Custard

Every home baker needs a go-to baked custard recipe in their back pocket. It’s the perfect dessert to whip up on a rainy day, when a loved one is sick or when you’re craving a dessert but have almost no ingredients in the house. Homemade custard is warm, creamy, cozy and so soul-affirming that it’s basically the dessert equivalent of chicken noodle soup.

But how do you make custard? We’ll show you that it is really quite simple. Once you master this recipe for custard, you’ll open a whole new door to tons of delicious custard recipes. A blackberry and creamy corn custard is a must in the summertime, while our pumpkin spice custard is autumn in a ramekin.

What is custard?

Custard is a mixture of milk, sugar, eggs and flavorings that are cooked together to create a thick, homogenous, saucelike dessert. You can enjoy homemade custard as a sauce, or you can pour the custard into a baking pan and bake it with a water bath to set the dessert, which is how creme brulee and caramel flan are made!

Custard Ingredients

• Whole milk: Whole milk has the perfect fat-to-water ratio to make a baked homemade custard. We don’t recommend substituting another type of milk or nondairy milk.
• Eggs: You’ll need four large eggs for this custard recipe. There’s no need to bring them to room temperature as so many dessert recipes require, and you don’t need to separate the egg yolks from the egg whites as usually called for in a recipe for custard.
• Sugar: Granulated sugar sweetens the custard ingredients. We don’t recommend swapping in brown sugar, as brown sugar will discolor the homemade custard.
• Vanilla extract: Since so few flavors are prominent in a custard recipe, it’s important to use one of the best vanilla extract brands from the store for maximum flavor potential. Honestly, I prefer using vanilla paste in my custard-based recipes. The vanilla bean flecks are gorgeous and act like super-charged pops of vanilla flavor.
• Ground nutmeg: While you can certainly use pre-ground nutmeg, I highly recommend grating nutmeg fresh. The taste is so much more prominent that this simple swap will make a huge difference in the final flavor of your custard.

Directions

Step 1: Heat the milk

Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a small saucepan, heat the milk until bubbles form around the sides of the pan. Promptly remove the saucepan from the heat.

Editor’s Tip: Do not let the milk come to a boil. Milk foams a lot when it boils and will most likely boil over and out of your saucepan.

Step 2: Make the custard

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In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt until blended but not foamy.

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Slowly stream in the hot milk while constantly stirring. Stir in the vanilla.

Editor’s Tip: Avoid pouring the milk in all at once or you’ll immediately cook the eggs and be left with a bowl of scrambled eggs.

Step 3: Create the hot water bath

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Pour the egg mixture through a fine mesh strainer and into a 1-1/2-quart round baking dish. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

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Place the round baking dish in a larger baking pan. Pour very hot water into the baking pan to within 1/2 inch of the top of the round baking dish. Try not to splash any water into the round baking dish with the custard.

Step 4: Bake the custard

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Bake the custard until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes. The center will be soft and jiggly. Remove the baking dish from the water bath and immediately place it on a wire rack. Let the custard cool at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Step 5: Chill and serve

Cover the homemade custard with storage wrap, and refrigerate until it’s nice and cold. Scoop servings into bowls and enjoy with fresh berries, if desired!

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Recipe Variations

• Sprinkle with extra spices: After sprinkling on the nutmeg, follow it with other cozy baking spices like cinnamon, cardamom, clove or pumpkin pie spice.
• Add more flavor: You can use almost any extract to flavor homemade custard. Coconut, lemon, rum, butter and coffee would be excellent additions to the list of custard ingredients.
• Bake individual portions: How do you make custard as individual servings? Disperse the recipe for custard among ramekins instead of baking it in one big pan.

How to Store Custard

Once the custard has cooled to room temperature, cover it tightly with storage wrap and place the pan in the fridge. It can be kept in the fridge for up to three days.

Can you freeze custard?

We do not recommend freezing custard. Once the custard thaws, it will split beyond repair, making the texture weird, wonky and undesirable.

Custard Tips

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How do you thicken custard?

Custards achieve a thick texture because of the eggs included in the recipe. Thankfully, this recipe for custard has four, so you shouldn’t have to fuss with another thickening agent.

What’s the difference between pudding and custard?

The main differences between custard and pudding are their textures and how they are thickened. Custard’s texture is usually much firmer than pudding because it is thickened with eggs, whereas pudding is thickened with starch.

How should I serve homemade custard?

You can serve homemade custard by itself, but we love serving it with a handful of fresh berries, as in this berries with vanilla custard recipe.