Friday 26 October 2007

Easy egg custard recipe


With Chef Jeena an egg custard recipe never has to be difficult ever again.

Here is one of Chefs favourite delicious tasting sweets of all time, the humble egg custard.

Egg custards taste absolutely wonderful, if you have ever bought an egg custard from a shop and thought it tasted good, then I promise that once you taste thias recipe you will never buy another custard again.

These egg custards are the real deal.

It is the kind of recipe that reminds you of how they tasted when you were a kid, if you have never tried an egg custard before then try this recipe it is a must.

It is really simple to make, you may think it is hard to bake something that has to set but I assure you there is nothing complicated about this recipe.

You do not have to blind bake(blind bake is where you pre-cook pastry so the bottom does not go soggy when the filling is added) the pastry for this recipe.

These egg custards are so tasty and the custards are a fantastic dish to pre make before you have visitors round.

Go ahead give Chefs egg custard recipe a try and see for yourself that you can really bake those lovely foods you never thought to make for yourself.





Pastry ingredients

8oz Plain Flour
4oz Butter/Margarine
approx 1 oz White Sugar
Pinch Salt (optional)
Little Cold Water

Egg custard filling

1/2 Pint/300ml Milk (full fat)
2 Tbsp White Sugar
2 Medium Eggs
Grated Nutmeg


How to make pastry

Mix flour, sugar and salt(optional) together in a bowl.

Add margarine to the bowl and start to rub it all together using your thumbs and fingertips, keep doing this until your mixture looks like bread crumbs.



Keep adding a little cold water to your mixture until it forms a dough.

Make sure only a tiny amount of water is added at a time - mix well between adding each drop of water - pastry needs very little liquid.




On a floured top divide the pastry into four even pieces.

Grease and flour 4 small ramekin oven pots.

Roll each piece out to be larger than the oven pots in size, do not roll it out too thick but be sure it is not too thin.

Approximately one centimetre in thickness but use your own judgment for your sized oven dishes.




Place each rolled out pastry into the oven pots.

Gently push the pastry down into the middle and make the pastry as even as possible up the sides.

The pastry will over flow the oven pots.




Gently and loosely wrap each one up in plastic wrap and place into your fridge while you cook the egg custard filling.




For the egg custard filling

Place two eggs into a bowl/jug and whisk, an electric whisk is not necessary.

Preferably in a heavy based pan bring the 1/2 pint of milk and sugar to the boil then switch off.

Gently add milk to the eggs stiring all the time to stop the egg curdling.

You should be left with an almost runny type custard.



Leave the custard to cool a little the temperature should be neither hot nor cold.

If you pour the custard into a flat dish this helps it cool a lot quicker.




When egg custard filing is cooled enough take the pastry pots out of the fridge and discard the plastic wrap.



If the egg custard filling is not already in a jug, pour it into a jug here.

Pour an even amount of custard into each pastry case.




Take a small knife and gently cut off the excess pastry from the egg custards.

It is easier if you gently lean your knife edge onto the outer oven pot as you do it.




Grate fresh nutmeg on top of the egg custards , this helps them to set - only a little nutmeg is needed.

You can use the powdered nutmeg also.




The egg custards are ready for the oven.



Place the egg custards ont o the middle shelt of a hot oven at 170-180C.

Bake for 30-40 minutes.



To check if the egg custards are ready use the back of a spoon or your finger(only if your used to the hot touch) if they feel firm they are ready.

The pastry should be pale golden/golden brown, the egg custard filling can go a little golden brown on top this is normal, sometimes it doesn't this also is fine.




Take the custards out of the oven and place onto a cooling rack.




Once cooled a little you should be able to quickly tip the custards out of the oven pot, if still hot use a tea towel.

Place onto your cooling rack.



You can try eating them warm if you like, but the true way to eat an egg custard is to leave them to cool down and then place them in the fridge to go cold.

Make sure you wrap them in plastic wrap or cover them when they are in your fridge.

Egg custards are a great dessert to eat, they can be made the night before.




Enjoy Chefs egg custard recipe.




27 comments:

Shella said...

Oh Jeena its a beautiful recipe. I can almost taste the crisp pastry & the soft & moist filling inside!! You have a lovely blog & I am going to add you to my blogroll.

Finla said...

Hey Jeena Welcome back.
I am so happy to see you back here as i missed your cooking.
It looks indeed a easy egg custard recipe.

Seena said...

Jeena, Glad to see you back..

Preparing this custard looks interesting..missed your cooking..

Sharmi said...

waw back with a bang! I have bookmarked this and will try out for sure!

