Seeking pure culinary pleasures or just some joy to pour over cakes? Let’s get started and pick one of these custard recipes!
Custard is with us since the middle ages. It survived the ignorance of age leading out the ravaged armies of desserts and cakes from the darkness to the fields of sugar cane and high-speed internet.
Its long journey hasn’t come without battle scars or stains on its pride though. Custard is something that has only one name but made up of many stitches.
Sure enough, the French tried and actually succeeded in reining its scruffiness into culinary forms, giving names to the various ingredients and techniques custard can be made but this effort hasn’t yet dripped through the barrier of languages yet.
So far, we only know about custard and the various ways we can prepare it, sometimes mixing ingredients together for fun or simply in search for perfection. Which is actually works.
Custard is a milk or cream-based thing that is thickened with yolk or starch or both. Starch can be either corn or plain white flour with little to none recognizable differences. Custard is most well known with vanilla but there are a variety of options to shake up its creaminess. Well known flavors include chocolate or lemon but any artificial or natural extract can be used like strawberry, punch or banana.
The techniques used to thicken the liquid largely remains the same, no matter if we use only yolk, starch or both, except the temperature required for cooking alters slightly. In case of using only yolks as a thickening agent, the temperature shouldn’t reach higher values than 175°F / 80°C as that results of curdling.
Using a bit of starch gives us a bit of leeway with the option to throw away our kitchen thermometer and let our six-sense wander on fields where custard trees grow peach looking fruits filled with natural custard ready to harvest any time, we close our eyes.
Starch starts to thicken when water or in our case milk is ready to change its aggregate from liquid into gaseous state at 212˚F / 100°C or in kitchen words when it starts to bubble.
However, a bit of starch gives us a bit more room to wriggle, we still have to mind what we are doing if we want to end up a consistent looking cream. Letting off the spoon to rest a couple of seconds at crucial times could result not only burnt but curdled custard too.
French call the custard with egg and corn starch a Pastry cream by no accident. Due to the thickness achievable with starch, it is perfectly suitable for creamy fillings or similar pastry pleasures. While the starch free variation is more suitable to use where such sturdiness isn’t required like the floating islands or a lusty dressing for a boring looking cake.
Here we have the three basic custard recipes that anyone can vary according to the thickness required at any time.
Mind that the more egg yolks we try to blend into the milk in the pursuit of thickening the custard, the more egg yolks taste we’ll get that may not going to be desirable. Also, when making chocolate custard be aware that the cocoa powder also thickens the liquid to some degree, although it won’t set it in a way starches do.
Ingredients
Beginner – Starch only custard
- 2 cups Milk
- Sweetener to taste
- 2 tablespoons Cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Advanced – Egg and starch custard
- 2 cups / 500ml Milk
- Sweetener to taste
- 1 tablespoon Cornstarch
- 3 Egg yolks
- 1 teaspoons Vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
Pro – Egg only Custard – Keto
- 1 cup / 250ml Milk
- 1 cup / 250ml Heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract or beans
- 4 Egg yolks
- Sweetener to taste
How to make Custard
Beginner – Starch only custard
- In medium saucepan over medium heat, heat milk until it starts to bubble.
- In a small bowl, combine agave syrup or sweetener of choice and cornstarch.
- Take 4-6 tbsp of hot milk from the pan and dissolve it with the agave cornstarch mixture.
- Stir it with a wooden spoon until getting a completely even mixture.
- Pour the warmed up cornstarch agave mixture gradually into hot milk until it dissolves completely.
- Continue to cook and stir until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.
- Remove from heat, stir in vanilla.
- Pour into serving dishes. Chill before serving.
Advanced – Egg and starch custard
- In a pot on medium heat warm the milk up until it starts to gently bubble. Mind to stir it fairly often to avoid burning down.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks for about a minute until light yellow and increased in volume.
