Super Simple Creme Anglaise - Recipe Winners (2024)

Super simple creme Anglaise, is just a fancy pants French name for English cream, or custard. It is ridiculously easy to make, and we can just about guarantee you’ll never buy store bought custard ever again with its stabilisers, and fake colouring.

We love a recipe that dispenses with certain steps (and washing up), and still delivers big time on flavour.

The recipe comes from Chef John, from Food Wishes who pared back the recipe, and dispenses with the step of tempering the eggs, and pouring the mixture back into the pan, then stirring over low heat for 8-10 minutes. Gone!

Do you want to make the apple cake above?

The delicious fresh apple crumble cake pictured above is fantastic served with this easy super simple creme anglaise. Click on the link here forFresh Apple Crumble Cake

making super simple creme anglaise

Making this easy, super simple creme anglaise couldn’t be easier.

Basically you throw your cream, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla into a heavy based saucepan and turn the heat onto low-medium. You can crank the heat up to medium if you’re feeling a little impatient (and confident), as it does take a while to come to temperature.

Give it all a good whisk, and keep whisking, and watch for the first sign of small bubbles appearing onto the surface of the sauce.

Again, give it all a good whisk, turn the heat off and allow the finished creme Anglaise to cool.

Place a piece of cling wrap over the top of the sauce to stop a ‘skin’ forming’, and refrigerate.

The finished sauce thickens as it cools, and is more ‘dollopable’, than pouring consistency. If you would like to pour the creme anglaise when serving, simply heat it gently and the sauce will thin out to a pouring consistency. Too easy!

Watch Points

It’s all about the egg yolks. Cook on too low the custard won’t thicken, cooked on too higher heat and the custard will curdle.

What to do if you overheat the custard and lumps form

When custards such as creme anglaise are heated, they turn thick and creamy as milk and egg proteins unfurl and bond with each other. However, if they are overheated, too many bonds form and the proteins clump together.

Rescuing a lumpy custard is easy using a stick blender. Simply give the custard a quick blitz using the stick blender (20-30 seconds) and the lumps break down to a smooth custard again.

Vanilla Bean and Vanilla Bean Paste

For this recipe we used vanilla bean paste, and the result was fantastic. Obviously you can use a whole vanilla bean, simply split the vanilla bean lengthways and using a small sharp knife scrape the seeds from the pod and add to the custard base.

Adding flavour variations to creme anglaise is easy.

• chocolate – add finely chopped chocolate to the custard as soon as you remove it from the heat and whisk till chocolate has melted
• coffee – add 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of coffee powder (depending on how strong you want the coffee flavour) to the mixture when you remove it from the heat
• orange – add 1 tablespoon of Grand Marnier or Cointreau, along with 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest when custard is removed from the heat
• hazelnut – add 1 tablespoon of Frangelico liqueur to the mixture when you remove the custard from the heat
• liqueurs: Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of Amaretto, Cointreau, Armagnac, brandy, dark rum, or bourbon to the basic recipe after custard has been removed from the heat

Watch how to make Super Simple Creme Anglaise

Scroll to the bottom for the Super Simple Creme Anglaise recipe

Check out some recipes to serve Super Simple Creme Anglaise sauce with (funnily enough, they’re all apple desserts, that’s because apples and custard are a perfect marriage!)

click on the link for the recipe ….. Sicilian Apple Cake

click on the link for the recipe ….. Fresh Apple Crumble Cake

click on the link for the recipe ….. French Apple Cake

click on the ink for the recipe ….. Apple Blueberry Cake with Crumble and Almonds

click on the link for the recipe ….. Brown Butter Apple Cake

What’s your go-to recipe for creme Anglaise?

We would love to hear from you in the comments below when you make this Super Simple Creme Anglaise recipe.

Yield: 1 cup

Super Simple Creme Anglaise

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Creme anglaise is made in minutes, and is very easy to make. The main watch point is to not allow the custard to boil. A little patience is required while whisking, but only for 3-4 minutes.

Make different flavoured Creme Anglaise - see notes above

Ingredients

• 1 cup thickened (heavy cream)
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean extract (or vanilla extract)

Instructions

• combine cream, sugar, vanilla and egg yolks in a small heavy based saucepan
• on low-medium heat whisk ingredients together and continue whisking (3-4 minutes) till custard has small bubbles on the surface (not boiling)
• immediately remove from heat and pour into a container and allow to cool
• place a piece of cling film over the surface of the custard (this stops a 'skin' forming)
• refrigerate till ready to use
• custard can be very gently reheated to serve warm
• enjoy!

Notes

• custard will keep refrigerated for 3-4 days

Nutrition Information

Amount Per Serving Calories 0Total Fat 0gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 0gCholesterol 0mgSodium 0mgCarbohydrates 0gFiber 0gSugar 0gProtein 0g