Kribha said...

It looks like a combination of flan and pie. Looks gorgeous as usual. It was so easy to understand your recipe with u'r detailed pics. Bookmarking for later. Thanks.

FH said...

Looks great Jeena, glad you are back. I add a little Saffron too, not very English I know!:)

Swaruchy said...

wow Seena...This post rocked......The array of pics look good...Thanks for the step-by step procedure...Looks YUM :-)

Peter M said...

Bravo Jeena, the custard tarts look tasty and would be a nice light dessert.

Also, welcome back and next time don't play around with your laptop!

USHA said...

Hi Dear,

Just Amazing recipe....added to that wonderful step by step pictures....gr8

Chef Jeena said...

Hi Shella thankyou for the lovely comment you have a great blog too. :)

Hi Happy Cook thankyou I missed everybody too. :)

Thanks Seena nice to hear from you. :)

Hey Sharmi let me know how it goes, thanks for lovely comment. :)
Hi Kribha yes this is a traditional British dish our version of custard tart. Let me know how it goes. Thanks for the comment, :)

Asha thankyou, saffron is a great idea I'll have to try that one. :)

Hey Sirisha, thanks for the ovely comment, I think it was ment for me?.... :)

Hi Peter M thanks for the comment, yes we all have these moments with our computers. :)

Hey Usha thankyou for the lovely comment. :)

Chef Jeena said...

I deleted some comments by accident :( Sorry people.....

Padma said...

Jeena, been missing u and ur lovely posts. Great to see u back in action... custard recipe looks so yummy! Looking fwd for many more unique recipes from u~

. . . said...

i love love love egg recipes. and especially custard. thanks for sharing!

Cakelaw said...

Yum Jeena - I love custard tarts, and these look great! Also, welcome back to blogging!

Jules said...

It really interesting to see you used ramekin dishes as moulds. I never would have thought of that.

Pooja Na(i)rayan said...

The custard looks do good. I am sure this will soon be one my book marked recipes.

Rita Sella said...

thanks for sharing.. will try your recipe, it looks scrumptious

Anonymous said...

Hi Jeena,

I love this easy to follow Egg custard recipe, memories of childhood...mmm!

best wishes
Kevin Ashton
Chef and Food Writer

Chef Jeena said...

Hi Kevin, thank you for visiting my food blog. I'm glad you like my egg custard recipe. I update daily so please add me to your favourites. :-)

Lesley said...

Hi Jeena,
Recipe was so easy to follow and tasted great. I've bookmarked you blog for future recipes. You have my partners seal of approval!
Lesley

Laura said...

Hi Jeena,

My mum loves egg custards so i'm going to make these for her birthday :)

Can you tell me approx. how long they need in the oven?

Thanks!

Chef Jeena said...

Hi Laura,

Bake the custards for around 30-40 minutes.

I would love to hear how the custards go?

Thanks, Jeena.

Anonymous said...

I made the recipe for your egg custard a few nights ago and it was amazing! Keep up the good work.



ps: i added two cap fulls of vanilla and this can be in pie form just double the recipe for eight slices.

Kara said...

This is a delicious recipe! I just posted about it on my blog - it's so good! Thanks for the recipe. :)

Anonymous said...

hi, recipe sounds great. you said keep in fridge, how long can they be kept there?can you freeze them, and if so for how long? sorry i'm new to baking

Anonymous said...

Oh this came out amazingly.....I added an extra egg yolk to the mix because they seemed small. It's beautiful...thanx
Will defo be making this again Yum!

Anonymous said...

Hi Jeena,

It sounds like you're adored by many. How lovely for you and all of us ;-)

I've been searching high and low for an egg custard recipe I can't muck up. Honestly, no-one would ever believe how many kitchen disasters I have, even with the most basic thing. (Which I can never really work out because I follow all recipes to the letter. Also, I'm a very artistic and creative soul who's always doing and making things with her hands (successfully!!), so I can't understand just how hilariously badly my cooking episodes go. Luckily my husband marvels and laughs along with me as things go from bad to worse... and then helps me to clean up the overwhelming mess!)

Anyway, my question is, if I just wanted to make the baked custard without the pastry, would I follow the same process you described for the custard? If I wanted to cook the custard in a baking dish, instead of the small ramekins, would I still need to let the custard mix cool before pouring it into the dish (or is the cooling to protect the pastry?) And lastly, would I cook the custard for the same length of time and at same temperature?

So sorry for the length and 'drama' of this post, but I sooo want my egg custard to work... and to be yummy as well. I'll even just settle for 'edible' ;-)

Thank you in advance.
Ria