benazir's blog

Homemade Vanilla or Chocolate Custard Etc.

This is something that came to me at the top of my head and no one showed me how to make this and no one made it in front of me. I am like that. When I eat something I can tell what is in there by tasting. I have a very good sense of taste and smell. They are always hypersensitive and always alert at all times.

I could have put this on allrecipes.com and food.com. Ok I did that before I have used this blog. This one too is going to be devoid of white sugar but still very delicious.

Ingredients: 1 quart or 1 liter of milk

1 tiny drop of vanilla essence

1 tbs cocoa powder if you are making chocolate custard.

1 pinch of powdered yellow food coloring if making a vanilla custard.

The vanilla essence and powdered food coloring is available at many Pakistani and Indian grocery stores.

1 egg

2 handfuls of sugar in the raw or a 1/4 cup of agave nectar your choice

3 tbs of corn starch.

Method: In sauce pan combine corn starch if using sugar in the raw, add with corn starch, if making chocolate custard add coco powder, if not skip this step and proceed.

If using agave nectar, add this then the milk and vanilla essence.

Sorry I don’t want to confuse anyone I just want to keep it simple even for a beginner. I read many recipes that would throw a novice cook off and then they lose interest in cooking which is something I don’t want I hope people when they read my blog it makes them want to cook.

They dry ingredients should be added first then the wet ingredients. I hope I made myself clear it is a common rule of thumb while you are cooking to make it much easier.

I am combining a couple of options in to one recipe to give you a choice of how you want to make the custard. I hope I explained myself loud and clear.

Add it this way by doing add corn starch, sugar in the raw if using sugar in the raw option for vanilla and powder yellow food coloring for vanilla custard. If using cocoa for chocolate custard skip using the yellow food coloring because yellow food coloring is to make vanilla custard or lemon look more appealing. Then stir and add milk and for agave method option here don’t add sugar in the raw when you add the dry ingredients add the agave in to the milk stir and combine.

Crack 1 egg and put it in a bowl and beat it and set it aside you will need this shortly.
Stir the milk mixture constantly on low heat to avoid scorching. When it gets warm and not thick, you do not want it to get thick yet. Add the warm milk mixture to the beaten egg a little at a time and set the milk mixture on the stove. Stir the contents of the milk mixture in the bowl with the eggs to blend. This is called tempering the eggs. I learned this while watching countless cooking shows on tv and this is very helpful.

No one wants scrambled eggs in their custard. It is very unpleasant.

Pour the contents in the bowl and mix with the contents in the sauce pan.

Put back on low heat on the stove and stir until it gets thick.

You can also add lime or lemon zest to the vanilla custard or yellow or green food color to use for lemon or lime custard and you can use either use grated or desiccated coconut to the vanilla custard for use in a pie later and top with meringue commonly known as lemon, coconut and lime meringue pies. If you use zest which is the outer peel of the citrus fruit you will find it gives superb flavor. This you can not put in a bottle. Using the zest of key lime which is a tiny Persian lime mixed in with vanilla custard plus the added tiny pinch of green food color if using a powder like I do topped with meringue will give you a key lime pie.

The powdered food colors you can find in any Indian and Pakistani grocery store.

One day in the group so you think you can cook one lady didn’t know what to do with tapioca and I said make custard. I said make a vanilla custard and add cooked tapioca for tapioca custard. Or if you want add a little bit of fruit puree to vanilla custard and add all you need is a drop nothing more. There will be an intense flavor and color.

This vanilla custard recipe can be used when you are making banana pudding or a cake that is laired with custard and fruit. These are very popular desert options or you can have a piece of fruit and a sprig of fresh mint as a garnish for both vanilla and chocolate, oops I meant the vanilla custard is for banana pudding and cake options I should have been more specific,my bad. (giggle) Please forgive me? Any way it is all good I hope you enjoy.

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