Sous Vide Crème Anglaise

The festive season is once again upon us, and Crème Anglaise is usually found in many of the sweet Christmas delicacies you know and love. It may be the sauce to top a fruit laden Christmas pudding, the base of home-made ice cream, the layer within an English trifle or even the foundation for the salutary drink; Eggnog.

Crème Anglaise traditionally involves the dance of both temperature-control and time to ensure you finish up with a smooth silky sauce rather than a bowl of sweet scrambled eggs! The introduction of accurate heat control through the sous vide process, offers you the perfect solution to consistent silken crème anglaise every time. Read on for this tried and true recipe, thanks to Douglas Keller. 

Crème Anglaise

Ingredients

• 5 egg yolks
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 100g sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split in half and seeds removed (pod and seed paste stay separate)
• Pinch of salt

Method

• In a 10 Litre capacity Sous Vide Unit, set the temperature to 82◦C.
• In a blender, combine the egg yolks, milk, cream, sugar, vanilla bean seeds only (pod comes later!) and salt. Blend on high speed for 15 to 30 seconds.
• Pour the mixture into a bag, adding now the vanilla bean pod. Vacuum seal, removing as much air as possible, as you seal.
• Drop the bag into the 82◦C water bath and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. (Note: Cooking for 15 minutes will yield a thin crème Anglaise that just coats a spoon; 20 minutes will yield a thicker crème anglaise). Do not cook longer than 25 minutes.
• Remove the bag from the water bath, after your desired consistency time. Wrap the bag in a kitchen towel and massage it for 2 to 3 minutes. This helps to prevent lumps forming.
• Rapidly chill either in a Blast Chiller or an ice bath (should always be at least 50% ice—the more ice, the better). While the food is in the ice bath, move the bag around every so often or agitate the ice bath to prevent any areas of warm water from forming around the bag. 
• Use and serve in your chosen recipe as required. Note: If choosing to add alcohol, wait until after sous vide process is complete and product is cooled/bag being open for use.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic start to 2020 from the Regethermic Team!