A few years ago, thanks to our friends at Vermont Network who were here for a meeting, we tested out a new egg based dessert, this Maple Egg Custard. Safe to say it was a hit, even called addictive by some. Yet simple and truly a low sugar dessert. We can’t wait to try it with some fruit inside as well.
It could make a delightful Valentines Dinner dessert or just something cozy for the weekend. Bonus – looks fun and a bit fancy, especially with some black currant coulis on top, but is quite easy.
Recipe adapted from The Prairie Homestead’s Maple Custard with Duck Eggs
Ingredients
- 4 large or 5 small-medium eggs
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 2 cups whole milk (cream top is perfect)
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Ground nutmeg or other spice of your choice
- Fruit and/or fruit sauce for topping at serving time
[this volume made 6 good sized ramekins, 3.5 inch diameter]
Directions
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and heat some water to boiling which will be used to set ramekins into.
Add the milk to a small saucepan, and scald it. Directions are to “heat it until it’s just about ready to boil, but don’t let it boil all the way”. As a person prone to distraction, I put the heat to medium and also put in my kitchen thermometer to understand how close to boiling it was. Milk boils at almost same temp as water (212.3)
In a separate bowl, beat together the eggs, maple syrup, salt, and vanilla.
Once milk is scalded, slowly whisk the egg mixture into the scalded milk. Then strain the custard through a fine mesh strainer (to remove lumps), and pour into custard cups or oven-safe ramekins two-thirds or so full with the mixture. Key is you want the water to be at or above the custard line. Ours sometimes fall a bit once cooled so we try to fill them as high as possible but within range of the water bath.
Sprinkle ground nutmeg or cinnamon on the top of each cup. (optional especially if you are going to add a fruit coulis)
Place the ramekins in a oven safe pan, our metal brownie pan worked great, and fill the pan with the hot water to create a water bath for your custard cups. The water should come up to or past the level of the custard in the cups. This helps the custard cook evenly and turn out smooth.
Bake for 30-55 minutes, or until the custards are set but still “loose”. You can check by touching the top lightly, if it is still liquid keep cooking. Timing really depends on size of cups and if you are using a convection setting. Ours were fully done in 30 min maybe even a smidge overdone, but they were small ramekins and we used convection bake.
Remove from the oven and serve immediately if you like warm custard. Or let cool on a rack and then refrigerate and served a chilled custard later.
When serving, you can top with some frozen berries (or fresh in season) mixed with a little fruit sauce or as we did with a black currant coulis.
