MAISON DE KENNEDY

Crème Anglaise

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ (5/5) Tested by Cass — 15 min · Yields ~1.25 L

The classic French pouring custard — the reason serious meringue projects don't waste anything. Egg yolks, cream, sugar, vanilla and patience over low heat. Silky, sweet and endlessly flexible: sip it from a mug when you're tired, pour it over a slice of anything, swirl in fruit syrup for a ripple, or churn it tomorrow into ice cream. This batch is sized for the 10 yolks left over from two pavlova roulades.

Ingredients

• 10 Egg Yolks
• ¾ cup Caster or Granulated Sugar
• 2½ cups Heavy Cream — or 1¼ cups cream + 1¼ cups whole milk for lighter
• 1 Vanilla Pod — split and scraped (or 1½ tsp paste, or 2 tsp extract)
• Pinch Salt

Method

1. Warm the dairy: Cream (plus milk if using), sugar, vanilla and salt into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Medium-low, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and it just starts to steam and shimmer at the edges — bubbles at the rim, no boil. Off heat, steep 5 minutes if using a pod.
2. Loosen the yolks: Whisk the yolks briefly in a separate bowl, just to break them up. Don't whip — you're not making sabayon, just making them pourable.
3. Temper: Ladle the warm cream into the yolks slowly, whisking constantly. Start with a few tablespoons, whisk in, then a few more. Work up to about half the cream. This raises the yolk temperature without scrambling.
4. Return to the pan: Pour the tempered yolks back into the remaining cream.
5. Cook low and slow: Over low heat, stir constantly with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, scraping the bottom and corners — that's where curdling starts. 4–6 minutes until it coats the back of the spoon: draw a line through with your finger and the line should hold. 170–180°F maximum. Do not boil.
6. Strain: Immediately through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Catches the pod and any errant scrambled bits.
7. Serve or chill: Warm in a mug or bowl, or chilled with plastic film pressed to the surface to stop a skin forming.

Notes

• The one rule: 170°F ceiling. Above 180°F the egg proteins scramble and silky custard becomes sweet scrambled eggs. Use an instant-read thermometer, or trust the spoon test — the finger-line must hold before you pull it. It only thickens slightly on cooling, so don't under-reduce hoping it'll firm up. If the line still runs at all, keep cooking.
• If it starts to curdle — off the heat immediately, tip into a blender (or use an immersion blender) and blitz 30 seconds. Often rescues it completely. Strain afterwards.
• Sugar: granulated is fine here. Sustained heat and constant stirring dissolves it cleanly. Save the caster for meringues, where it has to dissolve cold in raw whites.
• Fridge life: 3–4 days, film pressed to the surface. Do not reheat over direct heat — it'll split. Warm it gently in a bowl over simmering water, or just eat it cold, which is arguably better.

What to do with a batch

• Sip it warm from a mug — the silky-sweet-creamy craving, sorted in 15 minutes.
• Pour over pavlova roulade slices at plating. Upgrades the whole dessert.
• Swirl in raspberry syrup for a ripple anglaise. Ridiculous with berries or chocolate.
• Churn it tomorrow — chill fully overnight, run through an ice cream maker for vanilla ice cream by evening.
• Fill mini tart shells if you have premade pastry about.
• Bake into pots de crème — into ramekins, water bath at 300°F for ~40 min until just set.

Flavour Variations

• Bay leaf — steep 2 fresh leaves in the warm cream, remove before straining. Herbal and savoury-sweet.
• Cardamom — 4 crushed pods steeped in the cream. Beautiful with mango.
• Coffee — 2 tsp instant espresso stirred into the warm cream.
• Citrus — zest of 1 lemon or orange steeped in the cream.

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