Making Custard for Breakfast, Lunch, or Supper

Custard is an egg and milk mixture in which the egg acts as a thickening agent during cooking. If sweetened and flavored, the mixture is served as a dessert. If unsweetened, it is used as a main dish with meat, cheese, or vegetables added.

A dessert type custard, known as soft or stirred custard, is cooked and stirred over low heat in a heavy saucepan or in the top of a double boiler over hot water. Stirred custard has much the same consistency as heavy cream. If baked in the oven without stirring, it is known as baked custard. The finished product holds its shape when unfolded. Main dish custards made in a pastry shell generally are baked in the oven and can be cut for serving.

Usual proportions for dessert type custards are one or one and one half eggs plus two tablespoons sugar for each cup of milk. For a firmer custard, use more eggs. Likewise, increase the amount of sugar for a sweeter product. Custard is sometimes unmolded and used to make fancy cutouts for garnishing. This type of custard must be quite firm, so a greater number of eggs are needed.

Custard is an excellent way of adding to the diet important nutrients which are found in milk and eggs. Due to its soft texture, often it is included in special diets. Custard should always be refrigerated after baking if it is to be held for any length of time before serving. To make custard add sugar and salt to slightly beaten eggs and stir in scalded milk, which has been cooled.

For soft custard, cook and stir over low heat in a heavy saucepan or in the top of a double boiler over simmering, but not boiling water. When done, the mixture coats a metal spoon. Immediately remove from heat and place the pan in cold water. When slightly cooled, stir in the flavoring.

Custards lend themselves to many variations. Soft custard may be served warm or chilled as sauce over fruit, cake, or pudding. Popular in England, soft custard accompanies many desserts just as cream often tops off American desserts. Floating Island dessert is made by spooning soft meringue on top of soft custard.

For baked custard, pour the mixture into individual custard cups or into one large baking dish. Place the cups or baking dish in a shallow baking pan on the oven rack. Add hot water to the baking pan to a depth of one inch and bake at a moderate oven temperature. The custard is done when a knife inserted halfway between the center and outside edge of the custard comes out clean. After cooking, remove it from the hot water to stop the cooking.

Baked custard, delicious either warm or chilled, is commonly served with a dash of ground nutmeg or a dollop of tart, red jelly. Variations include the addition of instant coffee powder, unsweetened cocoa powder, shredded coconut, or caramelized sugar. Baked in a pie shell, custard is a holiday favorite when pumpkin is added.

Overcooking custard results in an undesirable product. For a stirred custard, the mixture takes on a curdled appearance due to over coagulation of egg protein. Although this change cannot be reversed, the appearance is improved somewhat by beating the mixture with a rotary beater. When a baked custard is overcooked, tiny bubbles appear around the edge of the dish, and there is a separation of liquid from solid when the custard is cut.

Main dish custards, which are unsweetened, add variety to the menu. A custard mixture poured over layers of bread and cheese and baked in a baking dish is known as a strata. In addition, meat is sometimes added. A favorite French dish, Quiche Lorraine, is made with crisp cooked crumbled bacon and cheese in a custard mixture, baked in a pastry shell.

The custard dish is versatile and can be served for any meal. By adding different ingredients, you can make it to be a breakfast meal, a main dish meal, or a dessert.