Mmmm Custard

Yesterday, when off work feeling ill, I had a real craving for custard.

These days, 'Birds Custard' has a more literal interpretation for me.

Once upon a time, I would have got out the 'Birds' noxious looking fluorescent yellow powder, but when you have 10 laying hens in your back garden, you are morally obliged to make it yourself. And it is so easy! Seriously, if you have never tried making it, I implore you to have a bash - you will be amazed at how easy it is and how much nicer the texture and the taste is.

Homemade Custard

4 egg yolks

1/4 pint of milk

1/4 pint of cream

1 heaped tbsp cornflour

50g sugar

vanilla pod/essence

(you can skip the cream and add an extra tbsp cornflour instead)

1. Put the cream and all but a dash of the milk in a saucepan with the vanilla pod (not essence if using instead - that goes in at the end) slowly bring to the boil, stirring all the time.

2. Separate yolk from white (I think you could have worked this step out without a photo, this is really just to enable me to post a gratuitous picture of my blue egg)

3. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together with the dash of milk you kept back previously.

4. Once the milk has boiled, add it to the yolks slowly and from a bit of a height (so that it has time to cool a little and not cook the egg). If you are using vanilla essence instead, now is the time to add a few drops.

5.  Lastly, slowly heat the mixture on a medium heat until it thickens - no need to boil it, and keep stirring. As soon as it is lovely and thick, remove and serve. If you cook it too long or on too high a heat, it will get lumpy, a bit like scrambled egg. Leaving it to stand for a couple of minutes (yeah, right!) will also allow it to thicken.

And there you have it. Around here the correct phrase for a steaming jug of homemade custard is, I believe, 'gurt lush'.

 Please excuse the TeSco bag in the background, it wasn't from my shopping, honest!