Baked Custard and Waiting

The other day Gary went to the grocery store and got some milk. The day before I purchased some milk. Then we looked in the refrigerator and saw two more containers of milk, which made four. With just the two of us, what was I going to do with all that milk? I didn't want to waste it so I thought about making some pudding. But I decided to make some custard because I also had a few eggs. Perhaps you're wondering why the serving was so small in the first photo. Well the plate is large for dessert, but truthfully I wasn't sure the custard would taste good so I served up a small portion to both of us just in case. Happy to say we had seconds last night. The custard was extremely light, creamy and delicious, a really easy baked custard to make.

First take two cups of milk and cook it till just short of scalded, stirring regularly, till almost boiling but not quite. I doubled the recipe because I had so much milk and I had a little too much. See how the milk is kind of frothy at the side of the pan but still light and airy looking, that's just what you want, don't burn the milk. 

Next take four eggs and beat them and then add in half a cup of sugar and beat till slightly frothy. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 F. Also grease some glass timbales, which I don't have because they are being used for mixing various colors of slip. So I used a medium glass casserole dish, 7.5 x 11 which I buttered liberally since I didn't have any crisco or grease.

Once the milk is just short of scalded but not boiling, remove it from the stove top heat. Gently add a cupful of the almost scalded milk to the egg and sugar mixture stirring constantly. Add the hot to the cold not the cold to the hot, this is important so you don't cook the eggs.When all the milk is added pour the whole mixture into the buttered glass casserole dish. Place that same casserole dish into a larger casserole dish, 11 x 15, then fill the space between the two with water to within one inch of the top. Sprinkle some nutmeg or cinnamon or both on top of the custard.

Place the water bath surrounded custard casserole into the oven very carefully and bake for 45 to 60 minutes till firm in the center but still wobbly. Mixture will firm in the center after removing from the oven and cooling for about 15 minutes. I confess when I put the casseroles into the oven the milk mixture overflowed a little into the outside water bath, but only slightly and it didn't seem to matter. Perhaps I should have added the water bath after putting it in the oven. 

After removing the custard from the oven, immediately remove it from the water bath so it doesn't continue to cook. Removing the smaller casserole from the larger one without getting burned was a real feat, but well worth it. Apparently there is great danger of curdling the milk if the custard is over cooked, but somehow I lucked out. I used a rubber basting utensil to remove part of the hot water bath before trying to remove the inner casserole. It is the creamiest custard I've ever tasted. Serve slightly warm; left overs can be served chilled. You could even drizzle some liquor, carmel sauce, or fruit over the top of the custard.

Please be careful of the hot custard mixture and the hot water bath mixture since it's easy to burn yourself with one false move. Other than that, this is an easy dessert to make and it didn't even stick to the bottom of the casserole. The kiln is almost cooled down, so please check back real soon for some new work. Also I've received two blog awards which I will talk about coming up soon, thank you to Suzi and Julia. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.