Hey folks,
Inspired by ECF Stevo's custard thread, I picked up all the mentioned ingredients and am planning on developing a killer dripper friendly custard. My cheesecake project has me burnt out so it's time to switch it up.
Yes, I'm aware of Grant's clone - 7-15% VC / DLD / EM. I am looking to develop a complex, creamy delicious brew.
Grant's is a darker blend. I am shooting for a ligher, creamier custard. Rich vanilla but sweet, moist exhale if possible.
I am shooting for a 15-20% mixture and I have MANY ingredients:
- CAP Vanilla Custard v1
- CAP French Vanilla
- CAP Cake Batter
- CAP Butter
- TFA Dulce de leche
- TFA Brown Sugar
- TFA / CAP Egg Nog
- TFA Cinnamon, Cinnamon Spice, Cinnamon Sugar Cookie
- TFA Vanilla Swirl
- TFA Bavarian Cream
- TFA Graham Cracker
- TFA Coconut Extra
- FA Whipped Cream
- FA Fresh Cream
- Many fruits - looking to add at small amounts for sweetness / accent flavor
- Many other dessert flavors
To start with, I was thinking something like this...
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8% CAP Vanilla Custard v1 (may drop it -- quite high, causes irritation at any higher of a %)
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1% TFA Dulce de Leche (not overpowering but present. is this possible? may drop it to .75%)
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% ? CAP Butter (need recommendation)
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% ? Brown Sugar (need recommendation)
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.5% CAP Marshmallow / EM - add a nice mouth feel, moisture, etc.
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% ? Smooth (need recmomendation, looking to cut back on any harshness felt but afraid it may just hinder the final recipe)
I would like to add maybe TFA strawberry ripe or maybe pear because I've heard good things about this one. I want to add a many layers of complexity without it turning into a gross mix.
I would love to hear your suggestions! I have no real 'technique' and would love to learn how to develop and test different combos efficiently. I've been making 10ml test batches, usually 5-10 at a time, with varying %'s and ingredients. The 100 drop method sounds interesting but sounds time consuming.
To all the pros, please help =]
- Are there any other "secret" flavors that blend well with Vanilla Custard?
- Do you have a great custard that you can share?
I am very excited about trying TFA cinnamon / cinnamon spice / brown sugar. I've never used any of them.
100drop method is the opposite of time-consuming, i can never go back to workshopping flavors another way
Can you explain how you use it? I get the principle of it -- 1 drop per 1%.
Where do you drip them? I have only 10ml bottles --- 100 more on the way. Would these work?
I remember reading he liked mixing, shaking and then taste testing. Then he said he would adjust it. Does that mean another 100 drops in another container?
How would you start off and build from there?
I drip directly into a regular 5mL bottle. A 10mL bottle would work alright, you usually get about ~4mL but obviously your drops are not my drops are not his drops.
You start off with the base recipe you're wanting to try, and make the initial tester. Let's say it's this Snake Oil just for simplicity:
Bavarian Cream (TFA) 3%
Coconut Extra (TFA) 1%
Pear (TFA) 9%
Your first 100 drop tester is not creamy enough so you decide to adjust, you can dump out the remainder of the 100 drop test bottle and reuse it if you like (since the recipe base is going to be near-identical), and re-drop with 5% Bavarian Cream & 2% Coconut Extra. Once you find a flavor balance you like, you can make an actual batch. This is the quickest and simplest way to workshop a flavor blend without wasting a bunch of ingredients and bases.
You can also play around with the method... for example, create several variations on the recipe at once with the 100 drop method and taste-test them side-by-side (just be sure to label and record each recipe first). Alternatively, if you really don't wanna be wasteful, and you decide that you just need to see if your previous 100 drop test could benefit from a tweak, you could add one additional drop of flavoring to the finished drop test to alter the recipe slightly by 1% per flavor drop. Adding a couple extra drops of flavoring doesn't alter the percentages TOO significantly, so your 102 final drops recipe with the adjusted percentages is still valid. It's a great method.
