If you’ve got a few extra egg yolks left over from a batch of meringue, consider making a custard sauce. Crème Anglaise (French for English cream) is an all-purpose sauce of egg yolks, sugar, and hot milk or cream—often flavored with vanilla—splashed over fresh fruit, pieces of cake, or anything that tickles your fancy. It can also serve as the basis of a dessert on its own in the classic Floating Island, where mounds of poached or baked meringues float on a lake of the sauce.
Tips for Making Crème Anglaise
The thing to keep in mind when making Crème Anglaise is to use a gentle heat so the yolks don’t curdle. When beating egg whites for a meringue, the albumen proteins unwind and interlock to form an air-trapping network of bubbles. Overbeating, however, makes the network so tight that the water and air in the whites get squeezed out causing a mess: dry, grainy whites in a puddle of liquid. In Crème Anglaise, egg yolks are beaten vigorously with sugar, also unwinding the proteins. Hot milk or cream is whisked in gradually, and the liquid is heated slowly on top of the stove to make a smooth, custardy sauce. In this case, excessive heat (not too much beating) will cause the yolk proteins to rebel and make a fuss by curdling and turning into a sea of protein knots floating in milk. Just follow the recipe and photographs here and your Crème Anglaise will turn out perfectly.