Boil the milk with the lemon peel (grated or entire) and vanilla. Meanwhile mix (possibly in a steel saucepan) the egg yolks and sugar, when the sugar has completely melted, add the flour (or mixture of starches) and mix well.

When the milk has reached a boil pour in the mixture whipping very quickly. Put everything on medium heat and bring to boil stirring constantly. Once you reach the boiling the cream is ready, transfer it to another container and let it cool ..

To avoid that during the cooling you create on the surface a hard layer, sprinkle the surface with granulated sugar or cover with a layer of film.

The presence of starch rather than the flour makes the cream more velvety. The corn starch has a strong gelling and thickening power. It tends to make assume a firmer consistency, a kind of Italian polenta, when you use it alone and in excess, whereas the wheat starch gives a consistency somewhat more sticky and therefore more fluid and creamy.; The overall effect of using the two starches is to have a firm and soft cream at the same time. You can change the percentages of the two types of starches at your leisure depending on the desired consistency.

For people with celiac disease we recommend to replace the wheat starch (which, may have traces of gluten) with potato starch, increasing a bit the percentage of corn starch as the starch would give a more fluid consistency the wheat starch (75 g corn starch + 75 g potato starch).

A fireplace, a kitchen and the old hands of my grandmother

The custard is linked intimately to the memories of my childhood
Nearly forty years ago I used to spend long afternoons of sleepy winter Sundays in the old house of my grandparents.

After the meal, men of the family would gather around the television hoping to enjoy the expected goal of his football team, women straightened the kitchen dipped in warm conversations that fashinated me as I sat on a stool painted wooden, with one leg a bit shorter than made me dangling as if I were on a small ship.

I always sat next to the little fireplace that opened like the mouth of a volcano in a corner of the kitchen, and from there, watching the flames that rose from the embers, I used to fantasize about stories of prehistoric men and dinosaurs.

In the meantime, my grandmother, the woman who opened my heart to desserts for which I will always be grateful, with steady hands used to stirr wisly with a wooden spoon the mixture of eggs, flavored with milk, sugar and flour. She was doing next to me bent over the fireplace holding the usual dented pot for my cream, turning slowly until the first bubbles were popping like lava.

Today, every time I prepare or eat a bowl of cream, It come back into my mind the kitchen next to the fireplace, surrounded by the words of my mother and my aunts, with the distant echo of Sunday sports as I watch the hands of my grandmother that patiently are making a special gift for myself.

From this basic recipe you can get an infinite number of other variations, adding various ingredients, thus obtaining the chocolate cream, pistachio, citrus, hazelnut, coffee, almond etc.

Energy: 24237.88 kJ
Energy: 5731.92 kcal
Total Protein: 133.47 g
Animal protein: 23.47 g
Plant proteins: 110.00 g
Total lipids: 142.76 g
Lipids animals: 135.76 g
Plant lipids: 7.00 g
Cholesterol: 1027.80 mg
Carbohydrates available: 1039.23 g
Starch: 763.00 g
Soluble carbohydrates: 276.23 g
Total dietary fiber: 25.00 g
Alcohol: 0.00 g
Water: 302.33 g