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Crème anglaise

Name: Crème anglaise
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: Serves 4 (about 400g)
Cuisine: French recipes
Ingredients: 200ml whole milk; 200ml double cream; 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways; 3 medium free-range egg yolks; 50g golden caster sugar

By: Emily Gussin
Food producer and sustainability lead, delicious.

Published: 9 Aug 23
Updated: 18 Mar 24

Crème anglaise is a staple of the French culinary canon and the basis of many other custard recipes. This classic thin custard is much easier to make than you may think, and the flavour comes down to the quality of your ingredients – choose rich, orange yolks for the yellow colour we associate with custard. Should the worst happen, find out what to do if your sauce starts to split in the tips.

Need a plant-based alternative? Check out our silky vegan custard.

Easy
2023

Test kitchen approved

Serves 4 (about 400g)
Hands-on time 15 min

Need a plant-based alternative? Check out our silky vegan custard.

Nutrition: per serving

Calories: 363kcals
Fat: 31g (18g saturated)
Protein: 4.7g
Carbohydrates: 16g (16g sugars)
Fibre: 0g
Salt: 0.1g

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Ingredients

200ml whole milk
200ml double cream
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
3 medium free-range egg yolks
50g golden caster sugar

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Method

Put the milk and cream in a saucepan. Scrape in the vanilla seeds and add the pod too. Put over a medium heat and warm through, stirring every now and then to stop it catching.
In a large bowl, use a balloon whisk to beat the egg yolks and sugar together until combined and a little paler. Once the milk is steaming hot and quivering (but not quite boiling), gradually pour the milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly until all combined.
Pour the mixture back into the pan and put over a low-medium heat. Use a rubber spatula to gently stir the mixture as it heats through (you don’t want to add air bubbles at this point). Cook gently until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula (about 5-7 minutes). It should reach 82°C when it’s ready but you can just check by dunking the spatula in the custard, then pushing your finger through it – if the line you’ve created in the custard holds for a few seconds it’s ready.

Remove the vanilla pod and serve the custard hot or allow to cool, then chill until ready to use. You can heat it again gently to eat warm later.

Recipe from 2023 Issue

Nutrition

Nutrition: per serving

Calories: 363kcals
Fat: 31g (18g saturated)
Protein: 4.7g
Carbohydrates: 16g (16g sugars)
Fibre: 0g
Salt: 0.1g

delicious. tips

Starting to split? If your custard looks like it might split, quickly remove it from the heat and tip it into a bowl. Sit the bowl over another bowl filled with iced water and use a hand mixer or stick blender to whizz it. The rapidly reduced temperature and blending will help it emulsify and come back together.

Don’t waste it You can use a vanilla pod more than once, even if you’ve scraped the seeds out. Rinse it, then wrap in kitchen paper to store. Use it to infuse another mixture or, once dry, whizz it up with sugar in a food processor to make vanilla sugar.

Next time Try infusing the milk and cream with different flavours instead of vanilla. Herbs and spices such as bay leaves, cinnamon and saffron all work well, or experiment with fig leaves, roasted nuts or coffee.