The Orange Custard recipe is just a slight variation of the custard I make for bread pudding. The worst part of having a craving is when you go to actually assemble your desired dish, and something is missing. Today was the epitome of disasters for a custard. Note that the first ingredient in the list is Milk. 🥛 Well, I knew there was a partial carton of milk in the fridge that was probably not the freshest. Well, I was a boy scout growing up in a military family, so i try to always be prepared. I have a secondary refrigerator that has a new gallon of milk in it. (well, at least I thought) apparently, the circuit breaker was tripped the other day and was not fixed for a couple hours. I had forgotten about that until I opened the milk to start gathering the ingredients and I noticed not only did it smell sooo ripe,🦨 it was already chunky. It seems that I am having to make a detour 🚧from my goal of Orange custard to new task of making sure that all of this milk does not go to waste..🗑️🚮 I am not made of money, 💵💰I have got to save where I can. So, for the next several hours,🕰️ I took a trip over to Analida’s Ethnic Spoon to hijack her recipe for Queso Fresco. You can find her recipe https://ethnicspoon.com/how-to-make-perfect-queso-fresco/#recipe. I highly recommend checking it out if you ever find yourself with expired milk!

Now, back to my original quest to fulfill my craving for orange custard. In fact, the more I think about this, the more I am feeling like profiteroles are in my immediate future. Please note also, since I ran into an issue or two with the ingredients, there is at least one strike-through in the ingredients.

Gear:

• Measuring Cups / Spoons https://ourgourmetgear.com/product/10-pcs-set-measuring-cup-spoon/
• Mixing Bowls – https://ourgourmetgear.com/product/glass-prep-bowls-10-piece-set/
• Sauce Pan – https://ourgourmetgear.com/product/17-piece-ultra-clad-pro-stainless-steel-cookware-set/
• Food storage container
• Citrus Juicer https://ourgourmetgear.com/product/electric-citrus-juicer/
• Silicone Spatula https://ourgourmetgear.com/product/upgrade-your-kitchen-with-voniki-nonstick-cookware-set-silicone-utensils-%f0%9f%8d%b3/
• Stand Mixer with whisk and Paddle attachments https://ourgourmetgear.com/product/stand-tilt-head-mixer/

Orange Custard Ingredients:

• 2 cups (480ml) whole milk Coconut milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
• Zest of 1 orange
• 1/4 cup (60ml) fresh orange juice
• 2 tablespoons (15g) cornstarch
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk and orange zest. Heat over medium heat until it just starts to simmer. Remove from heat and let it sit for about 10 minutes to infuse the milk with the orange flavor. Strain the milk to remove the orange zest and return it to the saucepan.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt until smooth and creamy.
3. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly to temper the eggs. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.
4. Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon, about 5-7 minutes. Do not let it boil.
5. Once the custard has thickened, remove it from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and orange juice.
6. Transfer the custard to a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap touches the surface of the custard to prevent a skin from forming.
7. Refrigerate the custard for at least 2 hours, or until chilled and set.
8. Serve the orange custard chilled, either on its own or topped with fresh berries or whipped cream, if desired.

While the custard is cooling in the refrigerator, I move on to my next step which is to bake the pastry for the profiteroles. I have a habit of not following directions exactly as I feel baking is more of a scientific art as opposed to an exact science. There is a good recipe that can be found here: Profiteroles with Custard Cream and Chocolate Sauce – G’day Soufflé (gdaysouffle.com)

Choux Pastry:

• 250 ml (1 cup) water
• 90 g (6 tbsp.) butter, cubed
• 150 g (1 cup) plain flour
• pinch salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 3-4 eggs

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 and line cookie sheet with parchment paper <Or use silicone cookie sheet>
2. Bring water and butter just to the point of boiling. Using a medium saucepan, add the butter, sugar, salt and water. Cook over medium heat until the butter has melted.
3. When the mixture comes to a boil. Immediately remove it from the heat.
4. Add the flour all at once and mix until a paste forms. Place it back on the heat until a film develops on the side of the pan. Cook the mixture about 5 minutes stirring constantly
5. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand-up mixer. Using a paddle attachment, let it run for a minute. This will release some of the heat and cool it down. As a result, it won’t cook the eggs we’re about to add. 🙂
6. Add the eggs, one by one, until the mixture falls into ribbons onto itself.
7. Transfer it to a piping bag and pipe out choux balls. Balls should be about 2″ apart.
8. <Optionally> Brush VERY lightly with egg wash. If you want a darker color on the pastry add the wash
9. Bake the pastry 10 minutes at 425 to let the exterior shell form. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 and continue to bake for 10 – 15 minutes until nice and golden brown.
10. Remove from oven and let the pastry cool on the cookie sheet. Make a small hole in the base of the pastry to ensure any excess steam escapes from the pastry.

Assembling the final product:

After the custard has chilled and the pastry has cooled,

1. Transfer the custard to piping bag fitted with a long tip for filling cupcakes.
2. Inject each pastry with enough custard that it just starts to ooze out the opening
3. Place each filled pastry on serving plate or tray or board.
4. After all of the pastries are filled and arranged on the service plate, top with a teaspoon of Nutella.

When I made my mistakes during this process, my custard did not turn out as thick as I wanted, so I got out the KitchenAid and whipped up some heavy cream till it was very stiff. I then continued to whip while slowly adding the thin custard to the whipped cream. This way, the heavy cream picked up the flavor of the custard and my new whipped cream custard was manageable for the filling.

Originally, I was going to use a chocolate sauce but by the time I got to this point, I remembered that I had to write all of this down and manage to get it posted today so necessity caused me to choose using Nutella as a topping (not a bad substitution at all).

These can either be served right away or chilled or even frozen for later use. I am going to attempt to get the couple pictures I took attached now,

Thank you and good night!