Dairy-Free Vanilla Custard (Paleo, GAPS, SCD, Keto, Low Carb)

Updated Mar 12, 2020 · 46 Comments

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Dairy-free Vanilla Custard is a comfort food dessert that’s also nourishing, with plenty of omega-3-rich egg yolks and healthy cholesterol. This creamy treat is perfect for Paleo, GAPS, SCD, Keto and Low Carb diets, and you’ll never know the dairy is missing!

English Vanilla Custard

Comfort foods vary in texture, flavor and temperature: homemade fried chicken, chocolate cake, ice cream. I really prefer savory foods these days and eat a lot fewer desserts and treats. But in the world of healthy desserts, for me, the ultimate sweet comfort food is warm, thick vanilla custard, like the kind you find in England poured over “pudding” or apple crumble.

Surprisingly, most of these warm custards in England today are made from a powdered mix. But how heavenly to have the homemade version of that viscous goodness to cloak a steamed cake, cobbler or deep dish pie. Eat it with a spoon.

I used to enjoy a lovely homemade version of vanilla custard that I developed after a semester spent in London. But those were the days I spent blindly enjoying milk, sugar, and grains.

Dairy-free, Paleo, Keto

When dairy’s out in your diet, and flour for that matter, how to have that old craving satisfied? We can be very grateful for gelatin! I use it in so many of my recipes, and it often replaces ingredients I can no longer have.

In this recipe, gelatin replaces the flour or cornstarch that’s traditionally used. (While arrowroot and tapioca starch are allowed on a Paleo diet, they are not legal for GAPS or SCD and are too high in carbs for Keto or Low Carb recipes.)

To make it dairy-free as well, my favorite version of this recipe uses soaked pine nuts to make a beautiful homemade pine nut milk. 🙂 Macadamias are even lower in carbs and can be used for the Keto/Low Carb version, with the same creamy effect and mild flavor. Hemp also works.

And for non-Keto/Low Carb, cashews can be used.

(I give all these versions below, and they’re all easy and fast to make, but with longer soaking times for larger nuts.)

Coconut milk may also be used. If you can tolerate dairy, this recipe can be made not only with homemade seed or nut milk, but also with raw goat or cow’s milk. Or for Keto, cream can be used. (See Step 4 in the Recipe Instructions below for this variation.)

Thickener and sweeteners

Because this recipe thickens up mainly from the use of gelatin, it thickens as it cools. However, I have used a high ratio of gelatin both for its gut healing properties and also because it gets thicker that way when it isn’t entirely cold, getting back to the love of warm custard. (Find my favorite gelatin here, and use discount code BEAUTIFUL10 for 10% off your entire order.)

Warm, this custard is beverage-like, drinkable, nourishing, and comforting. Pourable. This drinkable version, like the solid refrigerated version, can be sweetened with stevia alone, for Keto or those with a fructose sensitivity who do well with stevia.

In the ingredients below, I list the various sweetener options that correspond to the different diets this recipe serves, obviously honey for GAPS etc.

If you plan to enjoy the custard as a warm beverage, it is lovely with cinnamon and nutmeg added, a true homemade eggnog.

GAPS and SCD

For those of you on healing diets, such as GAPS or SCD, why not substitute this treat occasionally for the mug or bowl of bone broth? The healing properties in gelatin are not as diverse as they are in a homemade bone broth, but they are gut-healing nonetheless, and the eggnog can be a welcome, occasional change, adding variety and refreshment to your food repertoire. (Fun right?!) As you’ll see, this recipe uses very little sweetener, so it’s truly nourishing.

Pasture-raised eggs are used in this recipe. So the custard, again, is not only a comfort food treat, but also a truly healthful food, full of minerals, vitamins, fatty acids and needed cholesterol from the raw eggs yolks.

Serving options

If you have the custard at room temperature and pour it over a baked good, or in my case most recently, some grain-free crepes, it will cloak the baked good, like crème anglaise. When refrigerated, the custard will be very solid, but still tender. Here are a few serving options that I’ve done and recommend:

Stir it together with raspberries, and fill crepes. Top with more warm pourable custard, cinnamon and crispy walnuts.
Make individual cup custards.
Layer it to make parfaits.
Use it to fill cake layers.
Pour custard over crumble, cobbler, moist cake.
Eat like shortcake with scones and macerated strawberries or fresh berries.
Sauté apples or pears, or make chunky homemade applesauce to go with the custard.
For Keto, Paleo and GAPS, make Beautiful Rhubarb Sauce; eat together.