Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Craving a delicious dessert? Junket Custard is remarkably creamy, indulgent and flavorful. And, it is actually healthy! It is all natural and owes its health properties to just that – quality, natural ingredients, made from scratch. It is filled with healthy probiotics because it is actually a homemade cheese. But never fear, it is easily made in 10 minutes hands on and two hours cooling. Easy peasy lemon squeezy! (And that reminds me, you could make a lemon variety of Junket Custard … your choice of flavor, since you are making it!)

Here is the short “how to” video

A bit of history

Junket Custard is a dessert harkening back from the 1880s. Building off work done by founders in Denmark in the mid 1800s, the Junket Custard recipe was developed in America for American housewives. It soon became an international hit. The Junket Custard is also known as Curds and Whey, slip, or Rennet Custard. So Little Miss Muffet, from the nursery rhyme, was really enjoying a lovely food when that spider frightened her away. Junket Custard is more obscure today, replaced by processed foods like instant puddings, angel delight, or store-bought custards. But it shouldn’t be.

It is healthy, delicious and easy to make in 10 minutes flat

It’s time to bring it back! Quick and super easy to make. Packed with natural probiotics to enrich your gut flora and biome. Easy to digest, even for those with digestive issues. And most importantly, it is simply delicious.

I grew up eating Junket Custard as a special dessert. The memories of silky custard with the delicious smell of nutmeg sent me seeking to make it again, now in the 2020s. Much to my surprise and delight, I discovered that it is also an all-natural probiotic-packed healthy dessert.

Learning more about it, I was surprised to learn it is actually a natural, fresh cheese. Junket Tablets are rennet tablets, so any rennet (tablet or liquid) will do. Honestly, when I first learned that, I feared it may be difficult to make involving all sorts of steps, cheese cloth, curing. Thankfully, it is not fussy at all – several minutes to gather up the ingredients, a few minutes on the stovetop and pour it into bowls to chill. That’s it! Amazing!

Make it a pantry staple for an easy, delicious treat any time

I now keep Junket as a staple in my pantry. I can whip up dessert custard quickly and easily. And it’s also great to use to make ice creams, and of course a variety of fresh, soft and hard cheeses.

The probiotic Junket Custard is also very easy to make any flavor you want. Since you actually make it from scratch, you choose the spices, syrups or additions of your choice. For the video and recipe here, I have made a Maple Cinnamon version, but definitely try Vanilla & Nutmeg (my favorite from childhood), Chocolate, Caramel or your favorite fruit flavors … really anything you like. Some of the earliest Junket Recipe books even had Wine Junket! Exactly how to substitute your favorite flavors for those in the recipe are in the notes at the end of the recipe.

So, get healthy eating this delicious, probiotic dessert!

And the easy peasy recipe

Making more desserts probiotic rich

So many of us buy probiotic supplemented foods or supplements, but we gain natural probiotic flora from dairy such as raw milk, kefir, acidophilus, and yogurt and from fermented foods such as miso and sauerkraut. You can enhance the probiotics in milk and use it in other recipes to boost the natural probiotics in your diet. The key is the following:

• Use raw milk or kefir milk, if possible
• To use “regular” milk, add whey, kefir or active yogurt culture to warm (90 F / 32 C) milk and let it culture for an hour staying warm (90 F / 32 C). The milk will become active with healthy probiotics.
• Don’t boil or bake the raw milk, kefir milk or milk you cultured yourself

Sauces, ice creams, cheeses, and more can all be made from milk without boiling it, and thus can be infused with more natural probiotic goodness.

What’s next?

Look for other pantry recipes for delicious foods committed to being sustainable and able to make anytime from your well fitted pantry. For building a great baking or cooking pantry, visit the Pantry Prep page.

Keep checking back to Ready and Thriving for new content each week and subscribe to Ready and Thriving YouTube channel for more great tips on being Ready for Anything and to not only Survive but Thrive.

Prepare Well. Live Well.