Making a Custard Light and Ethereal

[Shel_B]

Last night a friend mentioned that his wife's father, a pastry chef who worked in the middle east, made the lightest and most ethereal custard.  I like custard, but usually what I eat and what I make don't come close to being truly light and ethereal.  BTW, I'm talking about custards when made like flan or crème brûlée .

 

Recognizing, of course, that there may be different ideas about what "light and ethereal" means, let me ask how a custard may be made lighter (not necessarily low calorie or low fat), perhaps more diaphanous in mouth feel.

 

Would putting more air into the custard help?  How about adjusting the amounts of egg, or egg white?  Maybe folding in some beaten egg white just before baking?  Thanks!

Edited July 8, 2016 by Shel_B (log)

[Deryn]

Zabaglione is, I think, essentially a 'custard' - and it is generally quite light ... and perhaps could be described as bordering on 'ethereal'. it is more about whipping air into the mix than anything else I would say. It is not baked however one might try a variation on the standard zabaglione recipe (perhaps sans alcool) and bake it like a flan and see what happens. If you are trying to make something light and airy, I would think that using a less than full fat milk would probably help .. in other words, don't use heavy cream (which I always use for crème brulee). That would probably have more effect than changing the egg component.

Edited July 8, 2016 by Deryn (log)

[paulraphael]

I think Deryn's idea would probably work. It's pretty close to a baked hollandaise sauce (minus the wine). The whipped yolks in a hollandaise are called a sabayon—the French version of zabaione / zabaglione.

 

A contemporary approach would be to use an N02 siphon. Blend the yolks, sugar, milk/cream, put into the siphon, foam into your custard cups, and cook in a water bath. I'm guessing it would maintain its foam structure.

[pastrygirl]

4 hours ago, Shel_B said:

Last night a friend mentioned that his wife's father, a pastry chef who worked in the middle east, made the lightest and most ethereal custard.

...

Would putting more air into the custard help?  How about adjusting the amounts of egg, or egg white?  Maybe folding in some beaten egg white just before baking?  Thanks!

 

 

That's not much to go on.  Is it a Middle Eastern custard that this FIL makes?  Does this friend know much about desserts, such as the difference between creme brulee and creme caramel?  And you have your baked custards, your stirred custards, and things like zabaglione/sabayon that could be considered either custard or mousse.  So I doubt we can recreate the FIL's delightful dish without more information, but yes, you can do various things to make custards in general lighter.  Use less dairy fat and more whole eggs and fewer yolks, or whip air into it in some form - either by making zabaglione or by folding in whipped cream or meringue/whipped egg whites.  The folding in would be to pastry cream or creme anglaise, and possibly further stabilized - examples are chiboust and bavarian cream.  Panna cotta can also be very light depending on how much fat and gelatin are in the recipe.

[Shel_B]

On ‎7‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 4:21 PM, Deryn said:

Zabaglione is, I think, essentially a 'custard' - and it is generally quite light ... and perhaps could be described as bordering on 'ethereal'. it is more about whipping air into the mix than anything else I would say. It is not baked however one might try a variation on the standard zabaglione recipe (perhaps sans alcool) and bake it like a flan and see what happens. If you are trying to make something light and airy, I would think that using a less than full fat milk would probably help .. in other words, don't use heavy cream (which I always use for crème brulee). That would probably have more effect than changing the egg component.

 

OK ... some things to think about here.  Thanks!

[Shel_B]

On ‎7‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 4:51 PM, paulraphael said:

I think Deryn's idea would probably work. It's pretty close to a baked hollandaise sauce (minus the wine). The whipped yolks in a hollandaise are called a sabayon—the French version of zabaione / zabaglione.

 

A contemporary approach would be to use an N02 siphon. Blend the yolks, sugar, milk/cream, put into the siphon, foam into your custard cups, and cook in a water bath. I'm guessing it would maintain its foam structure.

won't get an NO2 siphon, but the idea of adding more air is something to consider.  I suspect there's another way to do it.  Thanks!

[Shel_B]

On ‎7‎/‎8‎/‎2016 at 6:07 PM, pastrygirl said:

 

That's not much to go on.  Is it a Middle Eastern custard that this FIL makes?  Does this friend know much about desserts, such as the difference between creme brulee and creme caramel?  And you have your baked custards, your stirred custards, and things like zabaglione/sabayon that could be considered either custard or mousse.  So I doubt we can recreate the FIL's delightful dish without more information, but yes, you can do various things to make custards in general lighter.  Use less dairy fat and more whole eggs and fewer yolks, or whip air into it in some form - either by making zabaglione or by folding in whipped cream or meringue/whipped egg whites.  The folding in would be to pastry cream or creme anglaise, and possibly further stabilized - examples are chiboust and bavarian cream.  Panna cotta can also be very light depending on how much fat and gelatin are in the recipe.

 

I'm not asking to recreate FIL's dish.  Just looking for ways to lighten a custard dish like flan, crème brulee, and similar custards.  However, your suggestions are certainly worth considering and perhaps playing with.  Thanks!

[Patrick S]

If you're looking to work more air into a baked custard, my first thought would be to fold in some Italian meringue before baking. I've never tried this so I have no idea how well it would work. If you come up with something that works well for you, let me know.