Vanilla Bean Custard Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 300 degrees. Place an oven rack one-third of the way up from the bottom. Choose a small roasting pan large enough to hold four 6-ounce custard cups, and fill it with enough water to go halfway up the sides of cups. Place pan without cups in the oven. Meanwhile, combine cream, milk, and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan; bring to boil.
• Whisk together the yolks and sugar in a medium bowl until light and fluffy. Slowly whisk in the hot milk until completely combined, then pour into custard cups, and place them in the pan of hot water. Bake on the lower shelf until the custard has set and is no longer liquid when lightly touched in the center, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove pan from the oven, remove custard cups from the water, and place on a wire rack to cool. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Steps:

• For the pears: Remove a large strip of peel from the lemon and set aside. Squeeze the juice of the lemon into a medium bowl filled with water. Peel, halve and core the pears, adding the pears to the lemon water as you work (this will prevent them from browning).
• Combine the wine, sugar, vanilla, cloves, cinnamon stick and reserved lemon peel in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and stir until the sugar dissolves.
• Remove the pears from the lemon water and add to the wine mixture. Boil the pears until tender, 8 to 10 minutes on each side. Remove the pears from the poaching liquid to a wire rack to cool. If desired, continue to boil the poaching liquid until syrupy, about 10 minutes.
• For the vanilla bean custard sauce: Combine the cream and milk in a medium saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add to the cream mixture along with the scraped bean. Place over medium heat until bubbles form around the edges, then remove from the heat and remove the vanilla bean.
• Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until combined. Gradually add a little of the hot cream mixture, whisking constantly until combined. Gradually add the remaining cream, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the saucepan. Cook over low heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon, about 6 minutes. Remove the custard from the saucepan and cool slightly.
• To serve, spoon some of the custard sauce onto serving plates and top each with a pear half. Dollop with whipped cream and sprinkle with candied pecans, if desired.

Steps:

• Make the pastry by sifting the flours and salt together in a mixing bowl. Add in the seeds, and husks.
• Cut-in half of the shortening with a fork or pastry blender until you have pea-sized pieces. Cut-in the remaining half.
• Add in the water, just a tablespoon at a time, and gently mix until blended. Don't over mix, but do get it nice and moist.
• Roll the dough out onto a floured surface or floured pastry mat. Cut into strips, place on a baking sheet and bake at 415 / 200 for about 10 minutes or until just starting to turn golden.
• Meanwhile start the pudding.
• In a small bowl, mix the egg yolks up with a fork and set to the side.
• In a medium saucepan mix the cornstarch, salt. Slice the vanilla bean lengthwise, and add it and the milk and begin heating over medium heat, stirring constantly.
• Once the mixture reaches a boil, let it boil for one minute.
• Then slowly add at least half of the mixture to yolks while whisking, being careful not to scramble the eggs. Carefully add it back into the pot and boil for one minute longer. At this point, if you didn't use a vanilla bean add in the vanilla extract.
• Allow pudding to cool for a few minutes, stirring so as not to get pudding skin. Add the bananas in and serve warm or refrigerate if you prefer to serve cold.
• Serve with the strips of pastry crisscrossed at the back and top with whipped cream.