Fresh Berries and Vanilla Cream Sauce
Instructions:
We usually think of serving fresh berries with cream, but this
recipe is a favorite dairy farmer's recipe. One would at first think that
dairy farmers would use cream with abandon; not so, as cream is the
most valuable part of the milk. For special Sunday desserts, berries
might be simply folded into cream to make a "berry fool," but a
vanilla cream sauce such as this one, which is a thin custard that pours
like cream, points out the bright flavor of juicy berries. Try this sauce
also with baked fruit desserts such as apples, crisps, crumbles, or
cobblers.
Fresh raspberries, strawberries, blueberries
6 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
21/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
- Pick over the berries. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks with 1/ 3 cup of the sugar.
- In a heavy saucepan, combine the remaining sugar with the milk; heat to boiling.
- Whisk about 1 / 2 cup of the boiling mixture into the yolks. Return the yolk mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon (about 160F.).
- Turn the heat off and stir for 2 to 3 minutes. Do not boil or custard will curdle. Add the vanilla and pour through a fine mesh strainer into a serving bowl. Chill, covered.
- To serve, pour or ladle sauce over servings of fresh berries.