Sherry Yard's Crème Anglaise Recipe

I used to use David Lebovitz's crème anglaise recipe, which has a high egg yolk-milk ratio. It was fine for a while, but the taste of egg yolks was too prominent for my taste, and had a yellow tinge.

This recipe uses less egg yolks, and makes up for the richness through cream instead. The original crème anglaise recipe uses milk only, but many chefs substitute part of the milk with cream. The more cream that is used, the richer and thicker the final sauce would be. Because I don't usually keep cream at hand, I made this recipe with milk only. I'm happy with the taste, so it seems that there is a lot of leeway. 

Sherry Yard's Crème Anglaise

Adapted from The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard
Makes 2 1/2 cups

Ingredients
240ml (1 cup) whole milk
240ml (1 cup) heavy cream
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scrapped
4 large egg yolks, chilled
70g sugar* (I would use 50g the next time I follow this recipe)
Pinch of salt (less than 1/8 teaspoon)

Steps 
1) Combine milk, cream and vanilla seeds in a large saucepan, and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Do not let it go to a rolling boil. Immediately remove the pan from the heat, cover and let steep for 15 minutes.

2) Prepare an ice bath. Set aside. (Below is my ice bath set-up. Outer bowl contains water and ice. Inner bowl collects the hot crème anglaise that's poured in through the strainer. Choose an inner bowl that's taller than the outer bowl so water wouldn't get sloshed into the inner bowl. I had one recipe ruined because of that.)

3) Whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. It is essential not to let the sugar sit in a lump with the egg yolks for any length of time. Otherwise, the acid in the sugar would coagulate the egg proteins, resulting in a grainy texture. 

4) Bring the steeped milk mixture back to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat again, and slowly drizzle 1/2 cup of the milk mixture into the eggs while whisking rapidly. Then, pour all of the egg mixture back into the hot milk mixture and continue to whisk rapidly. 

5) Return the large saucepan to low heat. Using a rubber spatula, stir constantly in figure 8s from the edge of the pan and into the centre. Scrape the edges and bottom of the pan to prevent any cream from getting overcooked. The mixture would begin to thicken about 2 minutes in. The sauce is ready when it has the consistency of thickened cream. Running your finger across the spatula should leave a clear trail. If sauce runs over the trail, continue cooking. If using a thermometer, the ideal temperature is 76C (170F). Do not overcook, which would break the crème.  

"Making a trail": Running a finger down the spatula should leave a line that remains. This is almost, but not quite, done. (Note that this batch uses all milk and no cream and look more runny than a milk-cream combination.)

6) Immediately remove from heat and pass it through the wire strainer into the ice bath. Stir the sauce occasionally, until the mixture cools. The sauce would thicken as it cools. Cover and refrigerate. The sauce will last for 2 days.  

Note:

How to repair a broken crème: Lumps in the cream indicates that the eggs were over-heated, so they scrambled in the milk. Blend the sauce, either in a blender or in a hand-held immersion blender, and then strain the sauce to remove the clumps.  

If you prefer a thinner consistency (like I do), you can swop out the cream for more milk. 

Variations:
Lavender: Replace the vanilla with 1 tablespoon lavender flowers. After steeping for 15 minutes, strain to remove and proceed along the rest of the recipe.

Chocolate: Add 55g finely chopped bittersweet chocolate to Step 1, as the milk is simmering. Stir until combined. 

Almond: Replace milk with almond milk. At the end of the recipe, add 1 teaspoon almond extract or ameretto. 

Spiced: In a saucepan, heat one 3-inch cinnamon stick, 6 cardamom pods, 1/4 teaspoon anise seeds. 1 clove, 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg and 1 teaspoon pink peppercorns over low heat, until fragrant. Stir constantly. Add the milk and cream and proceed with the rest of the recipe. 

Black Currant Tea: Add 1 black currant tea bag into the simmered milk and remove from heat. After steeping, remove the teabag and continue with the recipe. 

*The first time I tried this recipe, it was perfect, but the second try came out way too sweet. 50g is a work-in-progress...