This article is taken from Maistir Brandubh O Donnghaile’s blog post, edited with permission.

Otto’s Daryols and Documentation. Photo by Hilda.

Daryols are a 14th Century English Custard Pie.  I love them. Whenever I cook a 14th C English Feast I always squeeze them in.  My 8 year old son, Otto, made daryols this summer for the A&S part of our local Iron Comet Challenge competition (A neat little tourney event, must enter A&S and at least 3 different marshal forms to win). Otto won the youth division. I’m very proud of him.

Anyway – DARYOLS!

From Forme of Cury (Curye on Inglysch), 14th C English: Recipe 191 Daryols. Take creme of cowe mylke, other of almaundes, do therto ayren with sugar, safroun and salt. Medle it yfere. Do it in a coffyn of ii ynche depe; bake it wel and serue it forth.

Take cream of cows milk or cream of almonds.  Add there to eggs with sugar, saffron, and salt.  Mix it together.  Put it in a crust 2 inches deep, bake it well and serve it.

You’ll need:
1 9-inch pie crust, deep dish
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
10 threads of saffron, crumbled
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups whole milk

Now how it works:
1. Start with the crust, especially if making your own from scratch.  Either way you do need “deep dish”.  Use your favorite pie recipe, or use a store-bought deep dish frozen pie crust.  A 9 inch pie crust 2 inches deep is what you’re looking for.  Whichever way, prick the bottom with a fork, and blind bake it at 400 for 10 minutes.

2. Now Custard: Whisk 3 eggs till uniform, then while whisking add 3/4 cup sugar, about 10 threads of saffron crumbled, and 1/2 tsp salt.  When well combined, add 1 cup heavy cream and 2 cups whole milk.  (For better results put the 1 c cream and 2 c milk in a sauce pan, simmer it with the saffron in it, and then temper the hot dairy together with the egg mixture).  Whisk until all combined and light in color.  This will mostly all fit in in the crust.

3. Fill the crust, put the pie pan on a rimmed baking sheet, put it in the oven and then fill the crust some more.  You want a thick velvety custard to your pie.  So, once it’s in place in the oven, fill it all the way, until you run out of custard, or reach the point where the custard is spilling out of the pie crust onto the baking sheet.  Turn the oven down to 325, and bake for an hour or so. The top should be set, golden with brown spots, the pie still jiggly, and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Let cool.

The original recipe says you can substitute almond cream for the dairy.  You can get commercial Almond milk and Almond cream; try the almond cream… I never have, but it’s something to try.  Or make your own super thick almond milk and try it.

As far as the dairy, I prefer 2 cups of whole milk and 1 cup heavy whipping cream.  This puts the liquid to fat ratio close to raw milk straight from the cow, and I really prefer custard with this ratio.  You could make the custard with all cream as the recipe suggests, but I really find that custard too firm and stiff.  Feel free to experiment…

Cheers!
Brandubh