Custard Recipe with Egg Yolks, Sugar and Milk

Name: Custard Recipe with Egg Yolks, Sugar and Milk
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: French cuisine
Ingredients: Egg yolks 6; Milk (2.5%) 0.5 l; Cornstarch 1-2 tbsp; Sugar 3-5 tbsp; Liquid vanilla concentrate additions

Making custard is very easy. Even beginners can handle it. In the simplest case, it is a mixture of egg yolks and sugar poured into hot milk or cream. When heated, the mixture emulsifies, sets and forms a sweet, delicate cream. This process is called “brewing”, hence the name of the finished product. To change the flavor and aroma, various additions go into the mixture: vanilla, citrus juice and zest, food flavorings and colorings.

Since childhood I often remember how we mixed up the yolk and milk cream with buttercream, which was usually made from butter and condensed milk. Back then, though, all sweets were equally desirable, we wanted sweets all the time. Childhood, you know. Although now, to be honest, I avoid buttercream because it is too fatty and high in calories.

It is hard to say where the egg and milk cream that is now considered traditional was first made. It has the most in common with English custard, and it is often taken for it. Interestingly, “crème anglaise” is a French name. In principle, the French versions are more often used as sauces and are runnier. The English ones are thicker, called custard, and are used warm or hot.

A cream of milk and yolks is often thickened with cornstarch, and then it is considered pastry cream, or Crème pâtissière. This lets you adjust the thickness of the cream from runny to very firm. It has very wide uses: cakes, pastries, charlottes, all kinds of desserts, such as the Napoleon cake. What is more, a thick, baked version is the famous dessert crème brûlée with its sugar crust.

Milk is less fatty, which matters for keeping the overall calories down. Besides, it can be difficult to buy good cream that is guaranteed to be natural. With milk, everything always turns out great.

Before you start making custard, decide what you need it for. If you want a sweet dessert sauce, it is enough to thicken hot milk with egg yolks and sugar. For thicker desserts or creams, it is better to use starch. You will get an excellent filling for a strawberry cake, profiteroles or everyone's favorite choux pastries. While cooking, you can add flavorings and food colorings to the mixture.

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Ingredients

0.7-0.8 l

Egg yolks 6
Milk (2.5%) 0.5 l
Cornstarch 1-2 tbsp
Sugar 3-5 tbsp
Liquid vanilla concentrate additions

Step-by-step recipe

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This time, my daughter and I made custard for a strawberry cake. The cream needed to be thick, and firm enough after chilling not to run when the cake was cut. So we used cornstarch as a thickener. To get the amount of filling we needed, we used six egg yolks and 0.5 liter of low-fat milk.
Separate the egg yolks from the whites. By the way, make a lemon meringue from the whites, as you do not need them for the custard. Put the yolks into a tall glass. Add a ladle of milk, but not hot. Depending on what the cream is for, add cornstarch. We needed a firm cream, so we added 2 tbsp. Add sugar to taste. Usually, if you want a sweet cream, add 4-5 tbsp.
Mix the mixture thoroughly. For a custard without lumps, it is best to do this with a mixer at low speed or with a hand blender, which is very convenient. The egg mixture will be smooth and lump-free. If you doubt it is smooth, just strain it through a sieve.
Pour all the remaining milk into a saucepan. I advise using a small saucepan with a long handle, as it is easier to stir the cream in it while cooking. Put the saucepan of milk on the heat. When the milk is well heated, pour the egg mixture into it in a thin stream, stirring constantly with a spatula from the very bottom. The mixture thickens from the bottom quite quickly, so you need to keep it from sticking and burning.
As soon as the mixture starts to thicken noticeably, add the liquid vanilla concentrate, reduce the heat to the minimum and keep stirring. After 2-3 mins, take the custard off the heat. As a rule, cream for spreading on cakes is made cold, so give it time to cool. If you are making a dessert on its own, you can serve it warm or hot.
Many people complain that the cream has lumps. This is perfectly normal and fixable. Just press the mixture through a sieve, which guarantees a smooth, glossy cream. As it cools, a firmer skin may form on the surface. When making cakes, you can stir it into the whole batch and spread it on the layers, and you will not notice it. Or you can simply eat it.
Custard can be used in hundreds of ways. As a dessert on its own, you can spoon it into cups or pastry tartlets and decorate with fresh fruit and berries. It goes exceptionally well with ripe strawberries. It is handy for filling eclairs and various pastries.
If you are making a special cake, you can add a little citrus juice or food flavoring while cooking. We sometimes use “rum” flavoring, which has a special taste and aroma. Food colorings are also perfectly fine for giving the cream the shade you want.