Non-dairy custard

This is roughly how my Mum made custard, with some substitutions. It relies on the egg yolk for the yellow colour, so is paler than custard made with custard powder and the colour will vary depending on the egg. You can add an extra egg or yolk, however the mixture will be thicker and is more likely to curdle.

Rice milk is naturally quite sweet, so you may prefer to use less sugar. On the other hand, ready-made custards are sweeter than this recipe, so you may prefer to add a little more sugar.

Ingredients

2 cups rice milk or soy milk

2 tablespoons gluten-free cornflour

1 to 2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste

½ tsp vanilla essence

Pinch salt

1 egg

Method

1. Place most of milk into a saucepan, leaving between 50 and 100 ml in a jug large enough to hold the finished custard.
2. Heat milk in saucepan until nearly boiling.
3. Meanwhile, mix cornflour, sugar, vanilla essence and salt into milk in jug until smooth (no lumps).
4. Whisk egg into mixture in jug, then, when heated milk is nearly at the boil, add the milk in the saucepan to the jug while whisking the contents. If you don’t have a whisk, a spoon will work, although it’s a bit easier to get a smooth result with a whisk.
5. Pure mixture back into saucepan and heat gently until just simmering and thickened. Be careful not to overheat as mixture may curdle.