Coconut Custard Recipe (from scratch) | Sugar Geek Show (2024)

FAQs

What ingredient makes the custard thicker? ›

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.

The more you heat the egg proteins, the more they shrink until they eventually become so tight they can no longer hold the water in - the preparation you're making splits and you end up with little hard pieces of yellow in water (if it's a custard) or a rubbery bread pudding/quiche with water in the bottom.

Keep water at a gentle simmer, and whisk constantly until the custard/curd has thickened. Strain and stir/whisk in butter. I wouldn't bother using a double boiler with a starch-thickened custard, though. The starch helps prevent curdling, so you should be fine cooking over direct heat.

Baked custard is one of the two basic types of custard and it is simple to make. Beat eggs and sugar together, whisk in hot milk and bake in a water bath. The water bath insulates the custard, preventing it from reaching too high a heat and curdling.

Put the cream and milk into a large pan and gently bring to just below boiling point. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk the yolks, cornflour, sugar and vanilla. Gradually pour the hot milk mixture onto the sugar mixture, whisking constantly. Wipe out the saucepan and pour the mixture back into it.

Return the pan to a low heat and cook slowly, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. This will take about 8 minutes. Test it by running a finger through the custard on the spoon: if it leaves a straight, clear line, it's ready.

Rescuing the custard turned out to be a cinch with an immersion blender. A quick buzz effectively broke down the clumps, restoring a perfectly creamy texture (which didn't break when we refrigerated the fixed custard).

Using a Thickening Agent

Mix flour and cold water well, making sure the mixture is smooth. 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.

Whisk the pastry cream constantly while it's on the stove.

It requires your full attention to prevent lumps and scorched bits. Whisking constantly also helps the custard thicken evenly. Be sure to whisk all around the saucepan, not just in one spot, so the milk and eggs don't stick to the pot and scorch or scramble.

The most common mistake people make in baking a custard is not putting enough water in the hot-water bath. The water should come up to the level of the custard inside the cups. You must protect your custard from the heat.

What are the 3 types of custard? ›

There are three types of custard: baked, stirred, and frozen. Baked custards include bread pudding, flan, and cheesecake, and are prepared by baking in an oven or water bath. Boiled Custards include beverages like eggnog. Puddings, creme anglaise (krem on-GLAYZ), and pastry cream are some examples of stirred custards.

A low temperature and constant stirring are important to prevent the custard from curdling. Nigella also suggests that you half fill the sink with cold water so that if it looks as if the custard is starting to curdle you can dip the base of the pan into the water and whisk vigorously, to cool the custard quickly.

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.

Custard tends to scramble once the heat gets involved and can therefore prove tricky to master. You'll know your custard has scrambled once the mixture turns lumpy. This often happens as a result of overheating your liquid. But while curdled custard may seem like a lost cause, it doesn't have to be.

If it tastes like flour you didn't cook it long enough. That's all. That's a very common problem as pastry cream starts out as a liquid but, as it cooks, quickly escalates to the thickness of wallpaper paste. When that happens people freak out as it's now very, very easy to scorch.

The thickening of the custard is caused by the combination of egg and starch. Corn flour or flour thickens at 100 °C (212˚F) and as such many recipes instruct the pastry cream to be boiled.

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.

Keep an eye on the heat when cooking the custard - too low and it won't thicken, too high and you'll have scrambled eggs.

Because it is not held in the chamber, there is very little air beaten into the custard, referred to as “overrun.” This low overrun (20-25%) is what gives frozen custard its wonderfully dense and creamy texture, or “mouthfeel.”