Vanilla Custard Sauce
Instructions:
- An excellent classic sauce for cakes, poached fruit, and
more. This one-pot method is simple and yields fine
results.
- 1 vanilla bean, split, or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- If you’re using the vanilla bean, heat the milk and the bean together in a small saucepan until the milk steams. Remove from heat, cover and let sit for 15 minutes. Remove the bean and scrape the seeds into the milk. If you’re not using the bean, just heat the milk.
- Once the milk has cooled back down to almost room temperature, add the remaining ingredients and whisk well to combine. Cook over medium heat, whisking almost constantly, until the mixture thickens and reaches 175–180 F. Don’t let it boil.
- While still hot, strain the sauce through a strainer and let cool a bit; stir in the vanilla extract if you’re using it. You can serve the sauce warm or chilled. It keeps, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
- Chocolate Custard Sauce.
- In Step 2, add 1/2 cup (about 3 ounces) chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate to the pot and let it melt as the mixture heats.
- Citrus Custard Sauce.
- Lemon is traditional, but lime is delicious too: Omit the vanilla. Add the zest and juice of 3 lemons (or 4 limes) and 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter. Double the sugar. Skip Step 1. In Step 2, combine the lemon juice and zest, butter, milk, yolks, and sugar all together in a medium saucepan and proceed with the recipe.