You guys asked for it, so here is my recipe for Coconut Milk Custard! Custard is one of my favourite desserts and it’s really so easy to make. The great thing about this version of custard, is that it is suitable for those who are sensitive to dairy milk/choose not to consume milk and coconut-lovers will love it! This custard is made with real eggs yolks making it rich in protein, lecithin and choline (named an essential nutrient by the Institute of Medicine, in 1998). It also has the goodness of lauric acid in the coconut milk itself.

Thick, delicious & rich coconut milk custard: Who knew something so delicious could also be so good for you?

Coconut Milk Custard

Ingredients:

  •  400ml coconut milk (full fat) (Nb: If you can’t find full fat coconut milk, you can use low fat coconut milk & add a teaspoon or so of coconut oil or coconut butter into the milk to melt together, in step 1).
  • 3 egg yolks (you can keep the egg whites for other culinary creations)
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract or tsp. of vanilla bean paste
  • Sweetener of your choice, to taste (I used a few tsp. of honey)
  • Fresh fruit, to serve
How to:
  1. In a double boiler (a.k.a a metal or glass bowl over a smaller saucepan/pot of a few cm of simmering water) pour in the coconut milk. Heat on low until it melts and gets quite warm. Add the vanilla extract and the sweetener of your choice and stir to dissolve. Then turn off the heat.
  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with a whisk.
  3. Now temper the egg yolks: 1 tablespoon at a time, add the hot coconut milk (into the separate bowl containing the egg yolks) while whisking the egg yolks. Continue adding the coconut milk and whisking the mixture vigorously (otherwise the eggs will curdle).
  4. Once all the milk has been mixed into the egg yolks, pour it back into the bowl that you used to heat the milk. Place the bowl back over the saucepan.  Turn the heat on to very low.
  5. Now whisk the the custard mixture, making sure to whisk the bottom of the bowl (keeping the stove top heat on low at all times).  You will need to whisk it until the custard begins to to thicken and coats the back of a spoon or you can whisk it further until it thickens to the texture of thick cream. it can take about 25-30 mins for it to really thicken. It might not seem like it is thickening but it just takes a bit of time and constant whisking and it will become really deliciously thick! After it has gotten to the consistency that you like, strain it through a fine mesh strainer to discard any proteins that have coagulated (this also makes it really smooth).
  6. Once it has thickened serve with fresh fruit of your choice (or with any other dessert that needs custard to go with it!). Enjoy!
Recipe update 27/11/12: If you would like to speed up the process of the custard thickening up, you may like to try using organic corn flour, kuzu or agar-agar to create a thicken custard.

And if you don’t get what I mean at a particular step, please let me know and I can explain further!