I am as guilty as the next person of taking the easy option when a dessert required some custard on the side and simply opening a can of Ambrosia Custard and heating on the hob but over the past few months I have actually been going off the taste. I don’t know whether it is because I am getting older or something but nowadays I find it far too thick and sickly and basically is spoils my apple pie! As I mentioned in my apple crumble article, I was recently shown how to make proper custard and I have definitely seen the light. Sure, is does take a lot more effort than opening a can but the results are totally worth it.

This will make enough for 4 people…. depending on how much they take!

Ingredients

• 275ml whole milk
• 175ml double cream
• 6 egg yolks
• 100g caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Start by whisking the egg yolks together with the caster sugar until the mixture is pale and creamy looking
2. Add the milk and cream to a small saucepan and gently heat until it begins to boil, then take off the heat
3. Pour a third of the milk/cream mixture on to the egg/sugar mixture and whisk together. (If you added in all the hot milk at once you would will scramble your eggs and nobody likes lumpy custard!)
4. Using a new clean saucepan add the rest of milk/cream mixture and then pour in the milk/sugar/milk mixture along with your vanilla extract
5. Stir the mixture constantly over a medium heat. As soon as it starts to thicken or coats the back of the spoon remove from the heat and pour into a jug for serving
6. If serving hot then you should serve immediately but if using cold (such as in a trifle) then you should return to a bowl and whisk quickly or sit over ice or cold water until it has chilled.
7. This custard will be not be as thick as the devonshire custard, it will be more like the consistency of thick double cream.

Enjoy!

A tip I also learned was that cold custard goes great with hot desserts… try it with apple pie or my apple crumble recipe!