Mama’s Custard Sauce
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This homemade custard sauce is creamy, velvety, and tastes so good poured over your favorite dessert.
In my household, it isn’t Thanksgiving or Christmas without a thick slice of Aunt Sue’s famous pound cake drizzled with this delicious custard sauce. The combination of the sweet custard and the cake is absolutely sublime and I just can’t imagine a holiday without it.
Fortunately, I bet you have the six ingredients needed to make this custard sauce sitting in your kitchen right now: milk, salt, sugar, flour, eggs, and vanilla. Now, it’s pretty quick and easy to make, you just have to be patient. But believe me, this creamy and velvety custard is totally worth it!
While I adore serving this with my Aunt Sue’s pound cake, this homemade custard sauce can accompany a host of desserts, whether that’s chocolate cake, apple crumble, or pumpkin pie. You can also serve your vanilla custard sauce with a bowl of fresh fruit or , poached pears, or even pancakes. Basically, enjoy it when you’d usually use or and you have a winning dessert. Similar to this is definitely a versatile sauce that I know you’ll make again and again!
Recipe Ingredients
- Milk
- Salt
- Sugar
- Flour
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
Place flour, sugar, and salt into a medium saucepan and whisk together to blend.
Add in milk and whisk well.
Place over medium heat, stirring constantly.
BUT if you hurry, you can do this next step before that heats up…
Okay, so while that is heating up, crack your eggs real quick and pour off the whites so you are left with the yolks (the orange part).
How to separate your eggs
I just crack my eggs and pour the yolk into one half and tilt it gently until the white falls off into a cup or bowl below. They actually sell gadgets that separate whites from eggs but this way works perfectly for me. You can also just hold out your hand, palm side up, and spread your fingers apart slightly and pour your egg on top of them. The whites will fall through your fingers and you’ll be left with the egg yolk.
However you do it, get you some egg yolks and put them in a cup or bowl.
Beat them a bit.
Now go back to your custard sauce and stir, stir, stir, until it gets hot.
Take out a small bit (about 1/2 a cup) and pour it into your eggs while stirring them vigorously to incorporate the hot milk mixture without letting it cook up the eggs.
Now pour this egg and back into the saucepan while stirring rapidly.
Cook a few more minutes until the .
Stir in the vanilla extract.
Oh, have mercy!
After straining or if you’re not straining, pour this into a gravy boat and cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, pushing down a little so that it touches the surface to prevent a film from being formed.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
When ready to serve, pour over individual pieces of pound cake.
You can also serve this warm if you like, it doesn’t have to be cold. We have always made it ahead of time so we don’t have to do it last minute.
I hope you get to add this wonderful old-fashioned vanilla custard sauce to your holiday fixings!
Storage
Custard leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Recipe Notes
- This recipe calls for all-purpose flour but honestly, you can use self-rising if that is what you have on hand. I’d just cut the salt in half if you do. I generally use whatever I grab first.
- Now, mine is smooth and creamy with no lumps but this may not always be the case depending on several factors. So Mama told me to make sure you know that she sometimes pours hers through a strainer when she is done with it to get out any lumps that might have formed. Feel free to do that and no one will know any different.
- If a film does form on your custard, just stir it down into there – it will still taste good.
- You can easily flavor your custard with a tablespoon or two of chocolate chips, coconut, chopped nuts, or dried fruit. You could also add a teaspoon of your favorite spices, like cinnamon or nutmeg.
- For those who like lemon, stir in the juice of 3 lemons and 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest before refrigerating for a refreshing lemon-flavored custard.
- On the other hand, chocolate fans will love the addition of 1/2 cup of chocolate hazelnut spread.
- I don’t recommend using non-dairy milk in this recipe, as it doesn’t have the same fat content as whole milk, so it won’t have the desired consistency.
Recipe FAQs
Can I make my custard in advance?
Yes, this vanilla custard sauce will last up to 5 days in the fridge, so you can definitely make it ahead of time. Serve cold or warm it in the microwave.
Here are more delicious cakes to bake:
Pumpkin Praline Cake With Cream Cheese Icing
Super Easy King Cake Recipe (WOW GOOD!)
