Crème Anglaise: Vanilla Custard Recipe

Crème Anglaise: Vanilla Custard Recipe

I've been searching high and low for the perfect custard recipe, and surprisingly, I haven't been able to find one that really tasted the way I wanted: slightly sweet, decadent, and smooth. So I came up with a recipe that I thought I could always rely on, but I thought it would be a lot easier to make than traditional recipes. It had a lot of flavor and it didn't get too thick and starchy as some other custard recipes tend to do. The custard consists of a mixture of milk and vanilla, sugar and heavy cream, and no flour or starch thickeners are added. The creamiest consistency is the kind of thing you can expect from this Crème Anglaise recipe.

Making Crème Anglaise 

This recipe adds some heavy cream, and it was certainly very creamy. I know, I know, it's made from cream. If you want a thinner custard, you might want to skip the cream, but I think the cream is the important point. So, if you don't really need to, don't skimp on the cream, or this is going to be a run of the mill custard!

I hope you enjoy this vanilla custard recipe and the countless days and nights that I have been experimenting with different recipes. Stay tuned for some more great recipes and tips to help you create great memories for you and your family and friends.

Vanilla Custard Recipe

1 Cup Heavy Cream

1 Cup Whole Milk

2/3 Cup Granulated Sugar

8 Egg Yolks

1 Vanilla Bean / 1/2 Tbsp Vanilla Paste or Extract to Taste

Directions

1) Fill a large bowl with ice, make sure it fits in a medium bowl, which will help you slow down the cooking process once the custard is thick enough.

2) Set aside 1/4 cup of milk and half of sugar.

3) Place the milk, heavy cream and brown sugar together in a medium saucepan, cut the vanilla beans and scrape the beans into the saucepan. Stir to low heat until the sugar has dissolved, remove from heat.

4) Add the egg yolks and 1/3 cup of sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk together very quickly, add the milk you set aside and whisk a little more.

5) Bring the mixture of milk to a boil, stirring constantly. 

6) Add a cup of the hot mixture to the yolk mixture, whisking continuously until blended.

7) Once well blended, add the yolk mixture back to the saucepan and stir constantly at low heat with the spatula.

8) Keep stirring until the mixture begins to thicken, then run your finger over the spatula to check that the custard is thick.

9) Pour the mixture through a strainer in a mixing bowl placed over the ice and stir until it has cooled.

10) Transfer to an air tight container and refrigerate

Tips and troubleshooting

Once you start cooking, do not stop stirring, otherwise you will end up with an unpleasant lumpy consistency.

The time it takes for the custard to thicken varies depending on the temperature of your cooktop, just keep in mind that it needs to be cooked at a low temperature so that the mixture cooks evenly and nothing sticks to the bottom of the saucepan, once the eggs are fully cooked, we'll then pour it into our cold bowl to let it set.

Before you start cooking, remember that this is a thick custard, so removing the part of the cream makes the consistency thinner.

Eggs must not come into contact with hot milk directly in the saucepan. One way to avoid this is to use a small bowl of egg yolks, add a little hot liquid to the yolks and mix them very quickly.