Vanilla Custard

After my first encounter with the pandoro, two weeks later we brought our second pandoro. As in one of the Hungarian comments Vica said that it is amazing with vanilla custard, I made some this time.

The basic vanilla custard is egg yolk, sugar and milk. Nothing else. Of course, you can add some vanilla extract or beans if you want.

So, I gathered up myself to prepare a fabulous breakfast for my husband.

INGREDIENTS (for 2-3 servings)

2 egg yolks

1,5 tablespoon sugar

2,5 dl milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

There are tons of vanilla custard recipe. This is really just a basic recipe. You can add heavy cream to reach a foam-like custard or you can add some flour to make it more dense. It is up to you. This time I preferred the basic vanilla custard.

Whisk the egg yolks with a hand-held beater with the sugar until sugar is melted and the mixture is light yellow, like on the picture.

Heat the milk until it just starts boiling. Add the milk to the mixture and stir continuously.

You have now two alternatives: 1) you either take a new pan to cook the whole custard further or 2) you can use the same in which you boiled the milk. In this latter case, you have to wash it. When you poured the milk on the mixture, the foamy surface remained and stuck on the bottom of the pan. If you keep it like that the whole custard will burn down.

Cook the custard further on low heat (3 out of 9 grades) until it gets dense. Stir continuously.

TIPS:

• If you cook it too long it will lump. Jane Price’s tip is to take the custard off the heat and add one teaspoon of cold water. Stir it well and put it back on a lower heat to warm it up (not to cook any further).
• It will not be as dense as a pudding, so don’t overcook. Jane Price’s tip is to take a small custard out in a wooden spoon. Drag a stripe. If it least for a couple of seconds, the custard is ready.
• If the custard is ready, you have to cool it down as soon as possible to stop the cooking. I put it in the sink full of cold water. Ok, not full, but enough to reach the half of the bowl. To avoid any skin on the surface stir it a couple of times and add the vanilla extract now.