Dairy-Free Egg Custard

Dairy-Free Egg Custard

My mother was a lover of all things pudding and custard. As a child, home-made puddings from tapioca to banana cream and rich chocolate pudding to honey egg custard were made often. They made a great breakfast, snack, or even dessert. She would double or triple batch the recipe, filling the fridge with their creamy goodness, and a quick-on-the-go healthy snack for all of us munchkins. Fresh baked custards were always worth pausing our play- whether it was riding bikes, or wading in the creek to run back to the house for a quick snack!

My family was not alone in their love of custard. Custards were a very popular food during the middle ages and have stayed so, clear to modern time. Cream custards were the first type documented, starting in the late 1500’s. Set custards took over the spotlight in the 1600’s. With hundreds of recipes ranging from savory to sweet, there is no doubt about the timeless appeal of this centuries’ old dish!

Over the years, custards and puddings have become both a comfort food for us, as well as a practical food in times of sickness or injuries. We started our journey to find a simple and delicious custard for a family member with severe dairy issues. For kids and adults with dairy allergies or intolerance, finding any type of pudding can be difficult. Let alone a deliciously simply, inexpensive and healthy combo destined to become a family favorite! Another thing I love about making custard is with a “set custard” the oven does most of the work! No slaving over a pot, stirring until your arm feels like it’s falling off. That’s an all-around win in my household!

I came up with two recipes that met my requirements for simple, nutritious, and delicious. The first is super simple with only two ingredients! The second is a dairy-free version of my mother’s favorite Honey-Egg Custard. We tried several dairy free “milks”. Both cashew and almond milk passed the custard tasting tests. We did not test soy milk because of extensive soy allergies present in our little volunteer taste-testers. Coconut milk did make decent looking custard, but no one on our tasting panel liked the taste. It has a bland, slightly bitter taste with an odd coconut after-taste. The coconut smell was much stronger than the taste and reminiscent of the coconut after-sunburn lotion my mother used.

Being a frequent reader of labels, I have noticed several changes to the ingredients and proportions of items in almond milk over the last several years. These changes affect how the milk works in recipes.

I tried two different brands (one national and one store branded) of 80 calorie vanilla almond milk and got different results on the finished custard. The ingredient lists were virtually identical. (They only differed by one item.) So I started investigating the label further and noticed a difference in the proportions of ingredients used. One claimed to have twice the percentage of daily dietary fiber as the other one did. Almond milks with higher dietary fiber make thicker custard. This is because the fiber on the label is coming from the gums used to thicken the milk. (These gums have a long history of being used to add fiber to the diets of people with problems swallowing, chewing, etc. They also are potential triggers for those with legume allergies.) This makes for a simple equation, the more thickener in the milk, the thicker the final product. Alternatively, you can add more eggs to make thicker custard, but it also makes a richer pudding. My family preferred the thicker custard with the lighter taste. This was produced by the lower costing and thicker super-market brand. But just because these two almond milks both have short ingredient list of natural items, don’t assume all national or store brands are alike. Another local grocery offers a store brand with a long list of questionable ingredients that I am not comfortable purchasing and therefore did not test.

Unlike a pudding that is cooked over direct heat, this custard is baked in a water bath called a bain-marie. Custard is delicate. It is easy to curdle, crack or break. The water gently cushions the custard and prevents overcooking. The temperature of water cannot rise beyond 212 degrees F. (after that point it evaporates instead) so the water bath provides a consistently even and low temperature for baking, while thoroughly cooking the eggs and setting up your custard. This form of water bath is also used in making traditional cheesecake as well as crème brulée and other dishes of this nature.

Because the custard is thickened by the egg proteins, for thicker custard you add more eggs not increase cooking time or use higher heat. A true traditional custard is never egg free. Dishes primarily thickened with egg proteins, set well below 212 degrees F. You must protect those proteins from the high heat of the oven otherwise they’ll overcook, tighten or shrink causing your custard to crack or separate into curdled egg and liquid or worse yet—become rubbery. The water bath insulates the custard from the direct heat of the oven. Without the water bath the outside of a large custard would overcook well before the center was close to being done. Direct heat will take a small unprotected custard from cooked to cracked in less than one minute. With the water bath, you have a larger window of time to catch the custard at the perfect degree of perfection.

Ingredients for Super Simply Dairy-Free Egg Custard:
3 Cups 80 Calorie Vanilla Almond Milk
4 eggs

Ingredients for Dairy-Free Honey Egg Custard:
3 cups 25 calorie unsweetened Cashew Milk (or 30 calorie unsweetened original Almond Milk)
1/4 cup honey
4 eggs
1 1/2 teas pure vanilla (not Mexican vanilla or imitation vanilla)
1/2 teas almond extract (optional)

Cinnamon or Nutmeg (optional)

For those without dairy allergies, the Honey-Egg Custard can also be made with standard whole milk.

Start by getting a tea kettle of water boiling. The bain-marie is made with boiling water. Wanting to streamline the process, I wondered if heating the water was an unnecessary step, so I experimented with both cold tap water and boiling water. The boiling water produced a more delicate texture and a fuller flavor. The cold water made a tougher texture, coarser flavor and added an additional 20 minutes of baking time. The difference was definitely worth the work of heating the water.

In a medium sized bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk.

If making Honey-Egg Custard, whisk in honey and flavorings.

Add milk and whisk until well mixed. Set aside.

Place six 6-8oz Ramekins, short half-pint jam jars, or oven safe cups in a 13x9x2 in baking pan.

Grab your custard mix and give it one final stir to reincorporate anything that might have settled. Use a ladle or measuring cup to pour into your ramekins, jars, or oven safe cups, dividing evenly.

Take out any racks above the middle level in your oven, this helps to provide access to the cups without having to extend the rack. Place the pan on your oven rack, this makes it so you do not have to try moving it once the pan is full of boiling liquid. Moving the rack with a tray of liquid filled cups is best avoided.

For added creativity you can sprinkle a little cinnamon or nutmeg on the tops, if you want to add a little added flavor and appeal to your custard.

Add the boiling water to your 13x9x2 in pan filling it up to about a depth of 1inch and halfway up your filled ramekins, jars, or custard cups.

Bake at 325* for around 40min. or until a knife inserted into near center of your custard comes out clean. The custard will be very watery still, but will thicken as it cools. I normally leave it in the oven till it cools down for a safer option and to prevent mishaps.

Serve warm, at room-temperature or chilled. Which is best? That depends on which family member you ask. So why not try them all!

I like to make mine in short half-pint jam/jelly jars for the added convenience in the fridge as well as lunches on the go. Just throw a lid on and your good to go!

This whole batch magically disappeared at my house before they even got down to room temp! So feel free to double or triple the recipe.

Live healthy and happy, The Homesteading Hen