English Vanilla Custard by brianjwood

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English Vanilla Custard
Submitted by brianjwood on August 02, 2002 at 6:08 am

DESCRIPTION
English Vanilla Custard

SUMMARY
Yield 0 File under Misc. Recipes & Requests

INSTRUCTIONS
English Custard
Even the French have a name for it, Crème Anglaise, and my French friend, Jean-Pierre, used to sulk if I didn’t make it for him when he visited. It is worth making it once just to see how much nicer it is than custard from powder ( I won’t even discuss tinned custard!)

Makes 1 ¼ pints (750 ml )
8 egg yolks (standard); 3 oz (75gm) caster sugar (that’s the very fine sugar); 1 vanilla pod, split; ½ pint (300ml)milk; ½ pint double (heavy) cream.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl until thoroughly blended. Scrape out the inside of the split vanilla pod into the milk and cream, and add the pod too. Then bring to the boil. Put the bowl over a pan of hot water and whisk the milk + cream into the yolks and sugar. Keep stirring, and the mixture will start to thicken, but don’t, whatever else you do (like whistle Dixie while standing on your head!), let the mixture boil. Stir until the mix will coat the back of a spoon, then remove from the heat and take out the pod. Serve warm or cold, but stir occasionally to stop a skin forming. My mother never did this and we would fight to get the skin! My sister always won, but then her nickname is Godzilla.
Variations
For a lemon custard, add the zest (grated skin) of 2 lemons to the milk & cream while heating. Once thickened, add the juice of 1 or more lemons to taste. You might want to strain out the zest, but I don’t. You can also leave out the vanilla to preserve the pure lemon flavour.
For orange custard, use the zest of two oranges, but don’t add the juice. BUT you can add Gran Marnier or Cointreau, say about 2 tsps.
For rum custard, add rum to taste when cooked. A spoonful or two of cocoanut milk added is a nice touch, and leave the vanilla in this time.
For coffee custard replace the vanilla with 2 tsps of freshly ground coffee, and when done, strain out the coffee grains. You can use instant coffee, then you don’t need to strain it.

These all come courtesy of Gary Rhodes, one of my favourite chefs. I have most of his cook books, this is from his new British Classics.
Hope you pluck up the courage to try this. It is a taste of heaven!
Cheers, Brian

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