I've never used the milk/ butter substitution. I always use evaporated milk in pumpkin custard. Eggnog is good in place of milk/ cream, too, but you need to reduce the am't of sugar called for in the recipe.

Thank you. I have evaporated milk but I want to follow a different recipe I found that uses maple syrup rather than sugar, and heavy cream. Thought I might substitute the cream if I can, since we don't have any on hand.

Does anyone else have a suggestion? :-)

I just made pumpkin custard last week but used the Libby's website recipe. It called for sugar and evaporated milk. If you've got a recipe to try, I don't see why you couldn't use regular milk with some instant dry milk added to give it more heft. After all, regular custard is often made with plain milk. I just wouldn't use fat free milk. Or you could add an extra egg. No matter what you end up doing, I'd be sure to bake in a water bath and no higher than 325 degrees. That way the mixture wouldn't curdle.

I found two recipes that were identical but one called for half & half and baking in a casserole at 350 without a water bath. The Libby's recipe called for baking at 300 with a water bath. I used to make plain egg custard all the time years ago and knew I should use a water bath, so that's what I did. The low & slow method resulted in perfectly done and beautifully creamy pumpkin custard.