Custard Pudding

It wasn't until recently that I felt my efforts put into setting up this blog and sharing my baking experiments have been worthwhile. It's very heart-warming to know that there are serious people reading my posts especially after my recent participations in the baking events (refer to the sidebar) organised by other bloggers. Thanks to all who have left me very encouraging comments and kind compliments. I really appreciate it. And to the organisers/founders/hosts of the respective baking events, I really salute all of you because you have certainly created a meaningful cause for people (bloggers) with passion in baking, on top and above of your time spent and efforts put into garnering those recipes from people in different places.

Coming to know these baking events sort of motivated me to carry out (at least one of) my experiments rather than immersing my time in countless drama series (my plain excuse for being lazy actually). To have the best of both worlds, I have been marking out recipes from my list that are quick and easy and here's definitely one not to be missed! ^_^

Custard Pudding

I am sharing this post to the event, Little Thumbs Up (May 2014: Milk) organised by Bake For Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House.

I am also sharing this post to the event, AlphaBakes (May 2014: Letter "E") hosted by Ros of The More than Occasional Baker and Caroline of Caroline Makes. The letter "E" represents one of the star ingredients, Eggs!

Custard Pudding
Recipe referenced and modified from: Cooking with Dog
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients Required

Caramel
4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons hot water

Custard
2 eggs
250 ml milk
5 tablespoons sugar

Unsalted butter for greasing

Bakeware Used

Four 130 ml (4.4 fl oz) ramekins

Preparation Steps

1. Grease the inside surfaces of the ramekins with butter. This helps to remove the pudding from the ramekins later.

Caramel

1. Heat the sugar and one tablespoon of water in a small pot on medium heat.


2. Let the sugar mixture sit in the pot until it becomes lightly coloured. Swirl the pot to even out the sugar liquid.


3. Caramelise the sugar until mixture turns brown evenly and remove the pot from the heat.


4. Quickly add the hot water into the caramelised sugar using a long ladle. Tilt the pot away from you to avoid the splashing. Swirl the pot to even out the hot caramel. The caramel should be thick but fluid.


5. Divide and pour the hot caramel evenly into the ramekins.

Custard

1. In a mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs using a balloon whisk. Try not to let the tip of the whisk leave the bottom of the bowl to avoid creating too much foam.


2. In a small pot, heat the milk and sugar on low heat. Stir with a spatula until all sugar have dissolved.


3. Add the heated milk mixture to the beaten egg slowly while whisking the egg mixture.


4. Sieve the egg mixture with a fine mesh strainer. Scrap off the bottom of the strainer with a spatula. Remove any foam on the surface with a spoon.


5. Transfer the mixture to a measuring cup for easy pouring.


6. Divide evenly and gently fill the ramekins with the egg mixture to avoid forming bubbles.


7. Cover the ramekins with a piece of aluminium foil. The foil will help to prevent the surface of the pudding from getting dry. It will also help to steam the pudding evenly.

Steaming the pudding

1. Heat water in a pan with a kitchen towel. The water level should be enough to cover the bottom half of the ramekins.


2. Gently place the ramekins on top of the kitchen towel in the pan of hot water. The kitchen towel will help soften the heat at the bottom.


3. Put the lid on and keep the water temperature just below the boiling point. Steam the pudding for 18 to 20 minutes. Do not bring the water to a boil otherwise the smooth texture of the pudding will be lost.


4. When the steaming time is over, remove the ramekins from the pan using an oven mitten and allow it to cool.


5. When they are cooled, store them in the fridge to chill the pudding thoroughly. This is necessary for the pudding to set.

Removing the pudding

1. Scrap the sides of the ramekin with the tip of a butter knife.


2. Gently tap the ramekin on a kitchen towel and make a space around the pudding.


3. Invert the pudding on a serving plate and gently shake the ramekin to release the pudding. This must be done gently to avoid breaking the pudding. The pudding should slide out easily.


4. Serve pudding chilled.

The Dream Baker's Experiment

1. The above ingredients are from the original source recipe. I halved the original source recipe to make two puddings instead of four in my experiments because I haven't been able to convince myself into investing in those ramekins. The ramekins used were 7 oz-sized ramekins which I had "borrowed" and they were larger than the recommended size, thus resulting in the thinner layer of the pudding (as shown).
2. I added one tablespoon of hot water to the caramelised sugar as the mixture was a little thick. Again, note that I am using half the recipe.
3. I used granulated sugars, 2% reduced fat milk and a large egg which weighed approximately 56 grams (with shell on).
4. For my halved recipe, the custard mixture came to about 200 ml which was divided equally into each of the ramekins.
5. I steamed the pudding for a full 18 minutes and let the ramekins sit in the pan with lid on for another 2 minutes with the heat off just to make sure that the pudding is cooked thoroughly.
6. I chilled the puddings in the fridge for about 2 hours before removing them from the ramekins.

Simple ingredients. Easy steps. Delicious pudding. ^_^ 

Hope you enjoy!

Dare to dream.

The Dream Baker