Easy Birthday Cake Recipe From Scratch
Yellow Cake with Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Icing
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 cups cups milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine sugar, flour, and salt in a heavy medium saucepan. Whisk in the milk and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until just hot.1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup all-purpose flour, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 2 1/2 cups cups milk
- In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks until smooth. Add about 1/2 cup of the hot milk mixture to the beaten eggs and stir vigorously.3 egg yolks
- Pour the milk and egg mixture back into the saucepot and cook, stirring constantly over medium heat, until the custard begins to thicken.
- Remove from heat and add the vanilla extract. Pour the custard through a strainer (if you like) and into a small pitcher or gravy boat. Cool, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Nutrition
“Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.”
~Lois McMaster Bujold
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Christy, I live in Texas so I am “down” with your “down home” style. I read recipes some times and think , “Why would you even make that?” Your recipes on the other hand are what I consider “real food”. Thank you so much for providing real, down home, food for those of use who don’t want bone marrow or eel or whatever the latest craze in food happens to be! Please, please make time to post that pound cake. I really don’t care much for sweets but pound cake? Oh my gosh…and yours has to be wonderful. Please share!
LOL, thank you Leann!!
Christy, your pound cake from your first book is great without the sauce! I like to cook down strawberries and pour over the slices. The sauce is good to, but we like the fruit.
I am so glad to hear that you like that recipe Ann!! I think it is great just about any way you serve it too 🙂
Thank you for introducing the Horizon Organic Milk. Instead of candy, our food ministry gave out milk boxes (8 oz. size) of their shelf stable milk to the young children at an outreach. I didn’t know it but some children had not had milk in several days due to the govt. shutdown and they loved it. I keep shelf stable milk on hand for cooking and when I can’t get to the stores. Kroger has the boxes in produce dept. and just right size or Dollar Tree has another brand in qts. It is more economical than throwing out milk when it isn’t used.
Oh WOW, I am so glad to hear that it came in so handy!!
Yes, I agree about those little thingies in eggs…..my brother calls them little chicks ( yuck).I always get rid of them.
I love the pound cake recipe in your first cookbook. To me there’s just something about starting a pound cake off in a cold oven. This recipe is my “go to poundcake recipe”. I bake several of them to give away at Christmas and other times of the year when I want to do something special for a friend or neighbor . I try to keep one on hand in the freezer to serve when there is drop in company.
Christy, in your elementary school days, did you go to Lincoln or Chapman?
I went to Lincoln, just like my Mama!
Christy I appreciate that you tell everyone that it is OK to use whatever that they want to. The Lady that wrote “Strange I kind of take offence to your comment about folks that use real vanilla. Why the need to defend your choice of vanilla claiming it’s a “gift” I’ve also noticed you use real butter now ;-)” If she take offense to what you wrote she should just go else where. I see no need for anyone to make snide remarks toward someone for what they use or write. You do a wonderful job and it is greatly appreciated by many. I may self use whatever I have the money to buy some times I can afford real butter and some times it has to be margarine. The same goes for flavoring. I can not tell a difference between real vanilla and fake. If someone can tell the difference and they can afford to purchase the real thing fine let them. But don’t make remarks about what others do. We all can make our own selections without snide remarks from people about what we do. Love all that you do.
Thank you Kay, I just love you!!!
OK! I know this sounds nuts, but I felt like I could smell this while reading the recipe!! I have got to make this to go with my Mom’s pound cake this Christmas! Yum!!
I have your wonderful first and now second cookbooks, but this is good to have as a reminder. I plan to make your favorite fruit salad for the holidays as well. I can see the picture of it in your big jar!! Yummy and beautiful!!
You make me happy. I have had a sad day, but reading your recipes and blogs makes me happy!!
Thanks Christy!
Pam
Oh my goodness, you just made my day Pam!!
My mother’s sister, my “Auntie”, always served vanilla sauce with her delicious pound cake. She served it in a small green pottery pitcher that we poured the sauce from over the pound cake, and we usually had to refill the pitcher! I am now able to serve her sauce recipe from that small green pitcher when I serve my pound cake…makes It taste so much better! I know my Auntie would be proud to see that little pitcher on my table….sweet family memories make our food taste much better, don’t they!