While there are many variations of flour made around the world, not all of them function or taste like flour. For instance, custard flour is a type of flour that is unique to wheat flour.
If you have never heard of custard flour, you may be wondering what custard flour is. I did the research, and here is what I learned!
What Is Custard Flour?
Custard flour is a mixture of ingredients that get mixed with batter or as a filling ingredient for dishes like cream puffs. Generally, various ingredients are used to make custard flour but some common ingredients include milk powder, eggs, and flavoring. Custard flour may also include thickeners like cornflour.
Do you want to learn how to use custard flour, if custard flour is the same as custard powder, and what you can substitute for custard flour? Keep reading!
What Is Custard Flour Made Of?
What custard flour is made of will depend on the manufacturer and recipe since custard flour can be made from various ingredients.
Typically, the main ingredients of custard flour are milk powder and flavoring, such as vanilla.
Despite having the word “flour” in the name, custard flour does not always require flour in the recipe.
However, some recipes for custard flour include thickeners, which are often cornflour.
What Does Custard Flour Taste Like?
Custard flour’s taste will highly depend on the ingredients used to create the custard flour.
For instance, custard flour made with the milk powder, eggs, and vanilla flavoring will taste sweet and creamy, which may remind you of a prepared custard.
Additionally, the flavor of the custard flour can change once you use the custard flour in a recipe since other ingredients can overpower the flavor.
What Is The Purpose Of Custard Flour?
Normally, custard flour is used for baking and custard flour has two purposes in baking, which are as a filler ingredient or to be mixed with the batter.
Since custard flour usually has flavoring added to it, custard flour can mask any odd flavors like eggs in baking.
When mixed into the flour, custard flour can help alleviate the smell and taste of fish, which can enhance most cake recipes.
Some variations of custard flour can be used to create custard, which can make a great filling for cakes, cupcakes, cream puffs, and more.
Is Custard Flour The Same As Custard Powder?
Technically, custard flour is the same as custard powder since they are merely different names for the same thing.
Moreover, custard powder is the more commonly used term for the product, but some people may call custard powder “custard flour” since the powder looks like flour.
Is Custard Flour The Same As Milk Powder?
Custard flour is not the same as milk powder because milk powder is pasteurized and dehydrated milk.
On the other hand, custard flour is made from a mixture of ingredients, and a common ingredient used to make custard flour is milk powder.
Milk powder cannot be used to completely replace custard flour whereas custard flour cannot replace milk powder.
However, you may add other ingredients into milk powder, such as flavoring and cornflour, to create something similar to custard flour.
Is Custard Flour The Same As Cornflour?
Corn flour and custard flour are not the same because they are made of different ingredients and have slightly different uses.
For instance, cornflour is merely flour made from ground corn, and cornflour may be used for dishes like cornbread, muffins, and pancakes.
On the other hand, custard flour is made from various ingredients like milk powder. Custard flour may also include corn flour, but not every recipe for custard flour will need corn flour.
What Can I Substitute For Custard Flour?
There are many substitutes for custard flour, and the best substitute for custard flour will depend on your needs.
If you merely need custard flour for a thickening agent, cornstarch is one of the best substitutes for custard flour since cornstarch is a common ingredient in thick custard flours.
Generally, you can use cornstarch in an equal ratio to custard flour, but you will likely need to add a pinch of salt and some vanilla essence to mimic custard flour’s flavor.
It is also important to note that cornstarch is white whereas most custard flour is creamy, so you may add 1-2 drops of yellow food coloring to copy custard flour’s creamy yellow color.
If you need custard flour to create custard to go with dishes like meringue, water chestnut flour can be a decent substitute.
Similar to cornstarch, you may want to add vanilla essence or vanilla extract into the water chestnut flour if you want a bit more flavor.
Moreover, some recipes require custard flour to create a custard. If that is the case, dry pudding mix is an excellent replacement for custard flour.
Dry pudding mix contains thickening agents that make it easy for you to create custard without custard flour.
Additionally, most dry pudding mixes have flavored options if you need flavor, but there are unflavored dry pudding mixes that you can get as well.
Read our other articles to discover what citrus flour is, what ciabatta flour is, and what coffee flour is.
Conclusion
Custard flour is made from various ingredients, but some common ingredients used to make custard flour are eggs, milk powder, and flavoring.
Generally, custard flour is used to mix with batter in baking recipes or as a filling for baked goods like cream puffs.