This custard recipe uses simple ingredients and a no-frill method to make the perfect batch of belly-warming baked custard.
Every home baker needs a go-to baked custard recipe in their back pocket. It’s the perfect dessert to whip up on a rainy day, when a loved one is sick or when you’re craving a dessert but have almost no ingredients in the house. Homemade custard is warm, creamy, cozy and so soul-affirming that it’s basically the dessert equivalent of chicken noodle soup.
But how do you make custard? We’ll show you that it is really quite simple. Once you master this recipe for custard, you’ll open a whole new door to tons of delicious custard recipes. A blackberry and creamy corn custard is a must in the summertime, while our pumpkin spice custard is autumn in a ramekin.
What is custard?
Custard is a mixture of milk, sugar, eggs and flavorings that are cooked together to create a thick, homogenous, saucelike dessert. You can enjoy homemade custard as a sauce, or you can pour the custard into a baking pan and bake it with a water bath to set the dessert, which is how creme brulee and caramel flan are made!
Custard Ingredients
Whole milk: Whole milk has the perfect fat-to-water ratio to make a baked homemade custard. We don’t recommend substituting another type of milk or nondairy milk.
Eggs: You’ll need four large eggs for this custard recipe. There’s no need to bring them to room temperature as so many dessert recipes require, and you don’t need to separate the egg yolks from the egg whites as usually called for in a recipe for custard.
Sugar: Granulated sugar sweetens the custard ingredients. We don’t recommend swapping in brown sugar, as brown sugar will discolor the homemade custard.
Vanilla extract: Since so few flavors are prominent in a custard recipe, it’s important to use one of the best vanilla extract brands from the store for maximum flavor potential. Honestly, I prefer using vanilla paste in my custard-based recipes. The vanilla bean flecks are gorgeous and act like super-charged pops of vanilla flavor.
Ground nutmeg: While you can certainly use pre-ground nutmeg, I highly recommend grating nutmeg fresh. The taste is so much more prominent that this simple swap will make a huge difference in the final flavor of your custard.
Directions
Step 1: Heat the milk
Preheat the oven to 350°F. In a small saucepan, heat the milk until bubbles form around the sides of the pan. Promptly remove the saucepan from the heat.
Editor’s Tip: Do not let the milk come to a boil. Milk foams a lot when it boils and will most likely boil over and out of your saucepan.
