How to prepare a Colombian custard?

How to prepare a Colombian custard?

on 12 December, 2022 | No Comments

How to prepare a Colombian custard?

Christmas is the perfect time to enjoy the unique Colombian traditions of December, such as decorating the tree, praying the novenas, outings to see lights and family dinners. All these traditions are accompanied by typical dishes that are inevitable, which make Christmas a month for which it is awaited with great emotion.

Currently, there are many special recipes to celebrate in this month, such as fritters, tamale, suckling pig, Christmas bread, wine with cookies, among others, however, they are preparations that can be enjoyed throughout the year without any problem. There is only one recipe that is eaten exclusively at Christmas and rarely in other months, and that is Custard.

What is custard?

Custard is a Colombian dessert, which comes from Spanish flour strains, being familiar from the white delicacy and arequipe. It has an intense milk flavor, soft texture, dense and shaped like a cold cake, very similar to that of a flan. In its preparation, you can give it your personal touch with cinnamon or coconut and when serving it you can give varied options of toppings to your customers so that they choose the one they like the most. The most traditional accompaniments are: blackberry sweet, condensed milk and chocolate sauce.

What is the difference between custard and Flan?

Although they look like similar desserts in terms of ingredients and appearance, they are completely different. The flan is a gelatinous and creamy dessert, made with milk, sugar and egg, which has a preparation in an oven or water bath.

On the other hand, custard is a cream based on milk, egg, sugar and cornstarch so that it is completely thick. Its way of cooking is over low heat and without stopping to turn with a wide ladle, until achieving the desired consistency.

2 options to prepare a Colombian custard.

How to prepare it?

There are two ways to prepare custard, this varies according to the person who is going to prepare it, to the ease and practicality that it requires at the time of preparation.

Option 1: Natilla from scratch

Here you are going to prepare the custard from scratch, following this recipe you can give it your personal touch according to the amount of ingredients (non-fundamental) that you want to incorporate or eliminate.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

  1. Put in a pot over medium-high heat 4 cups of milk and cinnamon to taste, add sugar and stir with a wooden spoon until dissolved.
  2. In another bowl mix a cup of milk and cornstarch and then stir well so that there are no lumps.
  3. When the pot mixture boils, lower it to medium heat and leave it for 5 minutes for the cinnamon to aromatize the mixture, then remove the chips.
  4. Stir the cornstarch mixture dissolved in milk again and add it to the preparation. Next, add the grated coconut and a tablespoon of butter.
  5. Cook over medium-low heat, until thick consistency. Then, mix with a wooden spoon for about 6 minutes, until it starts to thicken. It is important that you do not stop stirring so that you do not burn or smoke the preparation until you reach the desired point.
  6. When the spoon is passed through the bottom and the mark remains, the consistency is correct.
  7. Pour the mixture into a glass refractory and let cool for 40 minutes at room temperature.
  8. Serve and add the toppings you want: Cinnamon, coconut, cheese or jam. A good option is to leave the toppings served on individual plates so that the diner is served to their liking.

Option 2: Colombian Natilla Recipe

This is a simpler and faster option, in general it is the most used option at Christmas by restaurants since it is a balanced premix of ingredients required to prepare custard, which allows you to better control the final result you want for each preparation.

Ingredients:

Note: Custard is adapted to the amounts of (more or less) milk used in the recipe. The texture of the final product will depend on the preferences of each chef.

Recipe to make Colombian custard:

  1. In a liter of milk, dissolve the entire amount of the packaging of Natilla colmaíz, add the cinnamon chips or cinnamon powder if desired, mix until a homogeneous mixture is obtained.
  2. In a separate pot, heat two liters of milk and add the previously dissolved custard mixture, and shake constantly.
  3. Once it begins to thicken, reduce the temperature and shake for about 10 minutes.
  4. When you get the desired consistency, transfer the custard into a mold or refractory, do not forget to remove the cinnamon chips in this step. And let cool for 40 minutes at room temperature.
  5. Serve and add the toppings you want.

Custard is the perfect dessert for these festivities, with these recipes, you can prepare it and give it your personal touch, to be the sensation in your diners this Christmas.

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