Schar Gluten Free Custard Creams, 5 x 25g
Everything you taste in a custard cream is the filling. The shells carry it and set the texture, but the flavour sits in the middle, and the middle is the one part of a biscuit gluten was never involved in, so a free-from version of this has far less to make up than a plain round does. Buy it for the sweet vanilla end of the tin rather than for crunch. Dairy and soya usually turn up in a filling of this sort, and only the current box confirms what is in this one.
Schar Gluten Free Custard Creams, in brief.
Schar Gluten Free Custard Creams comes as five sealed 25g packets, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the free-from biscuit whose format does as much for safety as anything printed on the box.
A custard cream is a harder thing to rebuild without gluten than it looks: two thin shells have to stay rigid against a soft filling for months, and a gluten network is what usually provides that rigidity. Handle them gently and do not dunk them. The sealed packet is the real feature, because it is a portion that has never been in a shared tin or near a wheat crumb.
Schär Gluten Free Custard Creams comes as five sealed packets of twenty-five grams each, according to the published pack listing, which is one hundred and twenty-five grams across the box.
Two things make this pack worth a page. The first is that a custard cream is one of the more demanding British biscuits to rebuild without gluten, because it is not one biscuit but three components that have to behave together. The second is the format, and in a household where one person eats gluten free and everybody else does not, the format is doing more for safety than anything printed on the box.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. The mixed household rules and why these cannot be dunked are in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind a Free From Custard Cream
Schär is a European free-from specialist and gluten-free baking is the whole business rather than one line within it.
A custard cream is a harder engineering problem than it looks. Two thin biscuit shells have to be rigid enough to be handled, thin enough to eat well in a sandwich, and stable enough to sit against a soft filling for months without absorbing it and going limp. In a wheat biscuit a gluten network provides most of that rigidity. Build the same shells from starches and binders and every one of those requirements gets harder at once, which is why a free-from custard cream is a better test of a free-from bakery than a free-from wafer is.
What it means for a customer is simple: handle them more gently than you would a wheat custard cream, and do not expect the shells to survive being dunked.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Format: five sealed packets of twenty-five grams each, one hundred and twenty-five grams across the box, according to the published pack listing.
- Why the sealed packets matter: in a mixed household a sealed packet is a portion that has never been in a shared tin, never been on a shared plate and never had a wheat crumb near it. That is worth more than the convenience.
Ideal Serving Conditions
The sealed packet solves most of the problems this product would otherwise have, which is unusual and worth taking advantage of rather than undoing. Everything below is really one instruction repeated: leave the packets sealed until they are wanted.
The rest is about handling, because two thin shells around a soft filling are more fragile without a gluten network than with one.
The Mixed Household Rules
- The packet is the safe portion: a sealed packet has never been in a shared tin, on a shared plate or under a wheat crumb. That is a genuine safety property and it is the main reason to buy this format.
- Do not decant: tipping the packets into the family biscuit tin throws away the entire advantage and puts them straight into contact with wheat crumbs.
- Serve in the packet or on a clean plate: and put out only as many as will be eaten, rather than leaving them open on a tray.
- Above the wheat packs: in the cupboard, on a shelf above rather than below, because crumbs fall downwards.
Handling and Storage
- Gently: two thin shells around a soft filling are more fragile without a gluten network. Do not put a packet at the bottom of a bag.
- Never dunk: the shells are thin and the filling is soft. Hot tea reaches the filling quickly, the sandwich loses its grip and the whole thing separates in the cup.
- Room temperature: never a fridge, where the filling firms unpleasantly and condensation arrives on the shells on the way out.
- No oven refresh once opened: a filled sandwich biscuit cannot be crisped in an oven the way a plain one can, because the filling softens and runs before the shells dry.
Getting It Right with a Hot Drink
- Best with: a plain black tea or a black coffee. A sweet vanilla filling wants something with edge opposite it rather than more sugar.
- Milky tea: works well enough, and it is what most people will actually reach for with a custard cream.
- Avoid: hot chocolate and sweet drinks, since there is nothing bitter or salty in the product to stop the sweetness accumulating.
- Dunking: no. A filled sandwich biscuit separates rather than softening, and a free-from one has less holding it together.
- Best moment: mid-afternoon, a lunchbox, or the plate you put out when one guest eats gluten free and would rather not be asked about it.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Schar Gluten Free Custard Creams, 5 x 25g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Schar
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our commitment to the planet
Sourcing and packaging details are printed on the current UK pack; the brand page carries the fuller story.
The taste profile
How does it compare
These are sealed packets of filled sandwich biscuits, so the builds below are about the jobs the packet does rather than about cooking: the mixed household, the lunchbox, a plate for a guest, and two puddings that work because the filling is already there.
Made with this tea
The Safe Portion
How to use the format properly in a kitchen where not everyone eats gluten free.
- 1 sealed 25g packet
- A clean plate
- Leave the packets sealed until the moment one is wanted.
- Open it onto a clean plate rather than into a shared bowl.
- Store the rest of the box above the wheat packs, never inside the family biscuit tin.
- A sealed packet has never been in a shared tin, on a shared plate or under a wheat crumb, which is the entire point.
What you'll end up with: A portion that is safe because of how it was packed rather than because anybody remembered to be careful.
The Lunchbox Packet
Why a sealed packet beats loose biscuits in a tub.
- 1 sealed packet
- A lunchbox
- Pack the packet whole and sealed, at the top of the box rather than the bottom.
- Let the packet be the portion; that is what the format is for.
- Keep the remaining packets in the cupboard rather than a tin.
- The shells are thin and more fragile without a gluten network, so weight on top of them is the enemy.
