Eggless Custard Cream
( Biancomangiare )
Biancomangiare is used as an eggless custard cream or to make a simple dessert . If made as a dessert, it’s usually served with fresh berries or covered with sweet sauce or with Macedonia di frutta ( a fruit salad with an assortment of fresh cut fruits dressed with sugar and drizzled with liquor).
In Sicily this pudding is very popular; likewise, it is well-liked and made all over the world.
In the province of Ragusa, it is served on top of orange or lemon leaves with chunks of chocolate or with a chocolate sauce, in the province of Syracuse, the Biancomangiare is made with almond milk in place of milk. In the monasteries, the nuns used this delicate cream to fill pastries adding it to cucuzzata (or Zuccata), the much-used pumpkin’s preserve, to citron or to make the ricotta cream more light and delicate.
Ingredients
- 1 qt. whole milk
- 3 oz. corn starch
- ½ cup granulated sugar (4 oz.)
- Zest of ½ orange and/or 1 drop of vanilla
- 3 tablespoons of crushed pistachio nuts kernels
- Ground cinnamon
Instructions
Combine the corn starch and sugar. A little at a time add the milk and blend well; strain with a fine sieve to eliminate any lumps.
Transfer into a medium sauce pan and over a medium heat and stir using a whisk until it starts to boil.
Remove from the heat and whip for a minute, add the orange zest and/or 1 drop of vanilla and the crushed pistachio.
Pour the Biancomangiare into a bowl and after it cools a few minutes, store in the refrigerator.
Serve cold sprinkled with ground cinnamon or, as suggested above, serve it with fresh berries or with fruits salad sprinkled with either Marsala, Moscato di Pantelleria, a few tablespoons of your favorite alcoholic beverage or a syrup made with some strawberry (10) or other fruits blended into liquid with a tablespoon of sugar and two drops of lemon juice.