recipe: Vla!

my husband has only been to Holland once, in 1999, but he still drools at the thought of vla, which is extremely difficult to find here.  This version is finally about right, though I haven't had it since 1999 either, so our memory of it may not be that reliable :)

Vanilla Vla (Dutch custard, sold in carton in refrigerated section of grocery store in all flavors)

2 1/2 cups milk
3 T corn starch
3 T sugar
2 egg yolks
1 T alcohol-free vanilla extract (regular kind may be fine too, but original recipe called for so much that you could actually taste the alcohol, ick!)

gently heat milk in heavy sauce pan over low-medium heat, stirring frequently.

mix cornstarch, sugar, and egg yolks until smooth paste.  add vanilla extract and stir
before milk starts boiling, turn off heat under milk.
slowly add hot milk, a tablespoon at a time, to egg mixture, stirring continuously
(this keeps the eggs from being cooked by the milk if the temp change is too rapid)

once you've roughly doubled the volume of the egg mixture, it should be warm enough
pour the egg mixture into the pan of milk.  warm until almost boiling, stirring constantly
this will only take a few minutes, stop when the custard has thickened noticeably.
pour custard into container and cover with plastic wrap.
cool for several hours or overnight for best taste!


traditionally this is served for desert with fruit or chocolate sprinkles (fruchtenhagel, hagelslag), mixed half-and-half with plain yogurt, or with a drizzle of fruit syrup (rozenbottel, black currant)