Custard

I don't know what it is about custard that makes it so appealing to me. I know that the texture often turns people away from it (like my hubby). I think it tastes like home. It is simple, yet elegant and reminds me of my grandmother and mother. In any case, it is a fairly easy thing to make and calls for very simple ingredients. I make maple custard here at home and I cook individual portions in my Pampered Chef 1 cup Prep-Bowl set. You don't need to use the syrup at all or you can use honey, coffee, chocolate sauce or even a caramel syrup. This recipe serves 6.

Maple Custard

4 eggs
1/3 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt
2 1/2 c. milk (can use half evaporated mixed w/half water, but generally I use 1%)
Freshly grated nutmeg
6 Tbsp. maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350.

Line a 9x13 glass pan with a large cloth or dishtowel and place custard cups inside.

Add one Tbsp. of syrup to the bottom of each custard cup.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt and milk. Spoon mixture into custard cups and grate nutmeg lightly over the tops. Very carefully pour boiling water into the 9x13 pan until it reaches almost the whole way up the custard cups and place it into the preheated oven.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean. Cool. Can be inverted onto plate or eaten out of cup.

Blueberry Cheese French Toast Casserole

Now that we have a green light to eat well cooked eggs for number Six (and must continually keep them in her diet), I have begun to try different french toast & egg casseroles.

My MIL brought me a bunch of blueberries and unfortunately, my children are not all that fond of them plain. They don't mind blueberry muffins, but just don't try to feed them blueberries. Don't even put them in a fruit salad because they will be picked out.

I found this recipe some time ago (probably a good 10 years ago) in a local paper and stashed it away. Since I was making french bread for our supper last evening, I doubled the recipe and made two extra loaves. I left them out to stale last evening and made up the casserole late this morning as the recipe called for it to sit in the fridge overnight.

Blueberry Cheese French Toast Casserole

1-2 loaves of day old french bread, cubed
8 eggs
1 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. real maple syrup
6 Tbsp. butter, melted
Cinnamon
1 1/2 c. blueberries, mixed with a bit of flour
8 oz. cream cheese

Grease a 9x13 pan. Add half of cubed bread on the bottom. Scatter blueberries over the top. Pinch pieces of cream cheese over the top and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon. Add remaining bread cubes on top.

In a small bowl combine eggs, milk, syrup & butter. Pour over the top of the bread mixture. Using a spatula, press down the bread to help soak up the liquid mixture. Cover with foil & place in refrigerator overnight.

Bake covered in 350 oven for about an hour.

Cook's Notes:
Ok, first off, I used foil pans sprayed with Pam.

I made two casseroles adding a bit of frozen raspberries & a few frozen chopped strawberries to the blueberries in one pan(probably closer to two cups) and straight blueberries in the other. The ones with the added raspberries & strawberries was definitely the better of the two.

I also used low fat cream cheese which probably does not "melt" as well as the full fat stuff. Once stirred around, it mixed in fine after cooking, but the casserole wasn't so pretty looking afterward.

This is NOT a sweet dish despite the addition of maple syrup. We all used a bit more syrup over the top.

It was NOT a big hit with the kids. Hubby loved it. I thought it was so-so. I may make it again for a brunch/breakfast, but I won't make it for dinner again. It was way too rich for an evening meal especially since we eat later as a rule.