
Fruit custard or fruit salad is a simple Indian dessert made with just three ingredients. A smooth and creamy custard sauce can be made easily in the Instant Pot or stovetop and then served with seasonal fruits of your choice.
This is an eggless fruit custard recipe made using custard powder unlike the other type of custard that uses eggs. It can be made effortlessly for parties, potlucks, or any occasion and is a crowd pleaser dessert.
Making custard at home is an easy two-step process. Just make a mixture of custard powder and cold milk and add it to boiling milk. Cook it for a few minutes until it thickens to a custard sauce consistency.

Jump to:
Ingredients
This is an Indian eggless fruit custard recipe and made with mainly 3 ingredients, milk, sugar, and custard powder.
I have used the vanilla custard powder but you can use mango, strawberry, or orange flavors too.

Instant Pot instructions
To make custard in the instant pot, pour milk in the container and press yogurt mode until it shows boil. Close and lock the lid.
In the mean time in a small bowl, make a mixture of custard powder and some milk (must be cold). Mix it well with a whisk to ensure there are no lumps.


Once the milk is boiled, the instant pot will show "yogt" on the display. Open the lid and press cancel followed by pressing sauté mode on the normal setting. Add the sugar, custard powder, and milk mixture and stir it.
The custard will start to thicken, cook for a few minutes until it is of desired consistency. You don't want it to be too thick as it will harden further once it is chilled in the refrigerator.
Once it thickens, press cancel and remove the container from the instant pot to stop cooking it further. Allow it to cool down before refrigerating.


Stovetop instructions
In a heavy bottom saucepan, boil the milk and sugar on medium heat. You will need to monitor it to avoid any spillage. Also, scrape the bottom intermittently to avoid milk from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Make the custard mixture by mixing some cold milk and custard powder. Mix it well with the help of a whisk to ensure there are no lumps.
Once milk is boiled, lower the heat to medium and add the custard mixture to the boiling milk. To make a perfect custard, continue stirring the custard sauce and scraping the bottom of the pan to avoid it from sticking.

Serving suggestions
Chill the custard for at least 2-3 hours in the fridge and let it harden further. Once the custard is chilled, whisk it to make a smooth custard sauce and top it with your favorite fruits.
Custard tastes best when served chilled but it can be served at room temperature too. You can add fruits like grapes, pomegranate, strawberries, apples, blueberries, banana, mango or even candied fruit like tutti frutti. However, do not add any citrus fruits.
Dry fruits or nuts like cashews and pistachios can be added for garnishing. You can also serve it with your favorite ice cream.
Equipment
The main task to make custard is to boil milk. I have used the 3 qt. Instant Pot to boil milk and a larger Instant Pot can also be used. For the stovetop a 3 qt. saucepan can be used to ensure milk does not spill over.
A hand whisk comes in very handy to whisk the custard powder in milk and avoid any lumps.
Storage
Custard can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days. I do not add fruits to the custard while refrigerating but only when serving it. This way the fruits in the fruit salad are fresh while serving.

FAQ
How to make custard without custard powder?
Cornstarch and a flavoring like vanilla are the main custard powder ingredients. You can easily make custard at home from scratch without using custard powder by using cornstarch instead and some vanilla extract.
Where to buy custard powder?
Custard powder is available in most of the grocery stores, super market or online. I personally like to use Brown and Polson custard powder and had great success with Bird's custard powder too.
What fruits can be added to custard?
You can top the custard with seasonal fruits of your choice. Apple, banana, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, mango and pomegranate go well with custard fruit salad. Citrus fruits must be avoided as they can spoil the custard and make it taste bitter.
If you enjoyed this recipe then do check out these easy dessert recipes
Don't forget to rate the recipe by clicking the stars. Also, pin the recipe by clicking the "Pin" button, for your future reference.
📖 Recipe

Fruit Custard | Fruit Salad
Equipment
Ingredients
To make custard
- 5 tablespoon Custard powder (50 grams)
- ½ cup Organic cane sugar
- 4 cup Milk
Fruits
- ½ cup Banana
- ½ cup Strawberries
- ½ cup Blueberries
- ¼ cup Pomegranate
Instructions
How to make custard in Instant Pot
- Pour 3 ½ cup milk in the Instant Pot container and lock the lid.
- Press the 'yogt' button until it shows boil and bring the milk to a boil.
- In a bowl, take custard powder and ½ cup milk and mix it well using a whisk to ensure there are no lumps.
- Once the milk is boiled and Instant Pot shows "yogt", open the lid and press cancel.
- Turn the sauté mode on the normal setting and add sugar, custard powder, and milk mixture to the milk in Instant Pot.
- Mix well using a whisk and allow the milk to thicken, this can take 5-7 minutes.
- Continue stirring intermittently to ensure that custard does not stick to the bottom of the container.
- Once the custard is thickened, press the cancel button and remove the container from Instant Pot to avoid custard from further cooking.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and let it cool down.
How to make custard on stovetop
- In a heavy bottom saucepan, pour 3 ½ cup milk and sugar and allow it to boil on medium flame.
- Add custard powder and ½ cup milk in a bowl and mix well using a whisk to ensure there are no lumps
- Once milk is boiled, add the custard and milk mixture and and mix with a whisk
- Continue cooking for about 3-5 minutes or until the custard thickens.
- Keep stirring to ensure there are no lumps.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and let it cool down.
How to make custard fruit salad
- Allow the custard to cool down and then refrigerate for 2-3 hours.
- Whisk the custard to make it smooth.
- Add fruits of your choice (avoid citrus fruits).
Arel says
I tried the recipe, it's really good.