Crème Anglaise

Appears in
Professional Baking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2008

  • About

Crème anglaise (pronounced krem awng glezz), also known as vanilla custard sauce, is a stirred custard. It consists of milk, sugar, and egg yolks stirred over very low heat until slightly thickened, then flavored with vanilla.

The recipe that follows gives the method for preparing custard sauce. Special care is necessary in preparing this sauce because the eggs curdle easily if overcooked. The following guidelines will help you succeed:
  1. Use clean, sanitized equipment and follow strict sanitation procedures. Egg mixtures are good breeding grounds for bacteria that cause food poisoning. Observe the sanitation guidelines discussed for pastry cream.

  2. Before beginning the cooking process, set a stainless-steel bowl in a larger pan of ice water. Place a strainer over the bowl. This setup will enable you to cool the custard the instant it is cooked, to avoid any danger of overcooking the eggs.

  3. When combining the egg yolks and sugar, whip the mixture as soon as the sugar is added. Letting sugar and egg yolks stand together without mixing creates lumps that cannot be beaten out. This is because the sugar absorbs water from the yolk, leaving lumps of dehydrated yolk. Using a stainless-steel bowl for this step makes the cooking and stirring easier in step 5.

  4. Heat the milk to scalding (just below simmering) before combining with the egg yolks. This makes the final cooking much shorter. To avoid scorching the milk, you can set the pan of milk in a pan of boiling water. This takes longer than using direct heat, but the pan can be left unattended for a few minutes while you perform other tasks.

  5. Slowly beat the hot milk into the beaten eggs and sugar. This raises the temperature of the eggs gradually and helps prevent curdling.

  6. Set the bowl containing the egg mixture in a pan of simmering water and stir constantly to prevent curdling.

  7. To test for doneness, two methods are available. Keep in mind that this is a very light sauce, so you can’t expect a lot of thickening.

    • Check the temperature with a thermometer. When it reaches 185°F(85°C), the sauce is cooked. Never let the temperature go above 190°F(87°C).
    • When the mixture lightly coats the back of a spoon, instead of running off it like milk, the sauce is cooked.

  8. Immediately pour the sauce through the strainer into the bowl set in ice water to cool the sauce quickly. Stir occasionally to cool it evenly.

  9. If the sauce accidentally curdles, it is sometimes possible to save it. Immediately stir in 1 to 2 ounces (30–60 mL) cold milk, transfer the sauce to a blender, and blend at high speed.