Do you love crème brûlée? Need a faster way to create that delicious flavor? Then crème anglaise is just the thing for you!
It taste great as a topping for any and all fruits (pictured here are some roasted plums!). The cream can also be used as a light dipping sauce, such as for cakes (angel food) or even at breakfast with french toast or pancakes. Or just have a spoonful straight (I mean, is it really that different than eating a half cup of crème brûlée? I don’t think so). Really, the options are endless.
In this post I will also be reviewing Sugar Rush, an amazing cookbook by Johnny Iuzzini with Wes Martin. Continue reading for the review and the recipe the crème anglaise recipe adapted from the book!
I was super excited to receive this book, before I had even cracked it open. Just looking at the cover of this book, one can see how irresistible the rest of it is!
When I did first open the book, I was a bit overwhelmed by all the pictures. I love when cookbooks are loaded with photos, but at first this was a bit much: it felt like there was no organization to the book, all the pictures were just thrown together, some huge, some small, some with words overtop, etc. Even though this was quite different from most other cookbooks I’ve seen, I quickly came to love it anyway. Each picture is crisp, clear, and mouth-watering. Almost every single recipe has a photo accompanying it and the recipes that are more difficult have ten or more step-by-step photos.
This is a basic dessert cookbook, but the focus seemed to be on French desserts (such as custards, meringue, different types of crème brûlée, puff pastry, etc.). There were also non-French basics like cinnamon rolls, fruit cobblers, and chocolate chip cookies. I really liked that there was a wide variety of desserts and of their difficulty, allowing this book to be accessible to bakers at virtually any level of experience. Novices may start out with simple cookies or brownies whereas those more experienced may go for the cream puffs or éclairs. And beginners can easily add to their repertoire by looking at the step-by-step photos and following the clear-cut instructions.
Overall, I would highly recommend this book to any baker or anyone who simply wants to learn. 
So go ahead, roast some fruit in your oven and serve it up with this amazing sauce!
- 6 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 6 egg yolks
- pinch of salt
- Place ice and cold water in a large bowl.
- In a small sauce pan over medium heat, mix 2 tablespoons of sugar, all the milk and cream. Let the milk/cream scald, or simply bubble at the rim of the pan. Don’t allow to boil.
- After the milk is done being heated, find a medium bowl and a whisk. Whisk the yolks, 4 tablespoons of sugar, salt, and vanilla together. Once this yolk mixture has thickened significantly (and drops in a ribbon when the whisk is lifted), slowly pour the cream into the bowl. Whisk as the cream is poured and continue to whisk until a smooth mixture results.
- At this point all the ingredients should be in the medium bowl. Pour these contents back into the medium saucepan over low heat. Get out a thermometer and wait until the mixture reaches 180F, this should take around 5 minutes.
- Place the medium bowl (which should be empty now) in the large bowl of ice water. Pour the cream into the medium bowl and whisk as the mixture cools. Store in the fridge.
Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books.
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