What’s the best homemade custard recipe for your rich and decadent Christmas plum pudding? Here is the recipe for my homemade custard that will turn your Christmas lunch into a true celebration.
I think that Christmas just isn’t Christmas without a Christmas pudding.
The traditional Christmas plum pudding loaded with the goodness of brandy, spices, candied fruit peels, mixed dried fruit and citrus zest is just not the same without its trusted partner, custard.
But there’s a perpetual debate in every home about what sauce to serve along with the rich Christmas pudding, whether to go for a simple classic English custard or a light white sauce with a nice splash of rum or brandy or something completely different.
Homemade Custard Recipe
Equipment
- Whisk
Ingredients
- 1 cup (8 oz) Heavy cream
- 2/3 cup (5 oz) 2% Milk or whole milk
- 1/3 cup (2 oz) Caster sugar superfine sugar or granulated sugar
- 6 Egg yolks of large eggs
- 1 Vanilla bean with seeds removed
Method
- Collect all the ingredients needed to make the custard. Add milk, cream and 1 teaspoon of sugar in a heavy-bottom saucepan. Heat on the stovetop over medium heat and bring it to a gentle simmer. Turn down the heat to the lowest.
- Place the egg yolks and the remaining sugar in a large heatproof bowl. Whip with an electric mixer or by hand until the mixture is creamy, airy and pale yellow coloured.
- Continue whisking and pour the warmed cream and milk very slowly into the egg mixture. Avoid adding all of it/too much at a time as the mixture can curdle. Then, pour the custard sauce through a fine sieve and strain.
- Pour the sauce into the saucepan again and add the vanilla bean seeds. Stir the custard slowly on low heat, until it begins to thicken and starts to coat the back of the spoon.
- Make sure that you don’t increase the heat because this can cause your custard sauce to curdle or even burn. Once the sauce is thick, remove it from the heat.
- Stain it by passing it through the sieve once more. And, your custard sauce to serve with your Christmas pudding is ready!
- Tempering the mixture, i.e., adding the hot milk very slowly to the beaten egg yolks can help to bring them up to temperature gradually and prevent them from curdling.
- Always cook the custard on low heat and avoid increasing the heat to speed up the process. This will cause the eggs to curdle. When cooking the cream and egg mixture, do it on low heat and keep stirring continuously. Use a wooden spoon or spatula as this will allow you to feel if the mixture starts sticking to the bottom much better than a metal spoon.
- If you’re not sure how to maintain a low temperature while cooking the custard, a foolproof method is to use a double boiler (place the saucepan over a pan of simmering water). Adding 2 teaspoons of cornstarch when beating the sugar and eggs together can help to thicken the custard more quickly without curdling.
- Use a thermometer to determine when you should stop cooking the custard. The custard will begin to set at around 160°F but at 176°F, the eggs will curdle.
- In case the eggs curdle during the process, then remove the pan from the heat and blend the mixture until it is smooth with a blender.
Homemade Custard Recipe: Wrapping Up
So, there you go!
Now that you have the recipe for my classic homemade custard for your Christmas plum pudding, you can try out some innovative variations to make your holiday dessert even more special by adding other ingredients such as brandy, chocolate-hazelnut, lemon or honey to change the flavour according to your preference.
