April,
I make custard with soy milk all the time. The thicker the soymillk, the
better. Some brands seem thicker than others. I don't think I had as much
success with rice milk. I even tried soymilk with Birds custard powder mix
with fabulous results. I've never heard of Birds before. Found it at a
secondary market and just tried it. Funny you should ask just now. When I've
made custard with soymilk, I do seem to have a little more separation of the
liquid versus the solid in the custard. I'm sure that's because soymilk is
thinner than cow milk. I've been learning to make homemade soymilk and it is
much thicker. Might make a better custard. When you make it yourself, you can
regulate the water content more. Perhaps boiling soymilk down and reducing it
by 1/4 or 1/2 might make a sort of "cream" that might make soy custard more
solid. For very detailed instructions on how to make soy milk, see The Book
of Tofu by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aogagi (I don't think I got that
Japanese last name right, but it should be found under Shurtleff). I've also
found instructions by Cornell University that were much simpler. I no longer
have the source, but probably found it doing a search on the internet. I am
in the process of streamlining instructions for my cookbook, but they aren't
ready to pass on yet. Anyway, try the Birds powder and see how it turns out
for you. It appeared to be non-dairy to me. Carrie