- Whisk in the cornstarch, vanilla extract, agave syrup and gradually about 1/2 cup of the hot milk. The goal is to raise the temperature of the yolks so it won’t get curdled when added into the hot milk.
- Slowly pour all of the egg yolk mixture into the scalding milk while stirring vigorously until the mixture seems completely liquified.
- Keep warm and continuously stir until the custard thickens. Serve warm, refrigerate or use as preferred.
Pro – Egg only Custard – Keto
- Pour milk and heavy cream into a big saucepan and heat it up on medium while stirring it frequently to avoid burning down. Add the vanilla extract or vanilla bean. Beans need to be removed later.
- Bring milk to 175°F / 80°C. Then leave it in low heat to simmer. Alternatively bring the milk to boil and set it aside to cool.
- Meanwhile break and separate eggs. Only yolks will be used so whites can be used to make Floating Island Recipe, Egg White Omelet, or Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips . Whisk yolks with sweetener of choice until light yellow.
- Pour a cup of warm milk into the yolk while mixing it continuously. Stir until getting an even mixture.
- If the pot was taken off heat then put it back on, then pour the milk and yolk mixture in while stirring as fast as possible until it thickens. Let it cool down and keep it in the fridge until served.
Enjoy!
There are more tasty stuff to be used in desserts or if no one is watching on their own:
FitttZee
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Sugar Free & Keto Custard Recipe
Ingredients
Beginner - Starch only custard
- 2 cups Milk
- Sweetener to taste
- 2 tablespoons Cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Advanced - Egg and starch custard
- 2 cups Milk
- Sweetener to taste
- 1 tablespoon Cornstarch
- 3 Egg yolks
- 1 teaspoons Vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
Pro - Egg only Custard - Keto
- 1 cup Milk
- 1 cup Heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract or beans
- 4 Egg yolks
- Sweetener to taste
Instructions
Beginner - Starch only custard
- In medium saucepan over medium heat, heat milk until it starts to bubble.
- In a small bowl, combine agave syrup or sweetener of choice and cornstarch.
- Take 4-6 tbsp of hot milk from the pan and dissolve it with the agave cornstarch mixture.
- Stir it with a wooden spoon until getting a completely even mixture.
- Pour the warmed up cornstarch agave mixture gradually into hot milk until it dissolves completely.
- Continue to cook and stir until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.
- Remove from heat, stir in vanilla.
- Pour into serving dishes. Chill before serving.
Advanced - Egg and starch custard
- In a pot on medium heat warm the milk up until it starts to gently bubble. Mind to stir it fairly often to avoid burning down.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks for about a minute until light yellow and increased in volume.
- Whisk in the cornstarch, vanilla extract, agave syrup and gradually about 1/2 cup of the hot milk. The goal is to raise the temperature of the yolks so it won't get curdled when added into the hot milk.
- Slowly pour all of the egg yolk mixture into the scalding milk while stirring vigorously until the mixture seems completely liquified.
- Keep warm and continuously stir until the custard thickens. Serve warm, refrigerate or use as preferred.
Pro - Egg only Custard - Keto
- Pour milk and heavy cream into a big saucepan and heat it up on medium while stirring it frequently to avoid burning down. Add the vanilla extract or vanilla bean. Beans need to be removed later.
- Bring milk to 175°F / 80°C. Then leave it in low heat to simmer. Alternatively bring the milk to boil and set it aside to cool.
- Meanwhile break and separate eggs. Only yolks will be used so whites can be used to make Floating Island Recipe, Egg White Omelet, or Sugar Free Vanilla with Chocolate Chips – Keto Ice Cream Recipe. Whisk yolks with sweetener of choice until light yellow.
- Pour a cup of warm milk into the yolk while mixing it continuously. Stir until getting an even mixture.
- If the pot was taken off heat then put it back on, then pour the milk and yolk mixture in while stirring as fast as possible until it thickens. Let it cool down and keep it in the fridge until served.
Notes
Pin now, Enjoy later!
The best dessert on keto!