When all four of our chooks are laying daily we are soon overrun with eggs. Friends and family are more than happy to take the free-range, welfare-assured eggs from our happy hens but it’s also made me look for new recipes.
T
hese baked custards are delicious, naughty comfort food. Perfect dessert after a Sunday Roast or eaten cold straight from the fridge in front of Strictly…
Serves four
- 300ml single cream
- 200ml milk
- 3 eggs
- 80g sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- grated nutmeg
- 4 glass dishes or ramekins
Set the oven to 150C, gas mark 2. Mix the eggs and sugar together in a bowl with the vanilla. Gently heat the cream and milk in a saucepan until it is just about to start simmering. Carefully pour the contents of the pan into the egg mixture, whisking fast to stop the egg scrambling.
Put the glass dishes into a roasting tin with fairly deep sides. You are going to cook the custards in a “bain marie” – that is, a bath of hot water. This provides a much gentler, more evenly distributed heat which helps the egg set properly.
Pour the custard into the glass dishes and carefully put the roasting tin onto the oven shelf, making sure the dishes are well spaced. Grate a little nutmeg on top.
Now add enough hot water (not boiling) around the dishes to come within a centimetre or so (half an inch) of the top of the dishes. Cook for 20 minutes. There should still be a discernible wobble in the middle. Carefully remove from the hot water and cool on a wire rack.
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