Fruit Custard Recipe | Fruit Salad with Custard | Step by Step Recipe

This delicious custard fruit salad recipe is another gem from K. Athamma who invariably makes it for dessert at all our family get-togethers. It may seem easy to just chop up some fruits, make a salad with it, and add some custard sauce to it but she has a definitive process she follows to make this fruit custard recipe. This fruit salad uses an eggless custard recipe made using vanilla custard powder and while you can choose pretty much whatever fruits you want to make the fruit salad, there are a few that she highly recommends - mostly tropical fruits that are available easily in India.

I have always noticed that Athamma's fruit salad has an underlying flavour of not just the fruits but something else that's sweet and cooked. So when I called her to ask how she makes her fruit custard, I realised there is more to this recipe than I imagined. She cooks dates and pineapple in some sugar syrup before adding it to the salad giving the entire fruit salad a very lovely flavour. I strongly recommend you to try this same process and be amazed.

I have used a mix of fruits which I could find easily at the time but please note that if you omit certain ingredients, the fruit custard will taste less than great and we all know no one wants to eat a fruit salad with custard sauce that tastes anything but great!

Other Easy Dessert Recipes:
Apple Crumble with Custard Sauce
China Grass Pudding
Banana Hazelnut Pudding
Vanilla Panna Cotta with Blueberry Coulis

Fruit Custard Recipe

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves 6
Recipe Source: Kumari Athamma

Ingredients:
1 apple
1 orange
1 cup of cubed, ripe pineapple
5-6 dates
1/2 cup of cubed, ripe mangoes (if in season)
1 small banana
1/4 cup of glazed cherries
1/4 cup of chopped cashew nuts
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp sugar

For Custard Sauce:
2 cups of milk
3 tbsp of vanilla custard powder
3 tbsp of sugar

How to Make Fruit Custard:

• Add the custard powder to 1/4 cup milk, mix well, and set aside.
• Bring the rest of the milk to boil and add sugar. Slowly add the custard mixture and continue to cook    until thick - about 5-7 mins.
• Remove from fire, cool completely, and refrigerate.
• Cook the 1/4 cup water + 2tbsp sugar for about 3-4 mins until the syrup thickens a bit. It doesn't need to be one-string, etc.
• Remove from fire. Chop the pineapple into small cubes and shred the dates into small pieces. Add these to the hot syrup, mix well, cool completely, and refrigerate.
• An hour before you need to serve the fruit custard, cut the other fruits into small pieces, cube the cherries, chop the nuts and add to the pineapple-date mixture. Mix well and refrigerate until you need to serve.
• To serve: add 1/2 cup of the fruit salad to a bowl and top off with 1/2 cup custard sauce.

Step by Step Pictures to Make Fruit Salad with Custard:

To Make the Custard Sauce

Mix the custard powder with 1/4 cup milk and whisk until smooth

Bring the milk and sugar to boil

Add the custard mix slowly to the boiling milk

Keep stirring until the custard starts to thicken. This will take about 5-7 mins

Remove, transfer to a bowl, cool completely, and refrigerate

To Make the Fruit Salad

Round up your fruits

Make a slightly thick syrup with water and sugar

Add finely chopped pineapple and dates to this syrup

Mix well, cool completely, and refrigerate

An hour before serving, chop the rest of the fruits and add to the pineapple-date mixture

Mix well and refrigerate until serving time

To Serve

Add required amount of the fruit salad to a bowl. Top off with desired amount of custard. Serve chilled.

Notes:

- Add and subtract fruits according to your preference but I highly recommend the banana, cherries, and cashew nuts
- If you prefer to make the custard sauce thicker, add more custard powder. We prefer a light, more watery custard with more focus on the fruits
- Here's a custard sauce using eggs if you want to make custard sauce without custard powder