Custard Creams
An insight into the Great British pudding in its various forms, Pride and Pudding by Regula Ysewijn (Murdoch Books, £30) contains over 80 recipes, using documents dating back to the 14th century. From well-known desserts like bread-and-butter pudding to the more obscure, but equally delicious snake fritters, this is a cookbook for history buffs and foodies alike.
Ingredients:
4 egg yolks 1 teaspoon orange flower water 425 ml (15 fl oz) thick (double) cream 20 g (3/4 oz) raw sugar 1 cinnamon stick
Method:
Whisk the egg yolks with the orange ower water in a large bowl. In a medium saucepan, bring the cream, sugar and cinnamon to a simmer. Remove the cinnamon stick. Pour a little of the hot cream mixture into the egg yolks and whisk thoroughly. Continue to add the hot cream in batches, whisking constantly, until you get a smooth custard.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan, put it over low heat and stir with a spatula until just thickened, ensuring the eggs don’t scramble. Remove from the heat and allow to cool in the saucepan until the custard is cold enough to scoop into glasses or teacups.
Dust some mace or nutmeg on the custards before serving.
Almond custard
To make this into an almond custard, omit the orange ower water and whisk the egg yolks. Crush 50g (1¾ oz) blanched almonds with 1 teaspoon of rosewater using a mortar and pestle and mix with the cream before bringing it to a simmer with the sugar and cinnamon. Remove from the heat, strain and mix the hot cream with the eggs as above. For a stronger marzipan avour, add a few blanched apricot kernels to the mix.