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Coffee Custard
2 cups milk 2 tablespoons ground coffee 3 eggs 1/4 cup sugar 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon vanilla Scald milk with coffee, and strain. Beat eggs slightly; add sugar, salt, vanilla, and milk. Strain into buttered individual moulds, set in pan of hot water, and bake until firm.
A plain baked custard flavoured by infusing ground coffee directly into the scalded milk. The recipe gives neither temperature nor time, both of which matter more here than the ingredient list.
- Oven temperatureThe original gives no heat setting; around 325F suits a baked custard, since a much hotter oven curdles the edges before the centre firms.
- The water bath is the hingePour hot water into the pan to come halfway up the moulds and keep it there. Without it the sides overcook and weep; a folded towel in the bottom of the pan stops the moulds rattling and insulates the base.
- TimingIndividual moulds of this size take roughly 30 to 40 minutes. Pull them when the custard is set at the rim and still trembles in a circle the size of a coin at the centre; it finishes firming as it cools.
- CoffeeTwo tablespoons of ground coffee steeped in scalded milk gives a mild flavour, closer to a coffee-tinted custard than to a mocha. Use a medium or coarse grind and let it sit off the heat five to ten minutes before straining, or the fine sediment will pass through.
- Straining twiceStrain once to remove the grounds and again after the eggs are added, as the recipe itself directs. The second pass catches chalazae and any thread of egg that scrambled against the hot milk.
- TemperingThe milk should be warm rather than scalding when it meets the beaten eggs, and it should go in slowly with constant stirring. Stir rather than whisk, so you do not build a foam that bakes into a pocked surface.
- YieldTwo cups of milk and three eggs fill four to five small custard cups or ramekins. The recipe does not say how they were served; such custards were commonly eaten cold from the cup.