Today, I'm going to make custard pudding. I think I might add this one to my
notebook cookbook. I started keeping it when I was young, when I first started
cooking. It was the best advice I was ever given and I always encourage my
maids to do the same.
Usually I make custard pudding with isinglass, but the grocer
in Walden didn't have any, so today I'm going to have to use gelatine.
I hope it works.
For this recipe you will need:
cream
gelatine
egg yolks
orange flower water
brandy
and blackcurrant jam.
Now to make an excellent custard. Firstly, I've taken a quarter
of the cream, heated it a little and melted the gelatine.
Now I'm going to whisk some eggs.
Simple sweets like this are eaten in the second course.
Lord and Lady Braybrooke are very fond of custard. [laughs]
In fact, I think Lord Braybrooke would eat it with everything!
Now these are well whisked, I'm going to add the rest of the cold cream.
And now the warm cream.
And now to make this thicken, I need to put it over a low heat.
You need to heat it in order to thicken it
but you must be careful not to curdle it.
Now the custard is thoroughly cool, I can add the brandy
and a little orange flower water.
It's quite an old-fashioned flavour - and scent. I'm only going to use a
little because it can be quite overpowering
and I wouldn't want to cheapen it.
It's now time to put the custard into the mould. I've already lined
it with almond oil, so all I need to do is to pour the custard in.
Ooh, very good.
I'm now going to put it in the icebox.
Now my custard is set it's time to de-mould it.
I've heated up a little blackcurrant jam
with some port and ginger wine and put it through a sieve.
I'm now going to pour it just around the side of the custard.
I must make sure it's not too hot... I don't want it to melt the custard.
And there we have it - my custard pudding!