I came down with a cold last week and had to miss my baking class lecture and lab. Chef was kind enough to allow me to make up the lab at home with the stipulation that I document the process and show it to her. This I could do! My assigned dessert sauce was Crème anglaise, which is a custard that can be poured over the likes of cake or fruit, or even be drunk on its own (it tastes like unspiced egg nog). This recipe is very sweet, which will be great on a plain cake or unsweet fruit, but if the item being topped is sweet, I would cut back on the sugar content.
Ingredients
- 250 g egg yolks
- 250 g granulated sugar
- 1 L whole milk or 1/2 L whole milk plus 1/2 L heavy cream
- 1 vanilla bean or 15 mL vanilla extract
Directions
- Measure 250 g granulated sugar
- Separate the egg yolks from the whites
- Measure 250 g egg yolks
- Measure 1 L milk & cream
- Get out your vanilla bean and cut it lengthwise
- Set up an ice bath to cool that custard down quickly once it’s cooked. Set a stainless bowl inside of a larger bowl that’s got some ice and water int it
- Set a strainer over the bowl that’s in the ice bath. This will help to withhold any lumps that may end up in the custard
- The yolks and sugar need to be combined in a stainless bowl and whipped as soon as they’re combined until thick and light
- Scrape the beans out of the vanilla and put them into the milk mixture, in a large sauce pan, add the seed pods too
- Heat the vanilla and milk mixture to scalding (181 degrees F)
- Temper the egg mixture with the warm milk mixture by adding one ladle of milk to the eggs while mixing on low
- Slowly add the egg mixture to the warm milk in the saucepan and cook it on a medium-low heat while stirring constantly to prevent curdling until it’s thick enough to coat the back of a spoon(180 degrees F)
- Remove the pan from the heat and pour the custard into the strainer that’s resting over the bowl in the ice bath and stir it to cool it down before using or storing in the refrigerator
Source: Kitchbitch