How to Make Creme Anglaise Like a Pro
Creme anglaise is a fundamental baking technique and used for many desserts and treats. Master the art of baking foundations and learn how to make creme anglaise like a pro!
What is Creme Anglaise?
Creme anglaise is a type of custard made with diary, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla and cooked on the stove top as opposed to baked. The texture is creamy and pourable for several types of desserts and for sweet sauces. It is a fundamental practice of pastry. Read on to learn how to make creme anglaise. This is an excellent post with more info on what is and the origin of creme anglaise.
Equipment & Ingredients to Make Creme Anglaise
- Whole milk and heavy cream: You can use whipping cream if heavy cream is unavailable.
- Egg yolks: You will have to separate eggs for the yolks. If you’re looking for what to do with the extra whites, check out these egg white heavy desserts!
- Vanilla beans: I buy my vanilla beans in bulk online since they are OVERLY EXPENSIVE in stores. I will keep a few of them at a time in a little bit of water to plump them up and make them easier to split and remove the beans.
- Ice bath: A large bowl filled with half water and half ice. This helps cool the anglaise down immediately and prevents carry over cooking and curdling.
What Desserts Use Creme Anglaise?
- The base for ice cream like my smoked vanilla ice cream
- Sauce for any dessert but especially for souffles
- The soaking liquid for bread pudding
- An accompaniment with berries and cream
- Creme brulee
How to Make Creme Anglaise:
Step by Step to Make Creme Anglaise:
Set up the ice bath, and combine the dairy with the salt and sugar in a pot. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean and add to the dairy along with the pod. Bring the dairy to a boil, temper into the the yolks, and return everything to the pot. Cook while mixing continuously with a spatula until nappe. Remove from heat and strain immediately into the ice bath. Stir occasionally.
What is Tempering?
Tempering is a technique to combine two liquids of different temperatures to prevent a shock to one or more ingredients, and one liquid is usually boiling while the other is usually cold. In the case of how to make creme anglaise, slowly pour some of the boiling dairy into the egg yolks while whisking constantly. Then, add the egg yolk mixture back into the pot of hot dairy. This technique prevents the cooking of the egg yolks right away.
What Does it Mean to Cook to Nappe?
The key term when making creme anglaise is cooking to nappe which means to coat the back of a spoon. It is a visual cue to indicate when the creme anglaise is ready for its ice bath. It means it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon without drizzling off. The temperature of nappe is 180*F specifically, and if you don’t know what nappe looks like, you might want to temp it just in case.
How Does Creme Anglaise Thicken?
The egg yolks are the thickening agent in creme anglaise. After tempering and while cooking everything together in the pot, the mixture warms and the egg yolks start to coagulate. The coagulating egg proteins thicken the creme anglaise, and it will further thicken as it cools down. However, if the egg yolks cook to high, then the mixture will curdle so it is important to understand when the creme anglaise is done.
What Does the Ice Bath Do For Creme Anglaise?
An ice bath is crucial to how to make creme anglaise perfectly. It cools it down quickly and also prevents carryover cooking which can lead to curdling. Fill a large bowl halfway with equal parts ice and water, and place a small bowl inside with a strainer on top. When your creme anglaise is ready, pour directly into the smaller bowl through the strainer. Stir right away then occasionally until cool.
The Trick to Making Creme Anglaise
The trick to making creme anglaise is mise en place or everything in its place. Setup the ice bath first then weigh out all of your ingredients. If you’re not comfortable eyeballing nappe, then have a thermometer handy to check the temperature. Make sure you temper and stir constantly when everything is in the pot.
How to Split Vanilla Beans:
- I always have a container with my vanilla beans with some water. This will allow the beans to soak up some water and plump them up which make it much easier to split and scrape.
- Use a small cutting board and a small, sharp paring knife. Dig into the top of one side but only split one side and do not split all the way through. Place your finger above the incision and drag your knife down the length of the bean splitting it open. Peel the two sides apart and scrape the seeds out of both sides dragging the knife down.
- You can throw the pod in with the milk or you can use it to flavor something else like homemade extract, vanilla sugar, or vanilla oil.
Why is My Creme Anglaise Curdling?
Curdling creme anglaise can be quite disappointing because you will have to start over. Follow these best practices to avoid a curdly mess and how to make creme anglaise.
- Make sure your ice bath is set up before you start making the creme anglaise with a bowl with your strainer in it.
- Have all of your ingredients weighed out before you start and have what you need at arms length. Make sure your dairy products are not close to or past their expiration date.
- Don’t skip the tempering step and turn the heat off when doing so and adding back into the pot.
- Reduce the heat to medium low and stir with your spatula constantly while scraping the bottom and side.
- You can temp the anglaise with your other hand to ensure it’s the right temp if you’re nervous. Pull off the heat 2-3 degrees early and immediately strain into the ice bath.
Frequently Asked Questions on How to Make Creme Anglaise:
- What is creme anglaise made of? Creme anglaise is made of dairy products, sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla beans.
- What is the difference between custard and creme anglaise? All creme anglaises are custards but not all custards are a creme anglaise. A custard is cooked dairy and eggs and the proportions, additional ingredients, and/or method of preparation determines the type of custard.
- Is creme anglaise just melted ice cream? It depends on the ice cream! If you’re making French style ice cream then yes. French style ice cream is churned creme anglaise.
Have another question? Reach out and I’ll try to answer it!
Creme Anglaise
Equipment
- Ice Bath
- Thermometer
Ingredients
- 310 g Heavy cream
- 310 g Whole milk
- 1 ea Vanilla bean
- ¼ tsp Kosher salt
- 100 g Granulated sugar
- 6 ea Egg yolks
Instructions
- Prepare your ice bath in a large bowl filled halfway with equal parts ice and water. Place a smaller bowl inside with a strainer sitting on top.
- Combine the dairy, scraped out vanilla bean seeds plus pod, salt, and half the sugar in a pot. Combine in a bowl the eggs yolks with the other half of the sugar.
- Bring the dairy to a boil and remove from heat. Whisk a small amount of the boiling milk into the egg yolks and return everything to the pot.
- Cook on medium-low while stirring constantly with a spatula scraping the bottom, corners, and sides. Cook until nappe or until 180℉.
- Immediately remove from heat and pour through the strainer into your ice bath. Stir right away then occasionally until it cools down.
