Honey Lemon Custard & The Divine Llama

I am still enjoying flans and custards as a rich yet light dessert.  I’m on a roll with this custard-flan thing!  What I love about today’s recipe is the lemon flavor.  Tart and tangy with sweet vanilla and honey notes.  Almost sounds like we are wine tasting.

Speaking of wine tasting we recently visited the Divine Llama vineyard in East Bend, N.C. It is the first vineyard we visited when we were anticipating our move to N.C.  We found the setting appealing, the owners, gracious and the wine, very nice.  The llamas, well they are Adorable with a capital A.  On both visits we were lucky enough to see baby llamas frolicking in the pasture.  No spitting or biting from these cute little guys.

Just this past week I set up a private tasting with one of the owners, Tom Hughes.  He was quite generous to invite us to come early and stay late enjoying a glass of wine on the property with a close up view of the llamas, mammas and babies.  He conducted the wine tasting with my man Dan, our friends visiting from Austin, Texas, and me.

 Tom was informative and happy to share the story of the Divine Llama Vineyard.  We learned plenty about the grapes they grow as well as the wine they make.  We will return often for the ambiance, the friendly owners and the lovely wines.  By clicking on the link above you can read about the wines they offer at Divine Llama.  We brought home Traminette Gold, Chardonel Gold as well as Cab Franc and the dry Rose they offer.  If you find yourself in the area you don’t want to miss a visit to this wonderful and inviting vineyard. We will be returning in about 3 weeks when our oldest daughter LuLu, husband in tow will be visiting.

Honey-Lemon Custard with Marinated Summer Fruit

Ingredients

• 2 cups heavy cream

• 4 tbsp. honey, divided

• 3 tbsp. Sugar

• 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

• 3 2″ strips of lemon peel

• 6 tbsp. fresh lemon juice, divided

• 1/4 cup rum or alcohol of your choice

• 1 cup berries

Instructions

1. Place 4-6 ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet.

2. Heat cream with 2 tbsp. honey and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat until just beginning to simmer.

3. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean.

4. Add lemon peel; remove from heat.

5. Let steep for 5 minutes (cream should register 160* on an instant read thermometer).

6. Remove vanilla bean and lemon peel.

7. Gently stir in 5 tbsp. lemon juice.

8. Whisk remaining 2 tablespoons honey and 1 tablespoon lemon juice with rum in a small bowl.

9. Stir in berries and allow to sit until juicy, about an hour.

10. Serve over custard.

11. Divide custard among ramekins and chill to set for 1 hour.

12. Can be covered and chilled up to 1 day.

13. While custard chills, prepare chosen fruit.

14. Mix together 2 tbsp. honey and 1 tbsp. lemon juice.

15. Pour over fruit and let sit about an hour.

16. Serve fruit alongside or on top of custard.

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