Custard, the key to the door; to ice cream and more
Custard is one of those things we should mark down as an early and vital lesson in learning to cook, leading as it does to so many wonders at the end of the meal. What would a Christmas pudding be without a custard sauce? How would you sink into profiteroles without pastry cream? And ice cream just ain’t ice cream without custard as its base.
Not so many years ago, when I was an ankle-biter and the big sisters were learning how to cook, I took part in an ice cream tasting. This was ice cream made without custard, held together with gelatine and frozen in the ice-block trays so important to the new electric fridge. The ice cream was icy, filled with bubbles of gelatine which had set awry, and tasted like nothing at all. I, who then and now would eat ice cream in a blizzard, would not even touch it.
It was not because of the trays. It was the base — no custard, no ice cream. I know now you can make pretty good ice cream in ice-block trays if you use common sense. Decide early that it’s not going to be as good as that from a churn, and it will still have its place at table. The secret is that you make it for consumption not only for use on the same day, but almost within the hour — well before the mix is frozen solid. For example, if you want to show people how smart you are at 10.00 p.m., throw your mix into the freezer at 7.30 p.m. It won’t be perfeet, but the flavour will be wonderful, and the mix left melted on the plate will be just the same as melted perfect ice cream.
A basic custard
2 cups milk (or one each of milk and cream for a richer custard)
1 vanilla bean
75g caster sugar
4 egg yolks
1
Pour the milk-cream into a heavy-based saucepan. Split the vanilla bean down its length and scrape the fine seeds into the milk, with the pod as well. Add half the sugar and bring to the boil, stirring so all the sugar dissolves cleanly.
2
The next step is best done with an electric whisk or a Kenwood, but it is not so daunting that you wouldn’t do it with a hand whisk. Whisk the rest of the sugar through the egg yolks, until the sugar has dissolved and the mix is light, white and forms a ribbon.
3
Pour a little of the flavoured warm milk into the egg-sugar mix, whisking, so that the mixture can be easily poured. Pour egg-milk-sugar mix back into the rest of the vanilla-flavoured milk.
4
Bring back to a low heat and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the mix registers 85°C on a sugar thermometer. If you don’t have one, keep stirring until the mix noticeably thickens and forms a clean pair of lines when you rub your finger across the back of your mixing spoon.
5
When the temperature is right, you must stop cooking quickly. The best way is to pour the mix through a fine sieve into a cool bowl, whisking vigorously as you go.
For an infused custard, add mint, vanilla beans, chocolate, etc. during cooking; for a flavoured custard, add muscat, brandy, and so on after cooking.
Ice Cream
2 cups milk
2 cups cream
1 vanilla bean
150g caster sugar
4 egg yolks
1
Follow the previous steps 1–5, adding the cream with the milk. Allow the mix to cool, then refrigerate until very cold. Despite the fact that ice cream is obviously frozen, take it as a rule to cook everything before you go to the churning stage. If you have an ice cream churn, it’s just a matter of churning until just about set, then spooning into an ice- cold container. If you don’t have a churn, don’t despair, try the following method, but make sure you serve it the day it is made.
2
Pour the cold mix into flat trays in the freezer. After about an hour, remove and whisk furiously with a heavy fork, taking care not to spill any.
3
Do the same again, more gently, after another hour, then, again after another hour. Just before you serve it, take a strong spoon and fold the mix on itself, rather than beat it. Serve it just under fully set. It won’t be creamy ice cream, but it will be the next best thing.
Caramel ice cream
You must make the caramel first. Add a little water to 150g sugar, and gradually bring the mix to the boil. Keep cooking on a gentle heat until the mixture bubbles and then turns to a caramel. It should reach 160°C. Set aside in a warm place and then follow the routine for making ice cream, whisking 25g of sugar with the 4 egg yolks. Heat the milk and cream with the vanilla bean, exactly as described in the basic ice cream recipe. Add the milk-cream slowly to the caramel, taking care it does not spurt. Bring to the boil again.
Continue as for vanilla ice cream.
Caramel ice cream is particularly delicious when churned with praline — almonds set in caramel — and then broken into tiny pieces.
To do this, cook some sugar to a caramel. Add 100g chopped almonds and mix through. Pour the caramel-almond mix onto greased metal tray. Allow to cool. Break up and chop or whizz into small pieces. Store in an airtight container.
Chocolate ice cream
Make the basic custard, adding 100g rich, dark . chocolate in small chunks when the custard has reached the correct temperature. Whisk the chocolate through the warm custard, until it melts and the mix has turned a rich brown colour. Churn in the usual way.
Bavarois
Add 6 leaves of leaf gelatine (don’t use the grains — you can taste them) and your flavouring after step 5 of the basic custard recipe, and while the mixture is still warm. Allow to cool until almost set. Fold in 2 cups of whipped cream — whipped to achieve the same consistency as the almost set custard — when the gelatine has almost done its job. The custard (with the gelatine added) and the cream should have the same consistency. Mould and refrigerate. Unmould, to present in triumph.
Pastry cream
Follow the basic custard n recipe, adding 40g sifted flour after step 2. And instead of stopping the cooking when the mix reaches 85°C, bring to the boil, stirring furiously for a minute. Don’t let it stick and don’t be a wimp about stirring. When cooked, force through a sieve and allow to cool. If you wish to make a chocolate custard, add your chocolate when you take the pan off the heat, and beat it into the mixture.
Fruit soup
There’s another, very simple dessert to put together with custard. You just make the custard, whizz a fruit puree through the custard, and serve it very cold with another type of stewed fruit.
1
Put a bowl of very cold custard and a similar amount of stewed apricot puree into the processor, and puree quickly. It doesn’t matter if there are streaks of this and that. Place in the coldest part of the refrigerator for several hours.
2
Place some stewed blood plums, syrup strained, in a cold bowl and pour the custard over the top. Drizzle with the syrup kept aside from the plums.
WINE: One day, try some good old Rutherglen muscat with ice cream. Even better, put it in the fridge for a few days, then use it as topping — it will be gluggy and rich and wonderful.
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