Portuguese Egg Custard • Leite Creme

A egg custard is a absolute classic Portuguese sweet and has been a staple of Portuguese cuisine for a long time as a simple desert but also as a sweet to use as a sauce or filling for a variety of other deserts.

This creamy custard is simple to make, yet incredibly decadent and fulfilling. Its smooth texture and perfect balance of egg and sugar make it simply irresistible, it has a very creamy but also light and eggy texture.

The custard is made with either whole eggs with egg yolks or just egg yolks, and is then enriched with sugar and milk, and traditionally infused with cinnamon and lemon, but nowadays its normal to use other spices or flavorings like vanillas. Once the custard is prepared, it is usual to serve in individual-sized dishes or ramekins and goes to the fridge to be chilled and server of course cold with a dusting of cinnamon.

I’m sure this Portuguese Egg Custard recipe will be sure to be a hit at any dinner party or family gathering especially during Christmas! ;D

Portuguese Egg Custard, Leite Creme Recipe

Portuguese Egg Custard, Leite Creme

Servings: 12
Time: 50mins
Difficulty: Normal
Rating: ★★★★★
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A Portuguese egg custard is a delicious and easy-to-make dessert that can be enjoyed any time of the year. With its smooth and creamy texture, this custard might seem too simple, but sometimes the simplest things are the best!

Ingredients

Milk – 1000 ml
Lemon – 2 peels
Cinnamon – 1 stick
Sugar – 240 gr
Flour – 60 gr
Egg Yolks – 6 Egg (Large Eggs)

Directions

On a small pot, bring the milk to almost a boil on medium heat with the lemon peel and cinnamon stick, and let it infuse a little until it is very hot but not boiling.
Add to a bowl the sugar and flour, mix.
Remove the cinnamon stick and lemon peel from the hot milk, and pour into the mix of sugar and flour, mix well and pour it all back into the pot and return the mixture to the heat
On a bowl add the egg yolks and whisk, then pour a bit of the hot milk while always mixing, just to elevate the temperature of the eggs without cooking them.
When the egg mixture is hot, return everything to the pot with the remaining milk, cook until the mixture thickens to a creamy texture.
Finally serve the mixture to serving bowls, let it cool down then put it in the fridge to cool down and set and that’s it, when its cold its ready to serve, enjoy!

Notes: There are a lot of variations to this recipe, one of the most common is just removing the flour, this will create a more liquid version, you can also switch the 60gr of flour for 15gr of corn starch this will create a more dense less eggy version.

This recipe for Portuguese Egg Custard, Leite Creme was originally created on BakeAfter.com. Esta receita de Leite Creme foi publicada em português no Iguaria.com.