Recipe: Nana Brandenburg's 1-quart Custard

Nana Brandenburg's 1-quart Custard
Recipe by: Louise Brandenburg>gd:Carol Beth Hall of Sykesville, MD
Servings: 8

1 1/2 plus 4 to 1/2 cup quarts milk
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
6 rounded tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
several dashes nutmeg -- if desired
chocolate chips or butterscotch -- if desired
peanut butter chips -- if desired

Pour 1 1/2 quarts of milk in top part of a double boiler. Leave 2-inch space at the top. Heat milk.

In a bowl, mix eggs with sugar. Stir into milk. In the same bowl, mix cornstarch with enough additional milk until mixture becomes the consistency of glue.

Pour into milk mixture and stir. Keep stirring until the mixture starts to thicken. When thick, pour into a bowl, add vanilla and stir thoroughly. The custard can be served cold or reheated in the microwave.

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When the phone rings in Carol Beth Hall's home and the caller says, "Ummm, um, um..." that means one thing - a family member has just savored a warm spoonful of Nana's Custard. In this family, Louise Brandenburg's custard lives on through her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and others who maintain the endearing tradition of ringing each other up after making a bath of the velvety smooth dessert. Hall recalls racing with her sister, Barbara Leasure, to her grandmother's house after school to help make the custard. Nana Brandenburg cooked the custard in a double boiler that held 1 quart, hence the name of her recipe. Then, the flavor choices were simple - either vanilla or chocolate, which she grated over the warm custard before serving. "She would let us stir it to keep it from thickening," said Hall. "While we stirred, she got the dishes ready. I think we were actually helping, but didn't know it. When the custard started to thicken, she would take over so there weren't any lumps." Over the years, younger family members modernized the cherished custard recipe with chocolate, peanut-butter and butterscotch chips and an assortment of candy. Add any one of these to Nana Brandenburg's recipe, and you've got to pick up the phone. "Ummm."

Source & Notes: Finding comfort in treasured recipes By Suzanne White
Special To The Baltimore Sun; Originally published May 7, 2003
What is it about grandmothers' recipes? Often incomplete and scribbled on tattered scraps of paper faded by age, they have the power to evoke strong memories and feelings from generation to generation. Could it be grandmothers' treasured recipes were made with love? Hours were spent in the kitchen - a luxury women today do not have - coaxing the flavor from foods, lifting lids, stirring pots and triple checking pies in the oven. Their food was uncomplicated and straightforward. No arugula tossed in the salad, white truffle oil drizzled on the pasta or espresso whirled into the cake batter. Meats survived without peppercorn or hazelnut crusts, and vegetables never knew balsamic vinegar or goat cheese. Author Ellen Perry Berkeley has written a book about these women who have enriched our lives with their simple, wholesome and cherished recipes. In her book, At Grandmother's Table (Fairview Press, 2000), Perry describes the bond between grandmothers and granddaughters (and, we also can add grandsons) as connections that span the boundaries of time.

"Indeed, by cooking what they cooked, we are in contact again with their lessons and their values, their warmth, their courage, their comfort and their love," she said.

Serving Ideas : Serve warm. If desired add nutmeg or candy chips.

Copied by Tom Shunick - A Westminster Receptarist - May 11, 2003