Custard Powder

Custard is the term used for a variety of culinary preparations based on a cooked mixture of milk or cream and egg yolk. Most common custards are used as desserts and typically include sugar and vanilla or some other flavour. Custard bases may also be used for making other savoury foods. Custards baked in pastry, custard tarts, were very popular in the Middle Ages, and are the origin of the English word 'custard': the French term ‘croustade’ originally referred to the crust of a tart, and is derived from the Italian word crostata, and ultimately the Latin crustāre.

Custard powder was created by a Birmingham chemist named Bird in 1837. His wife was allergic to eggs and he wanted to create a custard powder that did not have egg yolk. The original custard powder contained cornstarch, salt, vanilla flavouring and annato coloring, and was cooked with milk to make pudding. Custard powder with the same ingredients is still available. However, there are also instant custard powders that contain modified starch, hydrogenated vegetable oil and carboxymethyl cellulose and carrageenan thickeners instead of cornstarch.

Bakers Custard Powder comes in different flavours like Vanilla, Strawberry, Raspberry, Mango and Pineapple in 25kg, 2kg, 1kg, 500g and 100g packs.

Recipe

Ingredients:

• Bakers Custard Powder
• Milk – ½ litre
• Sugar

Preparation:

Blend two level table spoons (25gm) if Bakers Custard Powder with 3 table spoons(45ml) of milk taken from half litre of milk to form the custard paste. Add 4 level tablespoons of sugar (60g) to remaining of milk and boil it. Add the Custard paste slowly to the boiling milk stirring well for approximately 1-2 minutes.

Chill and pour over jelly, ice cream, fruits and nuts etc. as per your taste and serve