The flavor of this creme anglaise is enhanced by the inclusion of vanilla beans. To alter the flavor, you can also use flavored liqueur.
| Prep Time: | 5 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 25 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 1/2 cups |
Ingredients
- 1 cup half-and-half cream
- ½ cup white sugar, divided
- 1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Instructions
- In a saucepan over medium heat, combine half-and-half, 1/4 cup sugar and vanilla bean.
- In a bowl, whisk together egg yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar until smooth.
- When cream mixture comes just to a boil, remove from heat and remove vanilla bean. Whisk a small amount of hot cream into the egg yolk mixture, then pour egg yolk mixture into remaining hot cream and whisk until smooth. Return to medium heat and cook, stirring, until mixture coats the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Serve warm or cold.
Reviews
Delicious! It is great on so many things.
So good I wanted to eat the whole thing just by itself!
Agree that it’s a little too eggy than expected for creme anglaise. Used vanilla bean paste (from Williams Sonoma) which gave it outstanding vanilla taste! (Next time check Joy of Cooking, Julia Child)
I made bread pudding. Made a cinnamon apple compote and then topped with the anglaise. I made enough for 130 people. They were licking their bowls.
Perfect! It’s really, really bad for you, but so delicious!
Nice directions and straightforward to prepare. Thickened nicely. Thought it tasted too “eggy” although I had no curdling or evidence of solids in my sauce. Compared ingredients to other versions (including Julia Child) and the cream in the other versions was twice the amount in this one. Think I will double the cream next time to cut back on the egg flavor.
Used vanilla bean paste instead of the bean. Served over mixed fruit with white chocolate shards.
Excellent Creme Anglaise. Very easy to make and easy to adjust….I did cut a bit of the sugar, I also scraped the vanilla bean to give it a very vanilla flavor. I also used vanilla sugar. It was wonderful!
This is a great creme anglaise recipe, simple and traditional. I do not buy vanilla beans so I just use pure vanilla extract. Its also important to note that you MUST heat half and half on medium heat ONLY. Same goes for the mixture after the eggs are added, keep on medium heat and STIR CONSTANTLY. Any high heat and the mixture may begin to scorch on the bottom and have lumps. I added the vanilla after removing from heat as well as about 3 tbsp of bourbon whisky. YUMM!!!! Was amazing over warm bread pudding. If you have cold bread pudding, I suggest warmiing it in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes then add the creme anglaise cold…the bread pudding will warm up the sauce! SOOO YUMMY!
Such a nice flavor. I too used vanilla extract instead of a bean. Loved it on the Bread Pudding III from this site.
Perfect. I wanted a quick and easy, yet tasty sauce to serve with some banana bread to make it a little more elegant for a dinner time dessert. This recipe was easy and quick and turned out delicious.
This is a wonderful and very versatile recipe. I didn’t have the vanilla bean and decided that I wanted a different flavor, so I used a butter rum extract that I recently purchased from a cake decorating store. Nummy! It kinda tasted like a butter rum Lifesaver! I spooned some on the bottom of a plate, placed a serving of bread pudding on top of it, and then drizzled all of that with a warm caramel sauce that I made. The 9×13 pan was gone in ten minutes. Thanks for such a wonderful tasting and incredibly easy recipe!
Really easy to make and went great on bread pudding =)
Pretty good – not exactly what I was looking for though. I made it to go over bread pudding, and it was just too eggy flavored to me. Think egg nog without the spices… Rated 4 stars though, because the recipe came together well.
Great sauce! It was finger licking good.
Great taste but did what another reader did and used milk wouldn’t recommend. Didn’t thicken properly and kinda broke and didn’t stay together. Taste was very good though.
delicious.. made with chocolate brownies and it completely overshadowed the brownies. will definitely make again with a fruit salad
As described, used half the butter, just shy of the amount of sugar and it came out PERFECT! Topped applie pie and also lemon loaf with raspberries. WOW! New favourite!
Oh my goodness, this is good. I made this for a bread pudding recipe I also found on Allrecipies. I didn’t have cream, so I substituted 2% milk with a few tablespoons coffee creamer in it’s place. Also, I didn’t have any vanilla beans, so I substituted Real Vanilla Extract for that. I would definitely make this again!
I thought this was easy and tasted wonderful on bread pudding. I was out of half and half, so I had to use milk instead, and it still came out great. I also didn’t have a vanilla bean but added a teaspoon of extract when I stirred in the butter. I will make this again.
Wonderful, especially when served warm! Very simple flavor that enhances the dish. I would add a flavored liquor, maybe an almond or white chocolate liquor, next time, and also maybe cinnamon.