Mum’s Blancmange

 

When I was a kid, my mum made a series of desserts on regular rotation, including apple crumble, rice pudding and lemon delicious. She made them all off the top of her head, without recipe. Another such dessert on regular rotation was blancmange, a type of custard. Sometimes Mum would leave it white, other times she would tint it pale pink.

It is difficult to get recipes from Mum because they are not written down. I eventually got the blancmange recipe from her over the phone.  Another difficulty with Mum’s recipes are that her measurements are not standard metric measurements - you have to know how Mum cooks to interpret what she means.

I am so happy to have the blancmange recipe and made it tinted dark pink (by accident) - it is just as delicious as I remember:

If you would like to try my Mum’s blancmange, you will need:

2 cups (500ml) milk

2 large metal tablespoons (~ 80g) sugar

1 metric tablespoon butter

1 1/2 large metal tablespoons cornflour, blended with sufficient water to make a thick paste

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-2 drops pink colouring (if desired)

desiccated or shredded coconut, to decorate

Put the milk, sugar and butter into a small saucepan and heat until the butter and the mixture is just bubbling round the edges, not boiling.

While stirring the milk mixture continuously, add the cornflour paste, and stir over low heat until thickened into a custard (ie it coats the back of a spoon). If it doesn’t thicken sufficiently, make more cornflour paste and stir in.

Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and colouring (if using).  Pour the blancmange into a small buttered dish, and sprinkle coconut on top to decorate.  Allow to cool to room temperature or chill before serving.