Puddings and custards

Visually, puddings and custards might not be as impressive as petits fours or multi-tiered cakes, but these humble sweets are true workhorses in the kitchen. Here’s how operators take advantage of their versatility—and make them taste delicious.

At Connecticut’s Corporate Image Dining Services, housemade pastry cream and lemon curd act as bases for single-serving sweets like strawberry shortcake parfaits, éclairs or blueberry lemon curd parfaits. But puddings and custards work equally well in larger scale recipes. For a recent holiday-themed meal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, staff made trifles with chocolate-peppermint pudding and layers of chocolate cake, berries and whipped topping.

Custard-based desserts are also a favorite at Pennswood Village, a retirement community in Newtown, Pa. Pastry Chef Bobby Paylor recently updated his menu cycle with a buttermilk panna cotta, something many Pennswood residents had never tried. Sometimes, Paylor likes swapping the panna cotta’s buttermilk base for fresh fruit juices like blueberry, pomegranate or orange. “You have to watch, though, because when you use fresh fruit with natural pectin, you have to [adjust the amount of] gelatin for thickening,” he says.

The creamy, calorie-dense concoctions can also be an enticing way to get older adults with diminished appetites to take in more nourishment. A few years ago, a chef at Whittier Health Network, in Massachusetts, entered the care center’s annual cooking contest with a pair of flanlike custards made with milk, eggs, cream cheese, sugar and citrus juice that were flavored with either orange or lime zest. Both were a hit with the facility’s rehab hospital and skilled nursing patients, and the recipes made it onto Whittier’s menus. “We’re trying to get more nutrients and calories into some of these patients and we’d rather it be with food than with liquid supplements,” says Joe Stanislaw, corporate director of culinary services.

Of course, customers will only eat more of a pudding or custard that tastes good. To get that rich, silky mouthfeel, Paylor recommends baking custards in a low-heat oven with a water bath to keep them from drying out. For stove-cooked recipes, Corporate Image’s Chef Sal Cantalupo emphasizes constantly watching—and stirring—to prevent burning.