Custard Cream Cookies

These delicious custard cream cookies are deliciously easy to make, with a custard flavoured cookie dough, white chocolate buttons and crushed custard cream biscuits throughout.

With a NYC style cookie dough base they are chunky, gooey and delicious and perfect for custard cream lovers like me.

Notes from The Patisserie

My blog has always been based on recipe requests from those who follow me and love my recipes – and this recipe is no different. That iconic in the UK supermarket chain that does lots of viral bakes recently (M&S) have a great bakery section, and they have recently created a custard cream cookies… so I have made a version.

This recipe is a delicious combination of my New York City style chocolate chip cookies, with the idea and base of what a custard cream is. I wanted to recreate the viral bake because I LOVE a custard cream, and the idea sounded tasty.

Technically, yes, it is just putting biscuits into a cookie, but that is fine by me. With an added twist of ingredients, these gooey, chunky and delicious cookies are worth a bake.

What are custard creams?

If you live in the UK like me, you will know what a custard cream is. It’s an iconic biscuit that has spanned over 100 years of existence and is DELIGHTFUL. The shop bought versions generally have a soft vanilla biscuit that still provides a bit of a crunch when fresh out of the packet. Filled with a custard flavoured buttercream, they are delightful to dunk in a cup of tea or coffee.

There are so many variations on flavours now, but I love the classic. I have created a homemade custard cream recipe in my third book, Jane’s Patisserie Everyday, but the shop bought ones are still delicious in my eyes.

Ingredient notes and tips

The full recipe and method can be found in the recipe card below

• Butter – I like to use unsalted block butter (and add sea salt later on) at room temperature or use a baking spread straight out of the fridge.
• Sugar – the combination of light brown soft sugar and granulated sugar is for flavour, and texture. I wouldn’t recommend caster sugar as I find it can make the cookies have a cakey texture, but you can use all light brown soft sugar or all granulated sugar
• Egg – you can use a medium or a large egg, the difference is small for a cookie dough like this. You can also substitute the egg for 75ml of milk
• Flavours – the vanilla extract is optional, but I find it brings a pizzaz to the cookie dough – I prefer vanilla bean paste, but a good quality extract is great. Avoid using essence as it’s fake and poor quality
• Flour – I personally use plain flour, and add the raising agent’s later on – but you can swap to self raising flour and not add baking powder
• Raising agents – for these you use a mix of bicarbonate of soda (a staple in cookies) and baking powder for the extra puff for this style of cookie
• Salt – I use sea salt in baking, not table salt. Table salt is often stronger, so I would recommend only a pinch if using that, or you can leave it out altogether.

What chocolate and biscuits should I use?

In addition to the core ingredients mentioned above, that make a delicious basic cookie dough, you have to add in the twist of this recipe which makes it have the custard cream theme.

In addition to plain flour, and as an alternative to cornflour, I recommend using custard powder. We have this as an easy to buy ingredient in the UK (I use the birds add milk one in the tub) and it adds a delicious softer texture to the dough as well as the flavour

As well as the custard powder in the base of the recipe (if you can’t buy it, remove it and use 300g of plain flour instead) you add in white chocolate chips/chunks/buttons and custard cream biscuits that have been crushed up. Naturally, the biscuits will lose the crunchy texture once they have been added into the cookies, but they still taste delicious.

Making the best cookies

There are lots of different methods to making cookies, but I adore the one I have used well over one thousand times now (that is A LOT of cookies…!)

I mix together the butter and sugars first, to prevent any lumps. The liquids for the recipe are the egg and vanilla – you do not need to add anything else. Then you can add in the dry ingredients. You can use a stand mixer, hand mixer, or a bowl and spoon – whatever you have will work, but by arm with a bowl and spoon does take a bit of an arm workout.

I find it best to weigh my cookies with scales to portion – as these cookies are meant to be huge. New-York style cookies are giant, chunky and delicious so it is worth it. Make sure to chill the cookies again in the fridge as this helps that texture again. 

I press a different custard cream into the freshly baked cookies for decoration and for an extra custard cream hit – but it is optional.

FAQs

Storage and Freezing 

These cookies are best on the day of baking and when they are still slightly warm (As they should be served) but they easily last for 5-7+ days once baked. I prefer to keep mine at room temperature, but you can store them in the fridge if you prefer a chilled cookie. 

You can freeze these cookies for 3+ months, baked or raw. If they have been baked you can thaw them in the fridge or at room temperature. If they are raw, you can bake them directly from frozen (add 1-2 minutes baking time) and the raw cookie dough can also last for 3+ months.