Searching for the Perfect Egg Custard

[nancya]

I'd like to pick your brains again. I'm searching for the perfect egg custard recipe. I'd like the tried and true custards, cremes, or their cousins that you love making - and eating the most!

Thank you....

[m brown]

a good pastry cream is a thing of beauty! I love all the custards of our cultural soup! flan, brulee, pudding how can one pastry hound choose?

[Isa]

I prefer creme caramel, creme brulee is too rich for my taste.

I have a few version of creme caramel some even low in fat. I think there is one in The French Institute Salute To Healthy Cooking.

[Jim]

I like baked b/c of the consistency. But then again, my stove-top variatals tend to get lumpy... I'm impatient and tend to speed things along

[cape chef]

the only custard I do %100 stove top is pastry cream

Flans,creme caremals Etc I bake in a water bath

[m brown]

I start a new job tomorrow and I will be making Ice Cream with an anglaise base...infusion of flavors.
I am going to call them iced custards due to the anglaise method.
stove top stuffing.....?

[cape chef]

Hey Michelle,

Good luck with your new job!!!
No More tupolo honey?

[W.DeBord]

I think of a custard as a baked item, never stove top. That's for pastry cream, and it's got a different texture it's not as perfectly smooth as a baked custard (even when strained).

Prefer?? Hum both in their own applications. But to eat straight with a spoon as dessert, it's got to be baked for me. Pastry cream needs something else to be a finished product. I'd never serve it alone.

P.S. MBrown I thought all 'ice creams' begin with anglaise? Good luck in your new job!

[Risa]

The answer to this one for me is: It depends on what mood I'm in. If I'm a little depressed and don't have much appetite, I prefer stove top custards -- sweet or savory. They feel much lighter on my tongue, seem less sweet and just slide right down. Comfort food. If I'm in a particularly good mood, I like something with more body and sweetness that I can enjoy and savour -- baked custards. I grew up with creme caramel, but we called it leche flan.

[austinfarrugia]

for 4
small eggs 3
sugar,castor 50g(2oz)
vanilla ess. 3 drops
milk,whole or skimmmed 1/2 ltr(1pt)

1.whisk the eggs,sugar and esssence
2.pour on the warmed milk,whisking continuously.
3.pass through a fine strainer into a pie dish
4.add a little nutmeg.Wipe the edge clean(pie dish)
5.stand in a roasting tray halh full of water and cook slowly in a moderate oven at 160C for 45 min. to 1 hour
6.clean the edges of th pie dish and serve.

i hope this will be good for you.

other recipes with egg cutard QUEEN OF PUDDINGS
BREAD AND BUTTER "
CABINET "

[mudbug]

Definitely baked.

My favorite is the egg custard served at Dim Sum.

Egg Custard Tarts

Served at Chinese Dim Sum
Yield: 6 servings

Tart Pastry:
1/4 c Butter
1/4 c Lard
1 Egg
6 tb Sugar
2 c Sifted all purpose flour.

Egg Custard Filling:
2 Whole extra large eggs
3 Extra large egg yolks
1 c Whole milk
1/2 c Half and half
1 c Sugar

Cream the butter with lard. Add egg and sugar. Beat well. Add flour, 1 cup at a time. The dough will be mealy. Work quickly with your hands to gather dough into a ball. Knead lightly so the mixture adheres. You may chill it at this point while making the filling.

Egg Custard Filling:
Be sure all the ingredients are at room temperature. Beat whole eggs at low speed with egg yolks well. Do not over beat, add sugar, then milk, then half and half. Let mixture rest 10 - 15 minutes. Skim foam from mixture. Separate dough into 24 ball. Press each into 2 1/2 inch tart shell to an even layer across the bottom and all the way up the side. Fill shell with filling almost to the top.

Preheat oven to 300.
Place tarts on cooky sheet and bake for 45 minutes. Cool for 10 - 15 minutes. Loosen slightly by inserting a toothpick along the sides. Tart shell should unmold easily.

Rhoda Yee's comments: It is important that the ingredients for the filling be at room temperature and beaten over a bowl of warm water. Cold ingredients will cause filling to separate during baking. By skimming off the foam, the custard will have a golden, creamy appearance with a velvety smooth texture which is a most unique and delightful gastronomic treat! Do not bake at high heat, this will cause the custard to bubble up like a balloon and burst.

From "Dim Sum" by Rhoda Yee.

[nancya]

I made a simple vanilla egg custard this weekend and I thought it came out rather "eggy." What do you think happened?

[chouxbacca]

The creme caramels we do at work come out eggy too. our recipe is as follows

10 large eggs
1600 ml milk
130 gr sugar (white)
1 tbsp pure van. extract
pinch salt

the eggs and sugar are mixed, tempered with hot milk, and then put into rammakins with 2 tbsp caramel in the bottom and baked in a water bath at like 500 for 1/2 an hour

the texture is good, smooth you know, but it does taste a bit eggy, and since I've never had them anywhere else, i think (but dont know) that they are too thick you know? I would imagine them to be creamier, and not so much a set-gelatinous kinda thing.