This week we went to the back of the book, home of the "spoon desserts," for Lemon Cup Custard. Dorie has several variations available and, while I love lemons and lemonade, lemon desserts aren't my favorite, so I decided on a vanilla bean variation of this custard.
OK, so I think that I've mentioned before that I was an extremely picky child and one of the only things that I liked to eat was scrambled eggs. I ate them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for years when I was about 3-4 years old (maybe longer, I'm not sure). And then one day, I stopped liking them. In fact, I hated eggs. I'd eaten enough eggs to last me the rest of my life and darned if I was going to eat another scrambled egg. I think that lasted until I was in college. I now like scrambled eggs, omelettes and the like, but I will admit that I can't stomach them for breakfast, I much prefer to eat them for dinner.
So, eggy things still aren't precisely my cup of tea and I'll admit that I wasn't expecting the "eggy factor" in this custard. However, that said, I think that my decision to choose vanilla bean made the eggy-ness much more pronounced. Vanilla souffles are always sort of eggy and lacking in the flavor department, in my opinion anyway, and this custard sort of had the same effect. I think that I'd have liked it so much more if I'd made the espresso cinnamon version but, unfortunately, I didn't have any cinnamon sticks lying around and I didn't want to make a special trip to get them. I knew that this wouldn't end up like creme brulee because, well because it's custard. And Dorie has a separate creme brulee recipe so I'm sure that she was looking for something else with this recipe. So, if I were to make it again I'd definitely pick a much stronger flavor for the custard. I think that the strong flavor is absolutely essential here. I made up for the lack of flavor by adding strawberries and it was sort of like vanilla strawberry custard. Sort of . . . but not really.
It's hard to get really bent out of shape about this recpe because it's really easy and it has a whopping total of 4 ingredients. There aren't a lot of dishes to get dirty, it's not super technical, and it's not time or labor intensive. The most painstaking thing that I did was to take a skewer and pop all of the little bubbles that I didn't manage to skim off of the top of the custard base. But if I'd been in a hurry I'm sure it would have been fine anyway. I thought it was fun and I can't wait to see the other really great flavor combos that all of the uber-creative TWD-ers came up with. Thanks to Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles for picking this weeks recipe!
One last note, I made this last week so it's not part of Eating Down the Fridge but I definitely think that it could be. Eggs, milk, sugar, flavor. I almost always have those things on hand!
21 comments:
Well, the custard certainly looks pretty! I'm sorry that the egginess got to you. I feel like that's a real danger with subtlely flavored custards. Either way, you got a pretty product and only 4 ingredients got used!
I love all spoon desserts and luckily I did not O.D. on eggs as a child, so your custards look quite delicious to me. Maybe you'll try another flavor, but then again, there are a couple of hundred other recipes in the book! There are a couple of really good ones coming up this month.
Nancy
I love the way it looks with the little vanilla speckles! I made the lemon and was thinking the espresso would have made it a more enjoyable dessert. Onward to next week!
Ciao ! The lemon wasn't strong at all so maybe you would have liked it !
I was nervous about the "eggy" factor, so I skipped out and made lemon cake instead. Looks pretty with the strawberry, though!
It looks wonderful.
Sorry you didn't like it! The presentation is great, and I love that you took the time to pop the bubbles individually! I would have never had the patience!
Okay, you've got to spill about how you got your vanilla beans to behave and spread out all around the top of the custard rather than cluster up in one spot. Your custard looks GREAT! I agree that this is a pretty mild-flavored dessert. It's not my favorite, but like you said, it's hard to get too bent out of shape about it because it didn't involve a huge investment of time or ingredients. And it's always fun to try new things! You did a great job, and I'm glad to hear that you are reaching a point of egg equilibrium in your life! :-)
It looks pretty with the strawberry on top...hopefully you like next week better!
Your custards look gorgeous. I loved the ease of the recipe too. Too bad you didn't like it, but at least you tried.
We didn't care for it in my house either. But it sure looks pretty. There's always next week!
Very, very nice Jessica!
I love the added touch of the vanilla bits.
I'm sorry though you didn't enjoy it as much I did!
I was also a scrambled egg kid, except I added cherries to the mix. Kids are soooo weird!!! That said,
the texture of your custard looks perfect. Sorry you didn't really care for it. Maybe the next time.
Your custard looks delicious... sorry about the eggy part.
Your pictures look great!
it looks really good. i too was a scrambled egg fanatic growing up, specifically microwaved scrambled eggs with a slice of american cheese melted on top. my mom didn't know what to do with me. :)
It's too bad you didn't like it more, but tthey look fantastic. Good luck with Eating Down the Fridge!
Ya the eggy issue was not a big hit for all the TWD this week. I do think your custard looks fabulous though!
That's a good point about how a stronger flavor might help mask the egginess. The only thing I didn't love about this was that the lemon flavor wasn't strong enough, so I think I would like a lot of other flavors.
I love vanilla bean, too bad it didn't help with the egginess of this recipe.
I did like the easiness of this recipe and the small ingredients list, too.
Very pretty pictures! I agree with you - I think I'd have liked this recipe more if I'd doubled the flavor factor.
I think you hit the nail on the head - so maybe it's not the greatest thing we've made with TWD, but it only involves 4 simple ingredients, so why not give it a try? Your custards look very nice, even if they didn't provide the oomph you were looking for.
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