Baked Custard

I make these single serves of delicious custard, in 150ml ramekins. You'll need six to accommodate the amount in this recipe, plus a large baking dish they can all sit in, for cooking in a water bath.

INGREDIENTS:

4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups milk
nutmeg


1.   Preheat oven to 180 degrees C or 350 degrees F
2.   Beat 4 eggs, sugar and vanilla together.
3.   Heat milk in saucepan and almost bring to the boil, but do not boil.
4.   Slowly pour heated milk into egg-mix while continually stirring.
5.   Pour combined liquid in 6 x 150ml ramekins.
6.   Sprinkle with nutmeg.
7.   Place ramekins in a large baking dish, then place inside heated oven.
8.   Pour boiling water into  baking dish, until 3/4 way up sides of ramekins.
9.   Bake for 30 minutes.
10. Remove cups from water bath immediately.

Serve warm (at least 15 minutes out of the oven) or chilled (at least 2 hours in the refrigerator).

TIP: it helps to use a glass jug for pouring liquid into the ramekins.

Choc-Chia pudding

With spring on it's way, it's time to start thinking cold desserts. I've adapted my own recipe for Chia seed pudding. It makes about 900mls so select the appropriate sized individual servings. I used 6 x 200ml custard cups.

INGREDIENTS:

600mls almond milk
200mls choc soy milk
1/3 cup chia seeds
1/2 tablespoon maple syrup


1. Combine all the ingredients in a pouring jug.
2. Stir every 15 minutes for 1 hour.
3. Pour into individual bowls and refrigerate.
4. Best eaten several hours later or leave overnight, to thicken.


Chia seeds don't really have a flavour, they are used to thicken the pudding as they swell and absorb the liquid. So if you're considering adapting your own recipe, consider the combination of liquid ingredients.

I found the almond/soy milk blend a good combination. On it's own, almond milk can be quite thin and choc soy can be quite thick - but together, they make a very silky, flavoursome blend.

The first time I made Chia pudding with just almond milk, I remember it being quite bland. I wasn't impressed enough to make it again. With a large bag of Chia seeds left over however, I explored different combinations of liquids. The 200mls of chocolate soy milk, makes all the difference to the plain old gloop I made before.

I know Chia seeds are healthy, but without a enticing liquid flavour, they aren't worth the effort.

 

Sunflower & Sesame Crackers

I haven't tried these yet, but they seem so simple to make! As this is an US recipe, it uses Fahrenheit for oven temperature - I will have to translate into Celsius when I make them.

1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup sesame seeds
a little water (1/4 cup)


1. In a food processor, blitz sunflower seeds for 2–3 minutes, or for the seeds to break down and turn into a more flour-like consistency, although it will be thicker and heavier.

2. Add sesame seeds and pulse a few times (or mix in by hand), then slowly add water, stirring or pulsing until a thick paste forms that can be rolled out.

3. Between two greased pieces of baking (parchment) paper, roll out the paste as thinly as you can. Remove the upper piece of parchment. Lightly score the batter into squares with a sharp knife, and sprinkle with salt and pepper/herbs if you’d like.

4. Bake at 350°F until golden and crisp, about 20 minutes. Allow to cool thoroughly before gently breaking into squares as scored.

Beetroot cake

I am putting this recipe down for reference, but I have not baked one yet. The quantity seems slightly larger than an ordinary cake recipe, so consider this when choosing pans to bake in.


2 fresh beetroots (peeled & finely chopped)
250g butter
1 cup caster sugar
4 eggs
1 cup currants
2 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup Self Raising flour
1 cup Plain flour

1. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs (one at a time).
2. Stir in beetroot, currants, lemon juice and rind.
3. Add half the flours and mix well.
4. Stir in the rest of the flours, mix and spread into greased/floured cake tin.
5. Bake 160 degrees celcius for about 1 1/2 hours or until cooked.

Bread & butter pudding

When it's June in Australia, it's warm pudding time again! And a great way to use up stale bread is in a bread and butter pudding. I like this particular recipe because it makes a warm custard you pour over the bread, and it even has a custard flavour once baked. Simple yet delicious!


INGREDIENTS:

6 or more silces white bread
50g softened butter
1 cup sultanas
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

~ custard ~
2 1/2 cups milk
1 cup cream
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 medium to large eggs



I like to keep my crusts on, but feel free to remove them if you prefer. Then spread butter on each slice and cut into quartered triangles Place a layer of bread (butter side down) in a large rectangular dish. Sprinkle all the sultanas and then add another layer of bread as above.

Set aside and then make your custard by combining all but the eggs, into a medium saucepan. Bring to the boil but do not allow to boil - remove from heat as soon as it does. Now whisk your eggs in a large bowl, and gradually add hot mixture to the eggs. Because this process requires constant whisking, I like to wrangle a helper to do the pouring for me. Or use a mechanical mixer.

Once custard is made, pour the warm mixture over the bread and sprinkle with nutmeg.

To cook the pudding, requires a water bath which can be made by placing the pudding dish inside a larger one, and gradually adding boiling water to it, until it comes halfway up the sides of the pudding dish.

Bake about 45-50 minutes at 160 degrees celcius in a fan-forced oven (180 conventional). Be sure to remove pudding from the water bath - take care not to burn yourself and let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Very yummilliscious! Tastes great cold too.

By the way, the picture above was taken after we ate half the pudding between the three of us.

Baked rice pudding

There are many ways to make rice pudding. Cooked slowly on a stove-top, it has a delicious creamy texture. If you're lazy like me though and happen to like the caramalised topping from being slowly baked in the oven, then this recipe is perfect!



INGREDIENTS:


400mls coconut cream
600mls milk
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 cup of rice
1 teaspoon vanilla
nutmeg






Mix the cream, milk and vanilla in a jug to make a total liquid quantity of a litre.

In a casserole dish (at least 6 cup capacity) place the sugar and rice together. Pour liquid over. Mix lightly then sprinkle top with nutmeg.

Bake at 160 degrees celcius in a fan-forced oven (180 conventional) for 60 minutes.

A family favourite for winter desserts!

Food stash

This is just my collection of reliable recipes which I use on a regular basis. Normally I would type the recipe on my computer, print it out and stash it in a folder. In the interests of saving paper, ink and electricity - not to mention my printer hasn't worked for months - I thought I'd try a cyber stash of recipes instead.

Let the food stash commence!