a paste (ie. a soft dough)
- Divide into small balls - about a teaspoon-tablespoon per biscuit - and place onto your pre-greased baking sheets with a bit of space between. Flatten eat ball lightly with a fork.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes until the appear dry on top.
- Allow to cool on a wire rack. Mix the butter & icing sugar to form the butter cream and once the biscuits are completely cool, pipe or spread a little butter cream onto half the biscuits and sandwich together with the other halves.
46 Responses
Lovely biscuits. Will make mine a bit smaller next time as only had 10 biscuits – or maybe I will just make double quantity!
How many is it supposed to make?
I get 17 from mine. The balls need to be small…. Smaller than you think is small.
Fantastic recipe. I have now made these a couple of times for family and they love them!
Cooked these in the work bake off and everyone was asking me for the recepie. So nice :)
My granddaughter is dairy intolerant so wasn’t sure if the recipe would work with dairy free butter. It most certainly does and she absolutely loved them as did the rest of us! Will definitely be making these again for her
Is “dairy free butter” the same as lactose free butter?
No. Lactose free and dairy free are different. Lactose free still contains milk proteins, lactose is the sugar in milk. For my dairy free daughter I use Flora to make these. Hope this helps x
What might ‘custard powder’ be here in the states please?
You can buy it on Amazon or in one of those British product stores
I cooked these for 12 minutes. Perfect but very delicate this they broke, how can i make them structurally more sturdy.
Hi.leave them to cool slightly before transfering them from backing tray to rack
You can make these into peppermint custard creams by using half bournville cocoa powder with the custard powder and peppermint flavouring. Then flavour buttercream with peppermint and green colouring.
I made these last week when I saw your recipe just delicious, could you add vanilla th the filling for a different taste
Can I substitute self raising gluten free flour for regular flour? Would I need to adjust recipe quantities?
Yes, I made these with gluten free flour and they worked fine, just a little more crumbly, I followed the same quantities as with regular flour.
Add 1/4 tsp xantham gum to GF flour and they work perfectly
Thank you for this info, Cathy. I try always to make a second version for a friend who just cannot tolerate gluten at all. She deserves the extra effort!
Amazing recipe! First attempt at custard creams and it went brilliant.
More generally, it’s wonderful not having to wade through dozens of paragraphs of a life story every time I want a good recipe – your little openers are perfect!
Very good recipe. Delicious. Thank you.
This is a smashing recipe. The biscuits go down great every time. Well done Amy and thanks for sharing in such an easy to follow way. I wish my nana had made these.
Be mindful that they start to singe really quickly so don’t take your eye off them. 170 degrees and bang on 12 minutes in our fan oven. Definitely leave them twenty minutes or so before transferring to the rack because they crumble otherwise.
I know others have said that the buttercream makes plenty so it must just be us who make double the amount….
Finally, we like to add a good blob of quality strawberry jam to the middle of ours. It goes lovely with the filling and gives us a sort of Viennese Whirl.
Fabulous.
.
Nom nom nom
Easy recipe and turned out just like picture. Family all said they were more like Viennese whirls and nothing like custard creams. Will try again, next time I will put a drop of jam with the butter icing.
Could these be made a day in advance for an afternoon tea That’s if no one eats them all first!
Yes. What I’ve done in past is make the biscuits and then do buttercream The morning i need it (also stops temptation to pinch one)
These look lovely – can you tell me roughly how many biscuits the recipe makes please?
I used a teaspoon per biscuit and it made 22 halves…so 11 biscuits.
I get 17!
Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe. Though have to agree the melt in your mouth cookies are more like viennese swirls than custard creams. Will be making these again no doubt.
This recipe is easy to follow and great end result. Everyone in my household love them. Will definitely be making these again
How easy are these to make. Just love them.
Love this recipe, I’ve made it quite a few times now, my husband seems to like them,they don’t last long, they turn out perfect everytime. Thank you for sharing your recipe. I will use it over and over.
Looked for a really good recipe for these biscuits and tgey truly were delicious!
As others recommended leaving in for 12 minutes and let them cool before transferring to the rack. Made some of the fillings lemon butter cream and some vanilla as added a little flavouring
Perfect
I’m going to try them using dairy free and gluten free for my grandson
So fingers crossed they turn out just as good as the original recipe !!!
Absolutely delicious. Everyone comes back for a second biscuit and so many people have asked for the recipe
Made these a few times now , some a bit crumbly & some too hard, so I’ve found that 16 mins @ 180 & leave on wrack for at least 20 mins & they are perfect, also I roll mine into 15g balls so their all the same size. It’s my perfect ‘go to’ recipie so thank you for making it so easy to follow.
Lovely easy recipe. Real melt in the mouth biscuits. I’ve made them a few times now and they’re a big hit with everybody who tried them. Thanks
I had some leftover creme patissiere, so it would have been rude not to thickly spread it on top of these. They were *incredible*.
I found 13 minutes at 165° in my fan oven was perfect. I left them to cool on the tray for 20 minutes, while I was making a batch of doughnut dough for the next day, before transferring to the wire rack and they firmed up nicely.
10/10 would make again… probably tomorrow, knowing my lot!
Do they freeze please?
Is it the icing sugar which causes them to be hard and crisp like shop bought biscuits? Unlike homemade cookie recipes which use brown and white sugar which tend to be soft and chewy?
I’ve made these for a church lunch a couple of times and they always disappear fast! (In Canada, it’s peanut butter cookies that are marked with a fork, so that people know what they are.) I’m sure this is the same recipe I got from an elderly lady (no longer with us) and she called them, “my custardy biscuities”.
Great recipe!
Love it. I’m gonna save it.
Tried these they were beautiful but very crumbly, any tips for them being a bit firmer
Can I freeze them please
Love this recipe! Had them in a lovely café in Braemar last year and wanted to make them myself when coming back to Sweden. Sometimes I add some peated single malt in the butter cream ;)
I usually keep them in a tin in the fridge and they stay good for a very long time (if htey last that is….)
Read the reviews and thought this would be a safe bet. Followed the recipe very strictly and had some good looking biscuits at the end. My mum loved them and said they tasted like luxury Viennese whirls rather than custard creams (a good thing). But I found them so extremely sweet and sickly to be enjoyable. I ate one but I definitely don’t want any more. Perhaps worth bearing in mind if you don’t like very sweet biscuits/cakes, however I can see that I am in the minority judging by the other feedback!
Ok so I’m revising my review. For some reason the next day they tasted really nice so I think it was me that was the problem, not the recipe!