A friend of mine asked how I make custard; and it just so happens I had made custard the night before. This time, though, it was chocolate custard which I normally don't make; generaaly I just make vanilla custard and serve it with berries (that's my youngest daughter eating blueberry sauce with her hands).
Around my house custard goes quickly, so I triple the recipe below.
Vanilla Custard (basic quantity)
Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons corn flour (if you are paleo, add tapioca instead)
1 cup fresh milk
1 tablespoon honey (or sweetener of choice)
1/2- 1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 - 1 teaspoon gelatine/collagen
small pinch of salt
pat of butter
Method:
Place egg yolks and flour in a pyrex bowl and set aside. Add milk, vanilla and honey to a heavy-bottom pan and heat on medium until the mixture is about body temperature or just above.
Take the milk mixture off the heat and slowly pour into the egg yolks, whisking continuously. This is called temering your eggs - bringing them up to the temperature of your other ingredients without scrambling them.
Once all of the milk has been added to the egg mixture, pour all of it back into the pan and continue to heat on medium. You don't want the mixture to boil, you just want it to get hot. At this point, I add the salt, gelatine and butter, being sure to whisk until all of those ingredients are well incorporated.
Now you just need to wait for the custard to thicken up a bit. Once that happens you can turn off the heat and move it to a cooler place.
The custard will thicken upon standing and will be much thicker after you leave it in the fridge.
Serve with berries, fruits, whipped coconut cream or cow's cream, topped with cocoa nibs or shaved chocolate if you're feeling fancy!
To make chocolate custard: add a tablespoon of raw cacao to the mixture when you add the butter
Other options: you can use this custard recipe to make ice cream. Alternatively, it can be used to make bread & butter pudding - butter triangular slices day-old bread (preferably raisin bread) and place them point up in a buttered baking dish; pour in the custard and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar; allow the bread to sit in the custard for up to 30 minutes, then bake at 350F/180C for 35-45 minutes.
You can also make a French Fruit Tart by pouring the cooled custard into a pre-baked tart pastry, then place freshly sliced fruit over the custard; warm a bit of apricot jam if you like and brush it over the fruit to give it a nice gloss then place in the fridge to set - you will need to serve this as soon as it can discolour.
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