What you'll end up with: A crisp whole biscuit at lunchtime, in a portion nobody had to measure.
The Guest Plate
How to put biscuits out for someone who would rather not be asked.
- 2 sealed packets
- A clean separate plate
- A pot of tea
- Open the packets onto a clean plate that has had nothing wheaten on it.
- Put that plate down first and nearest the person who needs it.
- Keep it separate from any assortment rather than mixing them in.
- Pour plain black tea or coffee, which suits a sweet vanilla filling better than anything sugared.
What you'll end up with: A tea tray where nobody has to explain themselves, which is most of what a free-from biscuit is for.
The Instant Ice Cream Sandwich
A pudding that works because the filling is already in the biscuit.
- 1 or 2 packets
- Vanilla ice cream, softened
- A freezer
- Split each biscuit gently into its two shells; the filling stays on one side.
- Spread softened ice cream onto the plain shell and press the filled one back on.
- Freeze for twenty minutes before eating.
- Handle them gently throughout; free-from shells are more fragile than wheat ones.
What you'll end up with: A vanilla sandwich with two kinds of vanilla in it, made from a packet in five minutes.
The Crumbled Cheesecake Top
A five minute finish that uses a packet without baking.
- 1 packet
- A set free-from cheesecake or thick yoghurt
- A few berries
- Crumble the biscuits roughly over the set cheesecake at the table.
- Scatter the berries around them.
- Serve immediately, because the shells soften within minutes on anything wet.
- Check every other component is free from gluten as well, rather than assuming.
What you'll end up with: Crunch and vanilla added in the last thirty seconds, from a packet that was already in the cupboard.
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Typical values per 100g, as published | Per 100g |
|---|---|
| Energy | 481 kcal |
| Fat | 19g |
| of which saturates | 8,6g |
| Carbohydrate | 73g |
| of which sugars | 23g |
| Fibre | 0,9g |
| Protein | 3,5g |
| Salt | 0,33g |
Ingredients and allergens. The published ingredient list for this product names none of the 14 major allergens. Check the current UK pack before purchase; formulations and allergen advice can change.
Ingredients, as published for this product: Biscuit: Rice Flour, Maize Starch, Maize Flour, Palm Oil, Sugar, Inverted Sugar Syrup, Glucose Syrup, Sunflower Oil, Rice Starch, Raising Agents: Ammonium Hydrogen Carbonate (E503), Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate (E500); Thickener: Xanthan Gum; Emulsifier: Sunflower Lecithin; Salt, Natural Flavouring, Filling 25%: Sugar, Palm Oil, Potato Starch, Dried Glucose Syrup, Emulsifier: Sunflower Lecithin; Natural Flavouring, Colour: Beta-Carotene (E160a).
Ingredient and nutrition information for this product, as published on the manufacturer's label. The pack in your hands is the final word.
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Biscuit shells | two per biscuit; the ingredient list is on the current pack | The structural work, and the part free-from baking has to try hardest at. They must stay rigid against a soft filling for months without absorbing it. |
| Vanilla cream filling | between the shells | All of the flavour, as in any custard cream. Gentle, sweet and familiar, with nothing bitter or salty behind it. |
| Other allergens | See current pack | Gluten free is one claim about one protein, and a cream-filled biscuit is where the others are worth reading carefully. |
Pack: Schar Gluten Free Custard Creams, 5 x 25g; five sealed 25g packets of gluten-free sandwich biscuits with a vanilla cream filling, 125g across the box. Store cool and dry in the packets, never decanted into a tin that has held wheat biscuits, and never in the fridge. Read the ingredient list, the gluten statement, every other allergen, the biscuit count and the best-before date off the current UK pack.
Characterising components shown. The account of why a filled sandwich biscuit is a harder free-from problem than a plain one is general baking science offered to explain what to expect, not a description of this pack's recipe. The sensory placements are our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description; we have held no tastings and hold no brand specification sheets.
Sourcing & blend. Schar Gluten Free Custard Creams, 5 x 25g is made by Schär, a European free-from specialist for whom gluten-free baking is the whole business rather than one line within it. A custard cream is a more demanding free-from build than a plain biscuit or a wafer, because two thin shells have to stay rigid against a soft filling for months, and the sealed five-packet format is what protects both the crispness and, in a mixed kitchen, the safety.
What's in Schar Gluten Free Custard Creams, 5 x 25g, and what isn't:
- In: five sealed 25g packets of sandwich biscuits with a vanilla cream filling, 125g across the box.
- Sealed portions: the packet is the storage, the portion and, in a mixed household, the safety measure. Decanting undoes all three.
- Gluten free by name: the claim is in the product's own name and we have recorded it on that basis, while telling a coeliac reader plainly to read the current box every time.
- Not free from everything: gluten free is one claim about one protein, and a cream-filled biscuit is exactly where the other allergens deserve a careful read.
- No health claim: a free-from biscuit is not offered here as a healthier one, and no sugar, fat, fibre or calorie figure appears anywhere on this page.
- No oven refresh: a filled sandwich biscuit cannot be crisped up the way a plain one can, because the filling runs before the shells dry. The sealed packet is the only protection there is.
- Allergen note: read the latest pack rather than relying on this page, including the precautionary statement, and read it on every purchase rather than once.
Asked about this product
Ask the curator
Send a product question through the contact form; replies usually come within one working day.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Schar Gluten Free Custard Creams, 5 x 25g, please cite teas.co.uk.
What buyers say
No customer reviews of Schar Gluten Free Custard Creams, 5 x 25g yet.
Bought this from us? Log in to your account, then come back to this page to review it. Only verified buyers can review, and every review is checked before it appears; approved reviews earn 50 reward points.
More from Schar
Other Biscuits worth comparing
