Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Delicious, nourishing egg custard made the traditional way, loaded with healthy fats for your creamy enjoyment as the ultimate comfort food.
Egg custard pudding was my favorite treat growing up.
I usually made a couple of bowls a week at my Grandparents’ house, who lived not far down the road.
My Grandfather, also a huge egg custard fan, and I would happily enjoy a bowl while sitting in his favorite chair, watching baseball on the rabbit-eared black and white TV in the living room.
Egg custard was basically the only thing I could cook in my middle school years, and it didn’t really get much better until I had kids!
The reason I learned how to make this one dish at my Grandparents’ house at such an early age was my nearly constant craving for eggs, which were rarely served in my own home.
I have no idea why I craved eggs so much – I don’t crave them at all anymore probably because I get so many good fats elsewhere in my diet and eggs are often on the menu.
I think these tween cravings were likely because the wholesome fats in the yolk provided such excellent nourishment at such a fast-growing and hormonally charged time of life.
In my opinion, egg custard is a great first dish to teach your children (along with scrambled eggs). When you skip the white sugar in most versions and substitute unprocessed, whole cane sugar or dark maple syrup instead, the flavor even resembles flan!
If your children are tweens or teens and still haven’t shown much interest in cooking (this is an important life skill to teach!), haul them into the kitchen and show them how to whip up a bowl of egg custard or another healthy dessert recipe that might interest them.
Be sure to serve each bowl with a spoonful of homemade whipped cream on top.
More Homestyle Puddings to Enjoy!
While this egg custard recipe uses dairy milk, there are many ways to make nondairy pudding if you prefer. Here are some alternative recipes to consider.
Classic Egg Custard Recipe
An easy, traditional recipe for egg custard pudding that will delight both young and old with its rich flavor and easy digestibility.
Ingredients
- 6 eggs preferably pastured or free range
- 3 cups whole milk preferably grassfed
- 1/2 cup maple syrup preferably dark or Grade B
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- ground nutmeg optional
Instructions
-
Crack eggs into a medium-sized, oven safe glass bowl (I use this one) and whip until just blended.
-
Add sea salt and vanilla and mix well. Blend in maple syrup and whole milk with a whisk.
-
Bake egg custard in the same mixing bowl at 400 °F/204 °C for 45-50 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned on top, and a knife inserted in the center of the bowl comes out clean.
-
Remove from the oven and sprinkle the optional nutmeg on top.
-
Egg custard is delicious served warm! After the bowl is cooled, refrigerate leftovers for up to 4-5 days.
Recipe Notes
Goat or cow milk both work well in this recipe.
If you wish to use duck eggs instead of chicken eggs, use 4 instead of 6 eggs. Duck eggs are quite a bit larger than chicken eggs.
Is this recipe safe to feed to a 10 month old baby?
Just made it – followed exactly your recipe – but it turned out to be a giant bowl of sweet scrambled eggs. It separated a little and is jiggly like gelatin. 🙁 I feel like I wasted a ton of delicious eggs and milk!
Although other commentors offer other suggestions to fix this problem, I solved it simply by decreasing the amount of maple syrup slightly, since we seemed to have syrup on the bottom of the bowl.
For me it was then not quite sweet enough, so I added some solid sweetener (natural sugar) to compensate. That’s getting into the realm of everyone’s preferences, though!
I have made this with my homemade raw milk kefir. I don’t let my kefir go to where it tastes real tangy. Just to the point where it has thickened, 18 to 36hrs. depending on season.
Made it last night with a can of whole coconut milk (not the lite) and filled the can with 2/3 filtered water, 1/2 c. honey. Baked at 350 for about an hour+. Sure, it was watery on the bottom (which by the way tastes yummy), but so delicious.
Have made it with almond milk also. One doesn’t have to buy boxed almond milk as it is so easy peasy to make. Take an small handful of almonds (mine are soaked and dehydrated – but u don’t have to do that) and throw in ur blender (mine is a VitaMix) with a cup to 2 c. of water. Turn on high. Done. Its your choice whether u want to strain (very fine mesh strainer or nut bag) out the nut pulp. I have used it both ways – more calories, richer taste with it in. Can do the same with hemp seeds or sunflower seeds. too. I use those sometimes over my chia, oats, grated apple, almonds, cinnamon, coconut shreds combined. That or kefir.
Love the idea of leaving the nut pulp in the milk! Extra flavor and (for me) extra calories is good.
Why is this recipe okay to bake without using a pan of water but your Thai Egg Custard recipe says to use the pan of water? I’m hoping to make a double portion of the Thai recipe and don’t want to have to do the pan of water.
Thanks! 🙂
Hello,
This custard looks so yummy, and it is. 😉 I made this today, but noticed that there was, I assume allot of, whey (clear liquid) on the bottom of the pan. Can I use this, or is whey only good when it isn’t baked?
Thanks,
Karen
PS. If I can use it, can I use it as usual whey out are there only certain things baked whey can be used for? If so, can you share recipes? 😉
Thanks again
You can’t use it like you can raw liquid whey. Just enjoy it along with the custard. It’s yummy!
Just made it with soured milk. Yum!! Cooked it hot in a Le Creuset pot & did not separate. But i threw it in the KitchenMaid mixer beforehand since I had forgotten to whip the eggs. I think it probably works best if mixed in a blender or mixer before being put in the pot to cook.
So glad to have a new way to eat eggs, which are generally not my favorite.
This is the best and easiest custard I’ve ever made. I made it for hubby who is sick, but he doesn’t like custard consistency…which works well for me because now it’s all mine! I can’t wait to fix this for my grandsons.
I had a little bit of what was definitely cooked egg on the top and it was a bit liquidy. I think that mixing the egg and milk better…more of a ‘whipping’ as the recipe instructs than I did this time…will fix that problem. I don’t mind the liquid as it is sooo good.
without wanting to be “attacked” for consuming almond milk…
Could this be substituted in for the milk? I do not currently have coconut milk, nor can I afford raw milk.
thanks!
I’ve done it, and I think it tastes great with almond milk.
What’s the point of using RAW milk if you’re to cook it dead anyway. Just use already dead milk
Because pasteurized milk is also homogenized (damages the cholesterol and makes it a hazard to the heart) and pasteurization is more violent and damaging to milk than the cooking process in a kitchen.