Maple Duck-Egg Custard

This is the dessert we make when the duck eggs pile up faster than breakfast can use them — and the first sweet recipe on this blog, which feels overdue. Custard is where duck eggs show off: the yolks are bigger and richer than a chicken egg’s, and they set a custard that’s silkier than anything you can buy. Sweetened with maple syrup, it’s about the most Upstate New York dessert there is.

What you need

• 3 duck eggs (or 4 chicken eggs)
• 2 cups whole milk
• ⅓ cup maple syrup — the real thing, the darker the better
• A pinch of salt
• ½ teaspoon vanilla if you have it
• Fresh-grated nutmeg for the top

How we do it

Heat the oven to 325°F and put a kettle of water on. Warm the milk in a saucepan until it steams — not boils.

Whisk the eggs, maple syrup, salt, and vanilla in a bowl. Pour the warm milk in slowly, whisking the whole time so you end up with custard base and not sweet scrambled eggs. If you want to be thorough, pour it through a strainer — duck eggs have sturdy whites, and straining is what gets you that glass-smooth set.

Divide it among six small ramekins or custard cups (a small casserole works too, it just bakes longer). Set them in a baking dish, pour hot water from the kettle into the dish until it comes halfway up the cups, and grate nutmeg over each one.

Bake 35–45 minutes, until the edges are set but the middle still gives one honest wobble when you nudge the pan. It finishes setting as it cools. Warm is good; cold out of the fridge the next day is, in this house’s official ruling, better.

One note we give everyone: duck eggs carry different proteins than chicken eggs. Most people with a chicken-egg sensitivity do fine with them, but see your doctor before testing that on dessert.

Photo: avlxyz, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.