questions about custard

[Anonymous]

I'm making custard for the first time and have a few questions that google will not answer for me, so hopefully folks out here can. I would like to make vanilla custard and serve it in those little individual-serving graham cracker crusts, topped with fruit. So my questions are as follows:

- do I make the custard on its own nd then spoon it into the already-baked crusts? If so, do people recommend baked or boiled?

or

- do I try to cook the custard (probably in this case it would be baked) in the crusts?

Anything else I need to know about custard other than following the recipe?

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Make the custard on the stovetop if you are looking for a pudding-like texture. I have never baked a custard before... Unless you are talking about something like a flan or creme caramel......so I guess you could bake that w a crust but the texture would be much firmer.....
Not sure if you are using your cooking terminology correctly.

[Anonymous]

OP here and I believe I am using the terminology correctly. According to Joy of Cooking and to How to Cook Everything, there are two kinds of custard: baked (in the oven, with the dish sitting in water) or boiled. I was wondering which I should do since I have never made either and whether to do beforehand or try to sit the pre-baked cups into the boiling water to bake (not sure if the custard will cook well through the crusts). Thank you.

[bakersman]

I suggest that you use a "boiled" method, which is to prepare the custard on the stove top.

2 cups whole milk
1/2 vanilla bean

3 egg yolks
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 Tablesppon of cornstarch (measure then sift)

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Pour milk into a heavy saucepan.
Slice open the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds, adding them into the milk in the sacuepan. Then add the vanilla bean pod to the sauce pan. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks until they are frothy. Then wisk in the sugar, cornstach and salt. Continue to wisk until the the ingredients are well combined and you have a light yellow color. Set aside.

Heat the milk on medium-low to medium heat, stirring occassionally, until the milk is hot and small bubbles are forming around the sides of the pan.

It is now time to temper the egg mixture. This is the difficult part for many. Take a ladle full of the hot milk and slowly added to the egg mixture while you stir the egg mixture to combine the two wet ingredients together. Stir constandly as you add the hot milk. You want to warm the egg mixture without cooking the eggs.

Once the egg mixture is tempured, pour it into the remaining milk in the saucepan.

Reduce heat to low to medium-low and cook the custard, stirring frequently, until thickened, about 15 to 20 minutes. You want to be able to turn the stiring spoon over and draw a line in the custard on the back of the spoon -- if you can't it needs to thicken more.

You need to watch the custard to make sure the eggs don't overcook -- reduce the heat as needed.

Stir occassionally - scraping the bottom of the pan - and then constantly towards the end.

Remove the saucepan from the stove, add the vanillas and then wisk for a few minutes to release some of the heat from the custard.

You can cool the custard in a bowl or add into you pie shells for cooling at this point. The longer the custard is in the pie shells, the softer the crust will become.

Allow to cool to room temp is serving shortly, or in the refridgerator.


As for the crusts, I rexomment that you ditch the premade crsuts and simply cut gram crakers to size of cups or small bowls and place them in the bottom. You can even do more than one layer.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

It sounds to me like you're wanting to make "pastry cream." PP's recipe should give you what you want. In my experience, boiled custard is somewhat thinner and iis used as a sauce. Myself, I adore baked custard pie, but that's usually made in a normal pastry crust. No water bath required for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds to me like you're wanting to make "pastry cream." PP's recipe should give you what you want. In my experience, boiled custard is somewhat thinner and iis used as a sauce. Myself, I adore baked custard pie, but that's usually made in a normal pastry crust. No water bath required for that.

OP here and please tell me more: every recipe I have seen for baked custard has the ramikens sitting in water. Tell me more about baking in pie crust - I could do that too.
It's for a dinner party tomorrow night (Tuesday) so I will make these sometime midday tomorrow.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Pumpkin pie, coconut custard, these are baked custards. You either need to bake it in a crust or in water if no crust. If you have made pumpkin pie before you can do it! Just find a recipe for plain vanilla. But why not go for coconut custard?!

[Anonymous]

I do an ersazt custard powder: 2 tbsps corn starch, 2 tbspns sugar, 2 cups milk, 1 egg.

Mix the corn starch and sugar; mix in a little milk to form a slurry, then gradually add the milk a little at a time to avoid lumps. Bring to a simmer; when it begins to thicken, stir in the beaten egg. This will cool up to the consistency of pudding. Add a little vanilla if you like (you can also add cocoa powder).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do an ersazt custard powder: 2 tbsps corn starch, 2 tbspns sugar, 2 cups milk, 1 egg.

Mix the corn starch and sugar; mix in a little milk to form a slurry, then gradually add the milk a little at a time to avoid lumps. Bring to a simmer; when it begins to thicken, stir in the beaten egg. This will cool up to the consistency of pudding. Add a little vanilla if you like (you can also add cocoa powder).

OP here, and I just made this, and it's fabulous! So light and airy and delicious. Thank you!

Thanks for the support and advice, everyone. i don't know why I was feeling daunted about making custard. PP who pointed out that pumpkin pie (which I make multiple times a year) is actually custard made an especially good point. Thanks again!