Baked Custard
- Total Time
- 1 hour 15 minutes plus 30 minutes' cooling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2½cups whole milk
- 1vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2large eggs
- 3large egg yolks
- ¼cup sugar
- Freshly grated nutmeg
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Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Fill a teakettle with water, and bring to a boil. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine milk and vanilla bean, if using. Heat just until warm, then remove vanilla bean, and reserve for another use. If not using bean, add vanilla extract after milk is heated.
- Step 2
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, yolks and sugar. Pour in vanilla-infused milk, whisking until smooth. Strain mixture into a pie plate of 4 to 5 cups capacity (about 9 inches in diameter). Sprinkle with nutmeg.
- Step 3
Place pie plate in a large shallow baking dish, and fill with boiling water to come halfway up side of pie plate. Place in oven and bake until custard is set, about 1 hour. Remove baking pan from oven, and transfer pie plate to a rack to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Serve while slightly warm, preferably about 30 minutes after removing from oven.
Private Notes
Comments
SAFETY TIP: I put the dish of custard filled cups in the larger shallow baking dish, place in the oven, on the rack, THEN fill shallow pan with boiling water halfway up custard cups. Use funnel if you need to, to keep from getting hot water in custard. Carefully slide rack back into oven, close door. Safer than trying to carry large shallow pan filled with hot water and custard cups, avoid spilling or burning hands.
My mother used to make this when we lived in England, forty years ago. It was considered old-fashioned even then, but oh so delicious. I must make it again.
This is very similar to the "rice pudding" my mother made regularly while I was growing up, and I believe it's the same as Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book (Sep. 12, 2006), page 287 as “Baked Rice Pudding Custard," though my mother skipped the step of stirring in the rice midway, and just let it settle to the bottom like a terrine with the custard above. Truly delicious, especially with raisins; and cold the next day from the refrigerator.
Followed the recipe with the exception of a pinch of salt. Cooked it to 190 degrees. Tasted just like my great grandmother’s. Very tasty will make it on a regular basis!
@lori When you say that you ‘cooked it to 190 degrees’, do you mean that you checked the custard temperature with a probe?
I doubled the sugar and added a dash of salt. It still was not too sweet for me - just about right.
Delicious, I decided I wanted more custard, so I doubled the recipe. That's what I'll do from now on. Because others said it needed more sugar, I scooped and did a heaping 1/2 cup. It still only required 1 hour for it to set. I would give it more stars if I could.
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