Baked custard, a sweet dish made of milk, sugar, eggs, and vanilla, is a delectable treat for the holidays and other occasions. One of the traditional desserts Matt grew up eating is a straightforward sweet custard recipe. There are only 6 ingredients total in this baked custard recipe. It was surprisingly simple to prepare a dessert that seemed difficult. Just a few pointers will help you achieve the custard’s familiar, creamy texture.
A vanilla flavor that is smooth and straightforward with a hint of spice, made in individual ramekins for dinner parties. The flan-like texture of this silky custard is absent, however, along with the burnt sugar syrup. Lightly sweetened, it almost tastes like French toast but without the toast. This sounds good for dessert or breakfast. The nutmeg adds an extra layer of comfort, and whisking it up and popping it in the oven took no time at all. This easy dish looks elegant when garnished with a few berries and a sprig of mint. Serve at room temperature, hot, or cold.
What Exactly does Baked Custard Mean?
A sweet, pudding-like dessert known as custard is typically made with eggs. You might prefer frozen custard to ice cream as a summertime treat. There are a few different ways to prepare custard, including baking, freezing, and boiling. Eggs, milk or cream, sugar, flavoring, chocolate, and/or spices are used to make the baked custard, which is cooked in small dishes set over a pan of water. Rich, silky, and smooth describe the outcome. The ingredients for baked custard are eggs, milk or cream, sugar, and occasionally flavoring, chocolate, or spices.
It is prepared in small dishes that are placed in a water bath. Rich, creamy, and silky are the results. Custard is an egg, milk, sugar, and flavoring mixture that gets its consistency from heating the egg protein. Whole eggs are used in baked custard, which causes a gel-like solidification of the dish.
Flan, also known as crème caramel, is a custard that is baked in a dish covered with caramelized sugar, unmolding to reveal a sauce. When making crème brûlée, sugar is sprinkled on baked custard and caramelized under a broiler or with a salamander, or a hot iron. Over the custard, the sugar creates a thin, crisp layer.
How to Make Baked Custard Recipe?
Custard is a thick, rich, creamy dessert that can be sweet or savory and is made from a combination of eggs or egg yolks, milk or cream, flavorings (like vanilla, nutmeg, etc.), and optionally, sweeteners (sugar, honey). Eggs are the only ingredient used to thicken and set basic custards.
Custard is typically prepared in a double boiler (bain-marie) or by gently heating it in a saucepan on the stove, but it can also be steamed, baked in the oven with or without a water bath, or even prepared in a pressure cooker.
Ingredients:
- 2-cups of milk
- 2 big eggs
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/8 teaspoon salt
- if possible, a small amount of freshly grated nutmeg
- Use hot water to bake custards
- fresh raspberry adornment
- Mint leaves are a nice touch
Instructions:
- Assemble the ingredients.
- Heat the oven to 325 F. Four 6-ounce custard cups (ramekins) should be placed in a large baking pan.
- The milk, eggs, salt, and sugar should all be combined in a medium bowl.
- Evenly distribute the custard mixture among the custard cups.
- The custard cups almost reach the top of the hot water that has been added to the pan. Nutmeg should be added to each serving.
- Depending on the depth of the baking dish, bake for 40 to 55 minutes, or until the custard is set, in the preheated oven. The custard should still jiggle slightly in the middle even after inserting a knife into the center and coming out clean.
- If desired, garnish with raspberries and mint. Serve right away or let it get cold. Enjoy.
What is the Trick to Making Custard?
Cooking stirred custard in a sizable saucepan over medium-low heat is the key to success. Until the custard thickens and coats the back of the spoon, stir continuously with a wooden spoon. By distributing the heat, stirring prevents the custard from getting too hot and curdling. If you trace your finger across the back of the spoon, your custard is ready.
