Saving Birds Eye Custard Powder

We try not to use premixes. But when we do, we usually try and find a way to make them taste as gorgeous as possible.

Birds Eye custard powder is a favourite. Ever since I've been a little tyke, we've used Bird's Eye Custard Powder for pouring custard for our favourite puddings. Nothing like hot, creamy, custard to pour on Steamed Ginger Pudding or Peach Banana Crumble.

Part of the attraction of the premix powder is the speed with which you can make it. AND a fantastic plus for the home cook is that it's not as heat sensitive as making a creme anglais. Which to my mind is the most fantastic dessert sauce in the world next to a good Chocolate Ganache.

After all, push the heat a little too much and you end up with sweet scrambled eggs. Not fun.

Having said that, while I don't believe that Bird's Eye custard powder is a substitute for the real thing (creme anglais) you can get something very yummy if you follow the following tweak that I made to the standard Bird's Eye Pouring custard recipe;

Standard Birds Eye Recipe

1 cup milk
1 cup cream (makes it creamier and gives better mouthfeel)
2 tbsp Bird's Eye Custard Powder
2 to 3 Tbsp sugar

My addition
2 egg yolks
1 egg
1 tsp Vanilla extract (don't use vanilla pods for this - save them for the creme anglais)
Pinch of salt (a magical ingredient)

1. Take 3 tbsp of the milk and dissolve the sugar, custard powder
2. Whisk up the eggs and yolks to combine thoroughly
3. Bring the milk to a roiling boil
4. Mix the eggs, yolks, and the custard powder mixture together
5. What you want is to raise the temperature of the egg mixture gradually so you need to temper the eggs by slowly drizzling 2 ladlefuls (one of those soup ladles would be good) of the boiling milk into the egg mixture. (My old cooking teacher used to say "think about a little baby peeing, that's the speed you want to drizzle it in"
6. Next, pour the milky egg mixture quickly into the rest of the boiling milk and whisk VIGOROUSLY. This is VERY IMPORTANT. Make sure you hold the pot firmly and whisk it to within an inch of it's life.
7. Keep whisking for a couple of minutes then remove from the heat and continue whisking for another couple of minutes.
8. Pour it into a jug, cover with cling wrap so the wrap is sitting on the custard. This is to prevent a skin forming.
9. Serve warm.

Basically, the eggs give it an eggyness that is missing from the original and the cream makes up for that flatness that the standard recipe has, in my opinion! (Must qualify hehe)

If you feel that this recipe is too rich, by all means use milk instead of the cream and substitute an egg for both the egg yolks instead.