Dairy-Free Vanilla Custard

This dairy-free vanilla custard is not vegan, but I made it with almond milk instead of regular milk or cream. The recipe is about as low-fat as you can make custard while keeping the rich egg yolk flavour. It’s a beautiful recipe from Alice Medrich’s Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts and doubles as a pastry cream for éclairs, cream puffs and trifles. It also works perfectly well on its own. I basically only made this because I had two (should have been four…but it’s kind of better this way, since I would have had to quadruple the recipe) egg whites left over after making the Master’s Potluck’s two chestnut tortes and there’s only so much mayonnaise or hollandaise sauce a girl wants or needs. In my case, not much. Custard, on the other hand…

Ingredients:
6 tbsp sugar
8 tsp flour
8 tsp cornstarch
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 cups milk (almond, soy, cow’s)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Basically all you do for this recipe is thicken milk and eggs on the stove. The only way to mess it up is to let the eggs scramble, so make sure you whisk while you pour the hot milk over the eggs.

1. Combine the sugar, flour, and cornstarch in a large bowl. Add all the eggs and yolks and beat them for 1-2 minutes. They should be thick and almost white.

2. Scald the milk in a medium saucepan (until the edges just start to bubble a little. It shouldn’t boil) and pour it slowly over the egg mixture in a thin stream like olive oil, whisking constantly until all the milk is added. I kept beating with the handheld mixer here because I didn’t have enough hands to whisk and pour at the same time. I foresaw the eggs tumbling to the floor that way (you can put a kitchen towel under the bowl to help keep it from moving around of its own accord). The liquid ended up a bit frothy, though, so you kind of need to beat the froth down into the liquid afterward, or you’ll have a hard time telling when the mixture has thickened in the next step.

3. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook on medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk, reaching all over the bottom and sides of pan, until the mixture thickens a lot. When you think it’s had enough, keep cooking and whisking an extra 30-45 seconds. Then scrape your custard into a clean bowl and whisk in the vanilla. Cool. Cover. Refrigerate.

Sprinkle with blueberries or raspberries, or chocolate shavings…really, anything that isn’t white or yellow (for contrast) to garnish. Serve in individual dishes or one large communal bowl, depending on the circumstances. For the potluck individual dishes didn’t make sense, but for a more traditional dinner I’d definitely serve individually. I actually have another custard recipe that I made a few days after this, and it’s fun (if you’re a custard geek like me) to see the comparison. Hold in there for Buttered Rum-Raisin Cream Pie with a Partridgeberry Glaze.