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vanilla custard

Easy Vanilla Custard Recipe

This classic vanilla custard is silky, creamy, and incredibly simple to make! With just six ingredients and 15 minutes of cooking, you’ll have a luscious homemade custard that’s perfect served warm as a sauce or chilled as a pudding-like dessert. Use it for trifles, tarts, parfaits, or enjoy it by the spoonful!
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings: 4 servings
Course: Dessert, Sauce
Cuisine: American, British
Calories: 240

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 5 large egg yolks
  • 2 Tbsp honey (or maple syrup or sugar)
  • 2 tsp cornstarch (or arrowroot or tapioca flour)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract (or seeds of 1 vanilla bean)

Equipment

  • Medium saucepan
  • Mixing bowl
  • Whisk
  • Silicone spatula or wooden spoon
  • Fine-mesh sieve (optional)

Method
 

  1. In a medium saucepan, warm the heavy cream and whole milk over medium heat. Whisk occasionally until small bubbles form at the edges. Do not let it boil. Remove from heat.
  2. In a bowl, whisk together egg yolks, honey, cornstarch, and vanilla until smooth. While whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in about half of the warm cream mixture to temper the eggs. Pour in a very thin, steady stream to prevent curdling.
  3. Pour the tempered egg mixture back into the saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a spatula, for 1–3 minutes until the custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Do not boil.
  4. Serve warm as a sauce, or transfer to a bowl and press plastic wrap directly onto the surface. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight for a thicker, pudding-like custard.

Notes

Custard thickens as it cools—remove from heat when it is just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. For extra smooth results, strain the custard through a fine-mesh sieve before chilling.

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