Baked Nocino and Nutmeg Custard

Simple, elegant, velvety creamy and soft, set just enough so that a dessert spoon finds no resistance when enjoying each morsel of this baked walnut flavoured custard. Served either still slightly warm or chilled, a perfect remedy for current hot summer days and nights.

It’s very easy to make and more importantly, not labour intensive. Something I currently bare in mind given high temperatures and even higher levels of humidity in our ground floor Venetian kitchen.

Nocino is an Italian walnut liqueur and it enhances so well otherwise rather plain custard. Together with a few pinches of nutmeg makes it quite a sophisticated grown up pudding.

Serves 4:

• 360 ml of double cream
• 3 egg yolks plus one whole egg
• 50 g of sugar
• 3-4 tablespoons of Nocino
• vanilla seeds (optional)
• a few pinches of freshly ground nutmeg

Position the oven rack in he centre of the oven.

Preheat the oven to 180 C, static.

Bring to the simmer (do not boil) the cream along with the sugar in a saucepan.

Whisk the egg and the egg yolks in a bowl.

Pour in about one third of the cream into the bowl with the eggs, whisking all the while.

Now pour the egg mixture back in to the saucepan with the remaining cream. Stir in the Nocino to taste.

Pour the custard mixture into 4 ramekins or custard cups and sprinkle each top with the nutmeg.

Place the ramekins in a deep baking dish or tray.

Pour in hot but not boiling water into the base of the baking dish until it reaches half way up the sides of the ramekins. Cover loosely with a sheet of aluminium foil.

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the custards are set but still have some wobble in the centre.

Remove the  ramekins with the cooked custard from the water bath and place them on a wire rack to cool.

Serve them either warm or chilled in the fridge.

Grate some extra nutmeg on the top of each Nocino custard and decorate, if you wish, with fresh raspberries, blackberries or cherries.