Thandai Custard is a delicious melting in mouth Holi dessert. You can prepare it with eggs or without eggs. You can prepare is as baked custard or no bake custard. I have explained all the necessary steps to make this easy for you. This Thandai custard is not only flavor packed but also quite easy to prepare.
Growing up my Mom made custard very often. And while she would make everything from scratch, custard always happened from the store bought custard powder.
I still love the instant custard powder bright color custard loaded with fruits but homemade custard is much smoother in texture and sublime!
Custard is not a traditional Holi dish but you add thandai powder to it, and it turns into a fun Holi dessert, that everyone will love.
Instant Thandai Custard:
For Instant Thandai Custard, use the store bought custard powder and add my homemade Thandai powder to it. Mix and simmer in milk and your Instant Thandai Custard will be ready.
What is Thandai?
Thandai is milk-based Holi drink/ summer cooler that is infused with nuts and spices. The spice mix is pretty easy to make at home. It’s a blend of nuts along several spices.
When combined together, the flavor is robust! I love the niftiness of this spice mixture. It can be used in several dessert preparations to boost the taste and aroma.
Here is the link to my Thandai Powder Masala
Ingredients I used to prepare the no-bake Thandai Custard
- Eggs
- Geletin
- Heavy Cream
- Milk
- Thandai Masala Powder
Geletin or agar-agar is a must for no bake custard. The custard will need few hours in the refrigerator (not freezer) to set.
If you discard the geletin, then you will need to bake the custard in water bath to set it.
Ingredients I used to prepare the Baked Thandai Custard
- Eggs
- Heavy Cream
- Thandai Masala Powder
- Sugar
Eggless Custard
For the eggless version, you will have to substitute egg with corn flour to prepare the custard.
If you follow my recipe mentioned below, than use about 2 tablepsoons of corn flour to heavy cream to create that thick consistency of the custard.
And then you follow the same step of baking in water bath.
For someone who loves colors, it’s quite odd to not enjoy the festival of colors Holi! As a kid, I used to hide in my Mom’s kitchen pantry almost the entire day, terrified of those multicolor faces.
Some years, Holi used to fall right on my birthday, making it double difficult for me. The fear lasted for a very long time.
The very first time I stepped out to play Holi was in my 20s. It was ok. I was not as thrilled as others. Somehow, it never became my favorite festival. Although that never stopped me from celebrating the day with sweets and snacks!
Hope you all had an exciting and super colorful Holi.
Thandai Custard NO BAKE
Thandai Custard is a delicious melting in mouth Holi dessert. You can prepare it with eggs or without eggs. You can prepare is as baked custard or no bake custard. I have explained all the necessary steps to make this easy for you. This Thandai custard is not only flavor packed but also quite easy to prepare.
Ingredients
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- 1/3 cup white granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon gelatin powder or agar agar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 and 1/2 tablespoons thandai powder
Instructions
- Here is the link to my homemade Thandai Powder
- In a bowl mix the gelatin powder/ agar agar and water. Leave it aside for the gelatin to bloom.
- Simultaneously, pour the cream and the milk in a pot along with the sugar and tahndai powder. Let it simmer for 5 minutes for the flavor of thandai to get infused. Once the milk warms up, add the bloomed gelatin to the pot. And whisk for 5 minutes for the gelatin to dissolve completely.
- Grease a big pan or individual size pans and pour the custard to the pan.
- Cover and let it set in the refrigerator for overnight.
- To release from the container, run a butter knife on the side, flip carefully and the wobbly custard should release on it's own.
Thandai Custard BAKED
Thandai Custard is a delicious melting in mouth Holi dessert. You can prepare it with eggs or without eggs. You can prepare is as baked custard or no bake custard. I have explained all the necessary steps to make this easy for you. This Thandai custard is not only flavor packed but also quite easy to prepare.
Ingredients
for thandai powder
- ¼ cup whole almonds
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 2 tablespoons fennel seeds
- 6 green cardamoms
- ½ tablespoon peppercorns
- 2 tablespoons melon seeds
for the custard
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2½ tablespoons thandai powder
Instructions
to make the thandai powder
- Grind all the ingredients to a fine dust.
to make the custard
Preheat the oven to 150C/300 F.
