Baked custard is a classic and comforting dessert that is perfectly suited for summertime. With a silky, chilled filling and a crisp, toothsome crumb base, egg custard is an elegant but deceptively simple recipe.
That’s right: Even though baked custard might sound like a fancy dish straight out of “Bridgerton” or “Downton Abbey,” the dish (also known as custard tarts) can easily be made even by novice chefs at home.
Best of all, baked custards only require a few simple ingredients. To make a classic egg custard, you only need eggs, butter, sugar, vanilla, flour, and nutmeg. You will also need milk, but you have options here. For example, this recipe for Homemade Baked Egg Custard from Allrecipes calls for regular milk, but you can also use sweetened condensed milk (as The Southern Lady Cooks does) or evaporated milk (as Nestle recommends for its recipe).
To make the baked egg custard from Marcea on Allrecipes, you first need to make your dough. Using butter, sugar, flour, and an egg, mix your pastry dough and then roll it out onto your work surface. You can roll the pastry to the size of a standard 9-inch pie dish or you can make individual egg custards in oven-safe ramekins. (If you are baking the latter, roll out your dough and then use a jam jar or a circle-shaped cookie cutter to expertly cut your dough to the size of your baking ramekins).
To prevent your custard bottom from getting soggy, many baking experts advise that you first “blind blake” your crust. This means you bake your crust for 15-20 minutes before putting your filling in. This helps the crust firm up and not get overly soggy when you put your wet ingredients inside of the pie. For mini pies, reduce the time to 10-12 minutes.
Next, add in your egg custard filling and bake for about 45 minutes, until the egg custard is firm and only ever-so-slightly jiggly. Then, pop in the fridge and let your egg custard cool for at least an hour.
Find the full instructions for homemade baked egg custard from Allrecipes here.
You can serve your egg custard warm or chilled. Once you perfect your egg custard technique, try other variations like Baked Lemon Custard from the North Carolina Egg Association or Maple Custard from Martha Stewart.
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