One of my simpler, yet delicious Vanilla custards that I mix is as follows.
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3% Cap French Vanilla v1
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3% Cap New York Cheesecake
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4% Cap Vanilla Custard v1
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1% Ethyl Maltol (10% Solution)
It's simple, smooth, and delicious. Many of the custard recipes I see out there are in excess of 20% flavoring. While that's fine and dandy, and some do taste wonderful....I try to use as little flavoring as possible.
As far as things that compliment custard well: Banana Cream, Brown Sugar Extra, Cheesecake Graham Crust, Cheesecakes, Sweet Creams, various vanillas, and TFA Waffle (no experience with Belgian)
{Edit}- Cap French Toast shows a lot of promise in custard mixes as well. It's got a very eggy/maple/bakery vibe going on....but is just fucking dreadful by itself.
Thanks man! French Toast has scarred me for life LOL. It was the first flavor I tried mixing - I thought... this is hopeless.
Guess what's sitting in my pocket?
50 ml bottle of that very recipe.
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Cap VC is really popular and probably the most over used ingredient you have. Honestly if anyone brought me a custard I'd know in about 2 seconds if they used cap VC and then I'd say meh. It's ok as a bridging/blending flavor, but at 8% it's dominating your profile.
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Aiming for a particular percentage without understanding intricacies of each individual component is futile. Some blends are great at 11.75% and overwhelmingly shitty at 20%. Try to get a good taste for every component with some simple testing. Why? When you do your mix, you'll actually be able to determine which flavors are giving you problems and why, rather than just make assumptions.
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If you're trying to add density/mouth feel, coconut extra is a good start. .5% and it's pretty much vapeable right away. 1% or higher, you're going to need a few days of steep time for the coconut flavor to chill out, but you'll definitely get some better results.
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Go easy with the buttery flavors. They're really awesome flavor carriers but initially they are pretty strong and need some steep time to balance the profile.
Nice. Yea I had a strong inclination that I should drop VC down a great deal. Most recipes I see are like 12-15% which is crazy strong. What's a good starting pt? I'm thinking 2-3% now.
Coconut Extra at .5 sounds great. Recently did a .2% mix and it wasn't as noticable as I'd like.
Have you seen this? /u/ultimateoreo has an amazing base. This recipe is also fantastic if you have not attempted it.
Damn you Wizard Labs! They were out of Malted Milk when I placed my last big order :(. That's the only missing ingredient. OH and Holy Vanilla. Is this worth picking up?
Could I substitute something for it? Egg nog or FA Whipped / Fresh cream?
Looks wicked!
Try TFA waffle, just a small amount 1-2%, you wont be disappointed. Also TFA sweet cream, or maybe your just using CAP butter instead which makes sense.
I just started DIY and I've got 20-30 flavors just for custards. I've been trying out most of the popular custar recipes and so far I haven't found one that I really like.
I really like The OB from Suicide Bunny. People usually say it's just Mother's Milk without the strawberry but I think there's more to it. I'm fairly sure it has some TFA Sweet Cream. It has a very distinct buttery smell that's also present in the OB.
I've also got some FA Cardamom and FA Cinnamon Ceylon that I wanna try experimenting with to make a creamy, spicy custard.
I've also found all the recipes I've tried to be severely lacking in sweetness. Most recipes use none to very little of EM/Sucralose/Marshmallow but I think I need to bump it up close to 5% to make it taste right for myself. So what if I'll have to rebuild every other day :D
So far the only roadblock I've stumbled against is the steeping time for CAP Vanilla Custard V1. I made my first mix with it almost two weeks ago and it still doesn't taste right. TFA Vanilla Custard on the other hand is pretty creamy as well, and it's good to go after a warm bath and a shake.
I've found TFA Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (love this stuff), in lowish percentages, does good things to VC. Just throwing that out there if interested.