With my obsession and the husband’s love for it, this No-bake custard Biscoff bars were bound to happen! If you’ve been living under a rock, let me tell you Lotus Biscoff cookies have been ALL the rage this decade. IT has literally dethroned Oreo from the no-bake desserts category. At least it has in my home. As much as I love Oreo and all that I can make with them, my heart has made room for Lotus biscoff and there is no turning back.
This awesome No-bake bar has 3 layers of awesomeness. First is the rich creamy buttery layer of crushed Biscoff cookies, next is a thicker layer of mildly sweet and mellow vanilla custard, topped off with another rich and creamy layer of Lotus spread. By all means, feel free to skip the custard altogether ! Just kidding (um..not really)
Back home in Pakistan, there is a local biscuit known as “Candi” by Lu and I laaaavedd it as a kid! so much so that we used to take boxes of those back to U.A.E where we lived. Lotus Biscoff is pretty much the same and more easily available here! so yay! But point being, if you live in Pakistan and if a recipe calls for Lotus, you can easily substitute with Candi!
I’ve already experimented and baked a Lotus Biscoff cake, so it was only natural to make a no-bake dessert next.
If you need a no-bake recipe, here are some other options on the blog:
Step by step guide to make the Biscoff Custard Bars
The first step is to grease a square pan with butter and put on some parchment paper on it. I kept the paper a little bigger on the edges so that I could easily use the edges to lift off the set bars.
First layer – Biscoff cookie base
The base of this dessert is made by crushed Biscoff cookies. Put them in a food processor and crush them well. Unlike regular biscuit bases, this one is going to be cut in a bar, so it needs to be stiff enough to not crumble and soft enough to be eaten. So I’ve added a little bit of cooking cream along with melted butter in the mix to give it that softness even after it sets.
Mix everything together and toss it onto the baking dish. Press it down with the back of a drinking glass and make sure its even. Pop it in the fridge to set while we make the custard.
Second Layer – Custard filling
This custard filling uses ready to use custard powder, but sets with a little added help from gelatin.
For the custard filling, I took some milk and brown sugar and heated them up in a sauce pan. In another bowl I mixed in some custard powder with milk to form a smooth paste.
TIP: Make sure you pass the custard mix through a strainer to make sure there are no lumps. We don’t want a lumpy custard mix.
Add custard mix to the milk off flame in thin stream. And whisk continuously while adding the custard. Put the milk back on the flame and cook for another 3 mins. Turn off flame.
Now we are going to bloom the gelatin. Add hot water in gelatin powder and let it sit for about 4 mins. Mix and make sure all the gelatin has dissolved properly. Pass it through a sieve too if you aren’t too sure.
Add gelatin while mixing the custard as well. Pour the warm custard on the cooled biscuit base and keep in the fridge to set.
Important: Keep whisking custard on the side to make sure a top layer doesn’t form and the custard remains lump free.
Third Layer – Lotus Spread
This layer should be poured on the custard once it’s at least cooled for an hour. (you can also add this layer an hour before serving) Mix cream with lotus spread and top it off onto the dessert. Let this also sit in the fridge to let the topping cool down as well.
Gelatin roughly takes somewhere between 8 to 10 hours to set. Cut up the dessert in bars and serve.
TIP For smooth Edges: Use a bowl of boiling water. Dip your cutting knife in the boiling water, wipe it clean and use this hot knife to cut the bars to get clean smooth edges.
ALTERNATES, FIXES AND REMIXES
- You can use fresh cream or cooking cream instead of heavy cream as well.
- You can use Candi biscuits or any other speculoos cookies instead of Biscoff as well
- You can skip the top layer and add a layer of sweetened whipped cream instead.
Fixes
- If your gelatin was old, your bars will not set. serve it like a tray bake instead of cutting them in bars.
Remixes
- Use chocolate custard mix instead of vanilla
- Top it off with chocolate ganache instead of lotus
- Add crushed cookies on top or in the custard mix
No-Bake Vanilla Custard Biscoff Bars
No-bake Biscoff Custard Bars
Ingredients
Biscuit base
- 45 Biscoff biscuits about 1 pack
- 60 gm Butter melted
- 1/3 cup Fresh cream or any unsweetened cream
Custard filling
- 3 cups milk + 1/2 cup extra
- 1 cup condense milk
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 3/4 cup custard powder
- 2 tsp gelatin powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
Biscoff topping
- 1/2 cup unsweetened fresh cream
- 200 gm Lotus biscoff cookie spread
Instructions
- Line in a baking tray with wax paper and spray with cooking spray.
- In a food processor, grind the biscuit to form uniform crumbs. Add in melted butter and cream to form a dough.
- Place the dough onto the baking tray and press it evenly around. Set aside
- In a saucer, add 3 cups of milk, condense milk, vanilla essence, salt and sugar. Let it simmer at medium flame.
- In a bowl, mix custard powder with remaining milk and mix together to form a uniform mix. (run the mix through a tea strainer to be sure there are no lumps)
- Remove the milk from the flame and add the custard in thin stream while constantly whisking.
- Introduce the custard back to the flame and cook for another 5 mins while whisking constantly.
- When the custard thickens, remove it from the flame and let it cool down, stirring occasionally to prevent a top layer from forming
- Bloom gelatin in 1/4 cup of luke warm water for 5 mins until you get a homogenous paste.
- Add gelatin to custard base and mix well.
- Layer the custard filling on top of the biscuit base and set in the fridge for about 8 hours or overnight.
- In bowl, mix Biscoff cookie spread with cream to make comparitvely thinner. Smear it all across the top of the custard and give waves from the back of the spoon. Chill it in the fridge for another 1/2 an hour.
- Cut with a sharp knife into small squares and serve.
tanzilla says
Obssessng over finding biscoff substitues bcz it now costs an arma and a leg in Pakistan. So yay, I googled and googled and find your blog. Can’t wait to try.
Wajiha says
haha your most welcome hun! so excited for you!