- Pour heavy cream in a saucepan along with sugar and thandai powder. Bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally. Allow it to simmer in low heat for about 5 minutes.
- In a bowl, whisk egg until it’s smooth.
- Ladle a little bit of the hot cream slowly to whisked egg while whisking simultaneously. Pour the egg yolk mixture back to the hot cream and give it a mix. Cook the mixture on a low heat, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes or until the custard looks thick and coats the back of your spoon.
- Strain the mixture to a jug.
- Grease a baking pan with some butter and then pour the mixture to the pan and bake it for about 30 minutes in water bath or until it’s just set. When you take it out, it should feel slightly wobbly in he center.
- Bring it to room temperature and allow it to chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
- If yu wish to flip the custard, then release the edges using a butter night and then flip on a plate.
Notes
When you are cooking the custard make sure to keep the heat in medium low or else it can curdle easily.
17 Comments
dixya
March 24, 2016 at 10:19 AMim not a holi person either..i have never liked the idea of throwing color and getting drenched..but sweets are always welcome 🙂
Laura (Tutti Dolci)
March 24, 2016 at 2:18 PMWhat a delicious custard, the flavors sound wonderful!
Sarvani
March 25, 2016 at 1:27 AMHoli does not excite me either..I might play with water but not the coloured powders!! I am intrigued by the addition of thandai in the custard…
Our Food Stories
March 25, 2016 at 3:27 AMohh this looks so delicious!! and wonderful photos <3
Mindy
March 25, 2016 at 5:25 AMHi Kankana,
Lovely stories and pictures!! The recipe sounds wonderful… what is the sugar amount?
Kankana Saxena
March 30, 2016 at 12:33 AMThanks Mindy 🙂 I didn’t realize the sugar amount was missing. It’s 1 cup!
Sheetal
March 25, 2016 at 5:37 AMWhat a great idea to to a thandia custard
Cygnet Kitchen
March 28, 2016 at 6:01 AMI just love baked custard, your spiced version looks so delicious Kankana! x
[email protected]
March 28, 2016 at 8:18 AMI have not been able to visit my favorite sites for a while now and I see that O have mussed some gorgeous recipes from you! Going through them all now 🙂 And before I forget, this is a genius fusion!
Janani Rakesh Kumar
April 18, 2016 at 1:16 PMLovely stories and awesome pictures kankana!
Kalyani
March 28, 2021 at 7:58 AMYou haven’t mentioned how to make it eggless and without baking. Please clarify on both points.
Kankana Saxena
March 28, 2021 at 9:52 PMI mentioned two recipe of the custard, baked and no-bake. For no-bake you have to use wither gelatin or agar agar. For baked custard you use egg or corn starch to thicken the custard as you cook the milk with the thadai powder. Then bake it as I mentioned in my baked custard recipe. Hope this helps and clarifies your doubt!
Hetal
March 24, 2021 at 5:08 PMHI! This custard looks delicious! Can you please share detailed recipe for the instant thandai custard? Do we still need to bake it and then refrigerate it? Thanks.
Kankana Saxena
March 24, 2021 at 9:27 PMHi Hetal,
By instant I mean using the Instant custard powder that you get in store. You mix it with cold milk (the instruction is mention in the pacakge). Mix the thandai powder and then simmer until it thickens. Then pour in bowls and let it cool down in the refrigerator.
Divyanka
March 26, 2021 at 2:49 AMHey!! This recipe looks amazing!! I’m definitely making it on Monday…I’m not big on holi either but since this is another lockdown holi I decided to bring some festive cheer by making this!! I have one question…can I use whipping cream instead of heavy cream and by melon seeds do you mean musk melon or watermelon?
Kankana Saxena
March 28, 2021 at 9:55 PMHeavy cream is whipped cream so yes you could use either. As for the seeds, it is optional but you could use either muskmelon seeds or watermelon seeds.
mjskitchen
April 1, 2021 at 10:10 AMMy husband and I absolutely love custard. It’s our favorite dessert. This actually looks easier than some of the custards I’ve seen and looks delicious. I see that the Thandai powder in this recipe doesn’t use dried rose petals, so it’s quite doable. Thanks so much for sharing! Hope you have a wonderful Holi.