A Wednesday Recipe - Grandma Helen Barnes' Custard Pie

 

Grandma Helen Barnes' Custard Pie

Thanks to Lori Parrish Barnes Niemi (on Facebook)
for this recipe and permission to use it here

Lori said: I'm sure I wrote out this recipe card about 1964 or so.

Try this. You'll like it. It's satisfying, but not too sweet. May Grandma Barnes rest in peace. I think of her often with great affection The recipe is hers, the instructions are my addition. This recipe will definitely appear in my cookbook, as it's a classic.

3 eggs
5 Tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 cups milk, scalded
nutmeg to taste
1/4 teaspoon salt (I don't use salt)

Beat eggs slightly. Add sugar and scalded milk. I usually "temper" the eggs slightly by adding a small amount of milk to them slowly until they come up closer in temperature to the milk. That way they won't end up scrambled. Mix thoroughly. Pour into an unbaked pie shell. Sprinkle liberally with nutmeg, or to your taste. I like a lot, so I use a lot.

Bake 5 minutes at 450 degrees, then decrease heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for 30 minutes. Pie is "done" when knife inserted in the custard comes out clean.

You can also bake this custard in custard cups. Spray them first with Pam. Set them into a pan and fill them about half-way up with custard mixture. Carry the pan to the oven and set it on the rack (to avoid spilling). Fill the cups to within about 1 inch of the top and remember to sprinkle on the nutmeg. Then fill the pan with water until the custard cups are immersed about half-way up. This is known as a bain marie....a fancy cooking term for cooking custard and other foods in a water bath. Bake as for pie above. When custard tests done, carefully remove from oven and let custard cool in the bain marie.


"May each of us have a Homeplace to hold onto, if only in our minds."

Bill ;-)