Easy homemade vanilla custard (without custard powder)
Nothing beats the taste of some silken, creamy homemade custard topped with fresh fruits. You can have it chilled on a hot day and warm on a chilly day. Try this easy recipe to enjoy a delicious bowl of it whenever you want to
Equipment
- Sauce pan
- Cling film
Ingredients
- 500 ml milk
- 4 large egg yolks at room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla essence
- ½ cup sugar or to taste
For the berry compote (optional)
- 2 cup mixed berries* roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp sugar add more if the berries are tart
- 1 tsp lemon juice
For garnish
- 1 cup chopped fruits use any of choice
- few mint leaves
Instructions
To make the custard
- In a mixing bow, whisk the yolks with the sugar until creamy and light
- In the sauce pan, heat the milk over medium low flame with the vanilla essence. In 3-4 minutes, when the milk is warm, add 2-3 tablespoons of it to the yolk-sugar mixture and mix well**
- Next, gradually pour the milk and yolk mixture to the simmering milk in the sauce pan and keep whisking and cooking until lump free. Once the custard starts to thicken, remove from flame and empty it into a bowl
- Apply a cling film on the surface of the custard and let it cool to room temperature, thereafter, refrigerate for at least an hour or two (overnight is best)
To make the berry compote
- In a pan, add the chopped berries and sugar, cook over medium flame until pulpy and mashed. When the fruits are completely disintegrated, remove from flame and add the lemon juice, mix well. Let it cool to room temperature
To assemble the custard with the berry compote
- In jars or dessert bowls, add a tablespoon or two of the compote. Top it up with the chilled custard, almost all the way up. Garnish with fresh fruits and mint leaves and serve
Notes
- *I have used strawberries, raspberries and blueberries
- **Only add slightly warm milk to the yolk and sugar mixture, mix well and then pour it into the milk in the saucepan. Do not add hot milk to the yolk-sugar mixture otherwise the yolks will cook and spoil the custard making process
- Instead of vanilla essence, you could also use almond essence or add some cinnamon/nutmeg powders also to flavor the custard
- Some other garnishing suggestions are crushed brownies, cookies, chocolate chips etc
- You can add any fruits for garnishing as per your choice. Some popular ones are bananas, mangoes, pomegranate pearls etc
- 1 cup = 250 millilitres
- tbsp - tablespoon
- ml - millilitres
- tsp - teaspoon