I think most people, when thinking of custard, think of making it with custard powder for pouring onto a dessert or for trifle or something, but this recipe makes the custard itself the hero.
My confession for the day is that I actually had to make this recipe twice. For some reason the first time I made it my brain didn’t pick up the fact it needed to be cooked in a water bath! I swear I read the recipe a heap of times and never read that lol, so when the first attempt came out of the oven it was basically like a quiche filling – very eggy and firm. 
I reread the recipe and finally saw the one direction I had been ignoring; “Set pie plate in a shallow pan of water.” Honestly, I’m a twit.
The water bath helps to keep the custard from curdling or cracking. The water bath insulates the custard from direct heat because the water can only heat to boiling point unlike the air in the oven. Basically when I cooked the custard the first time it cooked too quickly from the outside in which caused it to overcook, curdle and gave it the eggy taste.
Thankfully the recipe is super quick and easy to assemble so it wasn’t really a huge deal, although you do need to bake the custard for an hour.
The second attempt was a success. Using the water bath resulted in a silky smooth custard that was really lovely. It was definitely worth the effort and the great thing is you can eat it either hot or cold so it’s a dessert you can make in advance if you need to. The recipe can be found on page 213 and is definitely worth a go 🙂
Until next time. Happy cooking! 🙂