Egg yolks. Lonely and leftover from angel food cake making. They’re practically begging to be turned into crème anglaise or lemon curd. Lucky for you, both of these sauces are very easy and keep for up to a week, refrigerated in little jars. (Here’s my favorite recipe for lemon curd.)
For crème anglaise, whisk the yolks with a bit of sugar (I cut this way down from most recipes, it tastes better that way), then cook for five minutes with cream and a piece of vanilla bean. Swap coconut milk for the dairy cream, if you wish, it tastes great!
My recipe is adapted from the daydreamy Rose Bakery book, Breakfast Lunch Tea, a sweet Mother’s Day gift from my loves.
Crème Anglaise and Coconut Crème Anglaise
makes 1 cup; adapted from Rose Bakery's book, Breakfast Lunch Tea
Ingredients
- 1 cup cream or coconut milk Chaokoh for coconut milk, if you can find it
- 2-inch piece vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 egg yolks
- 3 tbsp granulated sugar
Instructions
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Pour cream into heavy bottomed saucepan, add vanilla bean and seeds (if you're using vanilla extract, don't add it yet, wait until after cooking) and bring to a boil over moderately high heat. Remove pan from heat, cover, and let steep 10 minutes.
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In bowl, whisk egg yolks with the sugar until they are thickened and a rich yellow color, a couple minutes. While whisking constantly, add a bit of the warm cream to the yolks, then add that mixture back to the pot of warm cream and return to stovetop, set to a low heat (you do not want to scramble the eggs, so stir constantly and keep heat low-low-low). Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until custard coats the back of the spoon (run your finger across it; it will leave a track when you've cooked long enough), about 4–6 minutes. Remove from heat and strain through a mesh strainer into a glass jar. Cool to room temperature, cover with lid or plastic, and refrigerate.
