Friday, March 03, 2006

Cooking With Bradley: Pumpkin Custard

With all of the hub-bub over blogjail, I completely overlooked my regularly scheduled program, Cooking with Bradley. I plan to make pumpkin custard soon, but in case I don't get photos out, you can try the recipe of my own devising. (Sorry, Mr Pudding, you'll just have to adapt the recipe to metric measurements.) In the meantime, here is a stock photo that looks remarkably akin to my finished product:



If you are interested in trying this recipe, do not, under any circumstances,
get intimidated by the water bath used for custards. If you have a lasagna sized
pan and a liquid measuring cup with a spout, it is pretty easy to give the
custards a bath without burning yourself in the process.


Pumpkin Custard

1 cup milk (with some fat in it)
1 cup cooked, pureed pumpkin (canned is easiest)
2 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon maple syrup (preferably Grade B)
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon cardamom
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
(feel free to substitute spices, but use them in small amounts)

1) Heat milk until just steaming.

2) Beat eggs, then add pumpkin, maple syrup and spices. Blend until just mixed.

3) Add heated milk slowly, stirring.

4) Add vanilla

5) Pour into four medium sized custard cups.

6) Place four cups in a lasagna sized baking dish. Do not let the cups touch the
sides of the baking dish or each other.

7) Place the baking dish with cups into the oven, preheated to 325 degrees
Fahrenheit. While the oven door is open, pour water inside the baking dish until
it comes up to the sides of the custard cups ½ way (at least). A glass measuring cup with a spout works just fine.

8) Bake 40-50 minutes. The middles of the custards should be slightly jiggly but not sloshy.

9) Cool completely and refrigerate or eat at room temperature.


Join me next week, when I will be cooking with special guest, Chef Pudding. Chef Pudding will be my sous chef, as I, Bradley the Gorilla, am always the top chef in the kitchen. Watch in amazement as Chef Pudding obeys my every command! Watch how I switch from English measures to Metric measures and back again without missing a beat while Chef Pudding frantically looks for the metric conversion charts in The Joy of Cooking. Join us in the finale, when outraged beyond belief, Chef Pudding throws a fit AND a bowlful of batter at yours truly. You won't want to miss anything on the next installment of Cooking with Bradley.

10 comments:

Yorkshire Pudding said...

No! YOU will be my sous chef and we're cooking fresh gorilla meat specially imported from Seattle with fresh peace on the side! I think I look rather dashing in that chef's hat! By the way did you like my pic of you during the Dave story? Ha! Ha!

Brad the Gorilla said...

Mr Pudding,

No no no, you will be my sous chef. It's a done deal, old chap. I'll even produce the signed documents, if you insist. Just out of curiosity, do you know how to make Yorkshire Puddings, or did you just let your mum bake them all these years? If you do make your own Yorkshire Puddings, I'll allow you to be a guest chief-chef ONCE on Cooking with Bradley. You'll need to provide photographic evidence, of course, as photos never lie.

Yorkshire Pudding said...

I feel insulted. My Yorkshire puddings are world beaters but as you are only MY sous chef, I refuse to pass any ancient secrets on to you. I am an orphan so there was nobody to teach me how to make Yorkshire puds - in the workhouse they only fed us gruel.Photos never lie ey? Oh yes, you'd know all about that with your photoshop wizardry!

Brad the Gorilla said...

Lady K: You boast! I dare you. I dare you to cook for us. Ho ho.

Mr Pudding: You poor wee lad, I had no idea that you had to eat gruel in the workhouse. I'm guessing it was thin, watery gruel, and not the delicacy it is in some parts of the world.

Liz said...

I don't even own custard cups. Now what?

John said...

I don't like custard or pumpkin.

I'll be happy to help criticize, though.


I would like to try to find a cool, hip, chef's hat, though. Something like a cross between my fedora and Pudding's chef hat.

Hazed said...

Brad, why'd you call Lady K a Ho ho? A double ho? Dang, that's cold, dude.

What can we substitute for the pumpkin? I only like pumpkin pie, but I do like certain custards.

Quit talking about food. Everyone. for the love of God. Please. Unless you feel the need to cook for me and bring it to my bedside.

Brad the Gorilla said...

Hitman J: Are you sure you don't like custard? If you like rice pudding then you like custard. I like rice pudding. Ohhh, how I like rice pudding.

Friday: You're making fun of my laugh! That hurts, you know. I'm getting a case of the sniffles.
The pumpkin custard, by the way, is my solution to the Landlady's complaints of "I love pumpkin pie but it's too fattening to eat as often as I'd like." Humbug. But there she goes: pumpkin pie without the crust or the evaporated milk ends up being pumpkin custard lite.

John said...

I don't like rice pudding, either.

sorry.

Brad the Gorilla said...

Nonny: Not owning custard cups is a big problem, a big problem indeed. I don't know what to tell you. For years, my Landlady didn't have custard cups, and I'd tell her, "You get no custard without custard cups."

Actually, I'd just make custard pie. You too can make custard pie! You just need custard and a pie shell.

Bring it on.