Burcu's Turkish Cream

LightEra's Note:

I got this super-simple recipe from a Turkish friend. It has a texture sort of like a very thick custard, and she uses it as a base for savory dishes (e.g. with addition of some cumin and shredded chicken, omitting vanilla), and as a base for desserts as prepared here. She suggested using strawberries with strawberry gel or a thick chocolate custard with chocolate chunks, but it's amenable to just about anything you can think of, including being eaten alone!

• Total Time: 20 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 10

• 1 liter milk
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 250 g butter
• ¾ cup flour
• vanilla sugar , 2 sachets (or 1 T vanilla)

Directions:

1. Heat the milk and sugar in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring often enough to dissolve the sugar and keep the milk from burning.
2. While the milk is warming, melt the butter in another saucepan.
3. Once the butter is melted, whisk in the flour. If it is still lumpy, you can use a staff mixer to blend it smooth.
4. Add the butter mixture to the warmed milk, stir smooth, and bring to a boil. (This is where you can also add the shredded chicken, etc. if you want a savory dish.).
5. Stir in the vanilla and remove from heat.
6. Pour into a large rectangular Pyrex dish and cool. For best results, let the mixture sit overnight in the refrigerator before doctoring it up with whatever additional ingredients you want, or eat it by itself as soon as it's cool enough!