Butternut Custard Recipe - The Self Sufficient HomeAcre (2024)

FAQs

What are 2 ways your custard is thickened from your recipe? ›

Using a Thickening Agent

For 1 cup (240 mL) of custard, use 2 tablespoons (17 g) of flour mixed with 4 tablespoons (59 mL) of cold water. Add the mixture into your custard ingredients as they cook on the stove. Use cornstarch as an alternative to flour. Cornstarch, like flour, requires cold water as a mixing agent.

Baked custards, though, are very different: set in a low oven and coddled in a protective water bath, the custard thickens smoothly and evenly and the risk of splitting subsides.

Custard is a decadent dessert made with eggs, milk, and sugar. Eggs are responsible for custard's thick and velvety texture, but some recipes (such as this one) call for thickeners such as cornstarch or arrowroot for extra richess.

In my experience yolks in something like flan contribute to richness - so adding more of them (within reason) will amp up that sensation and make the whole dessert seem more filling. A 2-yolk flan made with 4 yolks, for example, will set slightly looser but taste far creamier and richer.

The most common mistake people make with custards is that they tend to overcook them. Custards need to come out of the oven just before they're completely cooked because they will continue baking even after you take them out of the oven.

The hot water evenly distributes heat around the custard, ensuring that the eggs don't curdle. It also prevents the top from drying out and splitting before the inside is fully cooked. Without a bain marie, you'll have a rubbery and cracked dessert.

When adding eggs to the custard mixture, add them slowly while whisking continuously. This will help to prevent the eggs from curdling or scrambling. It is also important to temper the eggs before adding them to the custard mixture.

For a thick, hot custard you need to add cornflour (cornstarch) as a thickener. The custard needs to come up to boiling point to thicken and to loose the taste of the uncooked starch, but the cornflour stabilizes the egg yolks so that they can tolerate higher temperatures without scrambling.

The first option is to mix two tablespoons of flour with four tablespoons of cold water for every cup of custard you've made. Mix the flour into the water well, then whisk it into your custard mixture as it cooks on the stove. You can follow the same steps with cornstarch instead of flour if you prefer as well.

To thicken your custard, place your store-bought custard in a medium saucepan with the vanilla bean paste. In a separate bowl, combine cornflour with 1tbsp water, and mix until well-combined. Add to the custard, and simmer for a few minutes until thickened.

How do you thicken milk for custard? ›

Add cornstarch.

Add the cornstarch slurry into the heated milk and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently to prevent the milk from burning. This method is great for thickening soups. You will want to use one tablespoon of cornstarch for every cup of milk you want to thicken.