Mamas custard sauce

Thank goodness for my mother—if Aunt Sue’s pound cake is on the menu, she always makes sure this custard sauce is sitting right beside it. Rich and creamy, this is an old-fashioned sauce often used to pour over cakes. This recipe is hard to come by, as it is seldom written down, but rather passed through word of mouth as “a little bit of this and a little bit of that.” I’ve had several people ask me how to make this sauce after the good souls who used to make it in their family passed on.

½ cup sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

2½ cups milk

3 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Combine the sugar, flour, and salt in a heavy medium saucepan.
• Whisk in the milk and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring constantly (see Note), until just hot.
• In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks until smooth. Add about ½ cup of the hot milk mixture to the beaten eggs and stir. Pour the milk and egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly over medium heat, until the custard begins to thicken.
• Remove from the heat and add the vanilla. Pour the custard through a strainer into a small pitcher. Cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Note: I’m not kidding on the whole “stir constantly” thing here. Stirring prevents it from scorching, as it will easily do. This custard will seem like it’s never going to thicken and then seems to do it all at once, so stay close and stir constantly! If this is your first time making custard, you might want to opt for cooking it over medium-low heat—it will take a little longer, but you’ll have less of a chance of scorching.

2 cups