Pumpkin Egg Custard Recipe - My Kitchen Love (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between custard and egg custard? ›

Egg custard is a variation on cream custard. Egg custurd is a tick rich creamy sweet or savory dessert, made mixtures of eggs or egg yolks, milk or cream, flavorings (vanilla, nutmeg, etc.) and optionally, sweeteners (sugar, honey). Basic custards are thickened and set by eggs alone.

Eggs contain the proteins necessary for the gel structure to form, and emulsifiers to maintain the structure. Egg yolk also contains enzymes like amylase, which can break down added starch.

The result of using a water bath is a steamy environment in your oven that promotes even cooking for delicate foods like cheesecakes, flans, creme brûlées, and custards. Bayard Franklin likes to think of a hot-water bath as an insurance policy for bakes that are prone to overcooking or cracking.

Brands vary, but vanilla ice-cream typically has about 10 per cent more calories than custard, as well as twice the saturated fat, less protein and half the calcium and potassium. However, ice-cream usually has less sugar and salt, too.

There are three types of custard: baked, stirred, and frozen. Baked custards include bread pudding, flan, and cheesecake, and are prepared by baking in an oven or water bath. Boiled Custards include beverages like eggnog. Puddings, creme anglaise (krem on-GLAYZ), and pastry cream are some examples of stirred custards.

Add the milk in 1/2-cup increments to bring the temperature of the eggs up gradually while whisking. Tip: Whisking the eggs with sugar helps, too. Now you can add the tempered eggs to the hot milk without worrying that the eggs will curdle or scramble. Keep stirring over medium heat as the custard thickens.

The greater the proportion of whole eggs or whites, the firmer and glossier the custard." Whole eggs, as opposed to just egg yolks, will also give you a firmer texture. If you are really concerned, you could add a teaspoon of flour to the ingredients to help firm up the custard's texture.

Custard is a delicate mixture that requires gentle heat. Overheating the custard can cause it to curdle or separate. To prevent this, cook the custard over low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens. Do not let the custard boil.

However if the proteins are overcooked, either by using a temperature that is too high or just cooking for too long, then the proteins will come together so tightly that they will start to squeeze out water and this causes the weeping in an egg custard (or the scientific term for this is syneresis).

Caramel is also involved, but we'll get into that later. Both custard and pudding are sweet, goopy desserts made mostly from cream and then cooked. However, custard (and therefore flan) is made with eggs and sweetened milk alongside the cream, and flan itself includes caramel.

Why is it called egg custard? ›

Custard tarts have long been a favourite pastry in Britain and the Commonwealth, where they are often called "egg custard tarts" or simply "egg custards" to distinguish the egg-based filling from the commonly served cornflour-based custards.

American food show presenter Alton Brown points out that based on its ingredients, eggnog is "almost identical to ice cream. It is technically just a stirred custard made of milk and egg". Homemade recipes may use vanilla ice cream blended into the beverage, particularly when the goal is to create a chilled drink.

However, egg custard does not taste like egg. It is a custard flavor, like a sweet creamy vanilla.

Vanilla Frozen Custard [Milk, Cream, Skim Milk, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Egg Yolk, Guar Gum, Mono & Diglycerides, Locust Bean Gum, Carrageenan, Natural and Artificial Vanilla Flavor], Pecan Pieces [Vegetable Oil (Peanut, Cottonseed, Soybean and/or Sunflower Seed), Sea Salt], Salted Caramel [Corn Syrup, Sweetened Condensed ...