Orange Custard Cups

Recently I was planning something fairly spicy for dinner, and since I had a bit of spare time on my hands, I decided to make ahead a cool, light dessert to go with the spicy dish.  Considering options, I recalled a recipe Iowasue had featured on her wonderful blog, The Iowa Housewife, awhile back.  The recipe was for Orange Custard Cups.  I'd been wanting to try out that recipe ever since Sue had posted it, and had even picked up some orange extract with that in mind, so this seemed a perfect opportunity.

As Sue writes in the blog, the recipe she used was originally presented in a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.  It was easy and fairly quick to make.  It was also really tasty, and made for a great contrast with the spicy main dish.   I added a bit of food coloring to the custard and to the whipped topping, in addition to topping it with a bit of orange zest.

You can find the recipe here.   If you don't already follow The Iowa Housewife, do yourself a favor and check out the rest of the site while you're there.  Sue and Dessertqueen do a bang-up job on it.

Sue gave a great piece of advice in the post that included the recipe for the Orange Custard Cups.  The custard cups are placed in a baking dish and the pan filled an inch deep with boiling water before putting the dish into the oven, and she suggested lining the pan with a clean cotton dish cloth before adding the custard cups and water, in order to keep the custard cups from moving around while transferring the dish into the oven and also to prevent the custard from cooking too quickly on the bottom.   I followed her advice, and it worked great on both accounts.