Who would have thought homemade custard was so incredibly delicious and easy to make! You’ll end up with four egg whites which you can use to make meringues. And although buying vanilla pods seems quite expensive, you can make the most of it by popping the empty pod into a lidded jar and cover it with sugar to use it as vanilla sugar for another project. When the pod is completely dried out I boil it with milk for another round of custard. People from my region in Germany have a reputation for being overly tight with money, apparently.

• 1 pint of milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 vanilla pod
• 80 g caster sugar
• 1 generous tsp cornflour

Bring the milk to boil. With a sharp knife slit the vanilla pod open and scrape the seeds directly into the milk.

Beat the yolks with the sugar until the mass is almost white – this takes almost 10 minutes with an electric mixer. Add the cornflour and finally the milk.

Pour it all back into the cooking pot and bring it to boil, stirring constantly. Pour into a jug and enjoy with bread and butter pudding, Kirschenmichel or Pfitzauf.