However, if the proteins are overcooked either through the use of a temperature that is too high or simply through cooking for too long the proteins will bind so firmly that they will begin to squeeze out water, which results in the weeping in an egg custard. Use low heat (cook over a double boiler or bake in a water bath) to prevent curdling. Stir, if necessary for the recipe, and cool quickly by submerging the pan in ice or cold water and stirring for a few minutes.
How can you Tell When the Baked Custard is Done?
Use a knife with a thin blade to check for doneness. One-dish custards should have a knife inserted about 1 inch from the center, halfway between the center and the edge of the cups. When the knife is removed cleanly, the custard is finished. If any custard remains on the blade, bake for an additional few minutes and retest. If baked past 185 degrees, egg-based puddings and custards may curdle.
When making crème anglaise, we remove it from the heat when the mixture reaches a temperature of 175 to 180, but when making the ice cream base, we raise the temperature to 180 to 185 for maximum thickness. Baked custards like flan and crème brûlée should jiggle when gently shaken (but not slosh).
This will happen when the temperature is between 170 and 175 degrees. The proteins bind together more firmly in overcooked custard. They thicken, curdle, and squeeze out all the water, which you can see coming from syneresis, or tiny tunnels in the custard.
Why isn’t my Custard Getting Thicker?
The egg custard might not be thick enough if the correct amount of cornstarch is not used. When the custard is cooked, too much-advanced preparation of the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch may result in watery custard. The custard cannot thicken because there is an excessive amount of milk in it, and insufficient time spent cooking the custard. The enzyme alpha-amylase, which breaks down starch, is present in egg yolks. The enzyme must be destroyed by almost boiling the custard in order for starch in the recipe to gel successfully (a little less than 212 degrees F).
Use 2 tablespoons (17 g) of flour and 4 tablespoons (59 mL) of cold water to make 1 cup (240 mL) of custard. As the custard ingredients cook on the stove, add the mixture to them. As an alternative to flour, use cornstarch. Like flour, cornstarch needs cold water to be mixed with it.
Custard that won’t be set can be fixed by reboiling it. Simply pour the custard base back into a pot and cook it longer if you thought your custard was thickening up and then refrigerated it to let it set only to discover that it had thinned out.
Can Bake Custard be Good for Us?
A good source of calcium and B vitamins, particularly vitamin B12, is custard. These support healthy cell function, strong bones, and digestion. Because homemade custard is free of artificial additives, it is both tastier and healthier to eat.
Custard, which primarily consists of milk, is a good source of protein and contains calcium, which is good for the health of the bones. But because it can also provide us with extra energy, the custard is a treat food; therefore, diet-baked custard can be included in almost any diet. When trying to lose weight, it is ideal. My diabetic mother adores this recipe. Baked custards rank among my favorite comfort foods, in my opinion. You are in for a real treat if you have never had egg custard.
Despite the fact that custards are typically associated with dessert, I like these custards any time of the day, but especially for breakfast because they offer a quick meal that is high in calcium and protein. A milk product with significant nutritional advantages is custard. Typically, milk or fresh cream, an egg, sugar, and essence are used in its preparation. However, milk and custard powder from the store can also be used to make it.
Custard has the same nutritional benefits as milk and can be consumed on its own or combined with other sweets to create delectable desserts. Changing the amount of starch or egg proteins will change the custard’s consistency.
Conclusion
The egg white can be left out of the cooked custard. It is slowly cooked over hot water until it has the thickness of thick cream. Boiling custard, also known as crème anglaise, is a dessert ingredient that can be added to trifle or rice pudding in addition to being used as a sauce with fruits and pastries. The richest ice creams are made with a custard base; in this instance, the custard is folded into egg whites after they have occasionally been stiffly beaten. German creams are custards that have been gelatin-stiffened.
A calming recipe that has been around for decades is baked egg custard. It is the perfect last-minute dessert idea because it only calls for a few ingredients and is simple to prepare. This recipe uses the traditional sprinkle of grated nutmeg, which adds a nice pop of color and a tinge of spice.
