Ingredients:

1 cup fresh strawberries, washed and hulled

Custard

15 ml gelatine powder

60 ml water

4x egg yolks

50 g sugar

400 ml full cream milk (keep ¾ cup separate)

100 ml fresh cream

5 ml vanilla essence (10 drops vanilla extract)

Cacao to serve

Method:

Wash the strawberries and cut them into thin slices, keep aside @ room temperature. Place the water in a shallow bowl, sprinkle the gelatine powder over the water and leave to soften for 15 minutes. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl. 

Warm 1 ¼ cup of the milk in a sauce pan. Just before boiling, remove the milk from the heat, and slowly add the warm milk little by little to the egg mixture while whisking. Pour the milk-egg mixture back into the sauce pan and stir with a spatula over low heat until the bubbles disappear and the mixture starts to thicken.

Remove from the heat and add the gelatine to the custard while stirring with a spatula. Every now and again scoop up a bit of the mixture with the spatula, and trace with your finger a line to see if the line stays, then you know it is ready. Pour the custard through a sieve to remove any bits of gelatine. Add the remaining ¾ cup of milk and cream and mix well. Place the custard over ice-water and stir until the mixture slowly thickens, as soon as the custard starts to thicken, add the strawberries.

Let the custard & strawberry mixture stand at room temperature for 1 hour to infuse. Pour into ramekins, and place in the fridge for 2-3 hours until set.

Once set, loosen the custard with a wet finger tip around the sides, slide the set custard onto a plate, and serve with cacao powder (see photo).

Comment recipe #70

I thought this set custard was going to be an easy recipe, but unfortunately not so. Fortunately, this was worth every little effort! This treat has a light, fluffy, melting texture complemented by fresh strawberry slices part of every bite. Definitely a dessert for any season, it can be served after a winter stew or in spring after a light Sunday lunch.