Have you ever been out to dinner, ordered dessert, and it came with a silky custard called crème anglaise? The rich vanilla bean sauce is a staple of French cuisine, and although made from basics like milk, eggs, and sugar, it can be a little tricky to recreate at home.
Like any custard, you have to carefully cook the mixture without scorching or curdling it; you can’t walk away or it can quickly become scrambled eggs. In pastry school, I was forced to make this finicky sauce repeatedly, learning to thicken it just until it coats the back of the spoon and not a second longer.
Years later, thanks to Ina Garten’s ingenuity, I learned there is an easier way. You can recreate a crème anglaise at home with just one ingredient and a little bit of time. The secret lies in the freezer aisle of your local supermarket.
What Is Crème Anglaise?
Although this sauce might be a staple in Ina’s house, it’s completely understandable if it’s not in yours. It’s a custard made from egg yolks, sugar, milk and/or cream, and vanilla. You might have seen Julia Child prepare the delicate sauce on one of her many cooking shows.
To make crème anglaise. the yolks and sugar are whisked together while the dairy heats with a vanilla bean. The hot milk is then tempered into the eggs, which is all returned to the stovetop to thicken. It’s cooked until it reaches nappe (pronounced nap-pay), which in French means “to coat.” You’ll know it’s ready if the sauce coats the back of the spoon, and you can drag your finger across it leaving a clean line.
Crème anglaise is used in many classic French desserts, from being poured tableside into a steaming hot chocolate soufflé, to forming the base of an Île Flottante or Floating Island, a dessert composed of meringue floating in crème anglaise. Stateside, you’ll often see the sauce served with rich chocolate cakes, as it cuts through the intensity of the chocolate beautifully.
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The One-Ingredient Hack for Crème Anglaise
Ina’s hack is to simply use melted vanilla ice cream. She lets the ice cream stand until it’s pourable, gives it a whisk, and the result is a crème anglaise without getting anywhere near the stove.
What you may not realize if you’ve never made vanilla ice cream from scratch is that most are made from crème anglaise, which is then chilled and whipped into the frozen confection we scoop on cones. Let the ice cream melt and et voilà you have crème anglaise again.
We recommend using vanilla bean ice creams for this, as they’ll have the signature flecks of vanilla just like a homemade crème anglaise does.
How To Serve Crème Anglaise
Spooning some of this easy sauce onto a plate or drizzling it over a dessert is a great way to quickly upgrade any sweet treat. If you really want to pull out all the stops, do as Ina does, and place the melted ice cream into a small pitcher and pour it over the dessert at the table.
While we discovered her trick when developing our Croissant Bread Pudding, you can use this shortcut sauce on a variety of sweets, including serving it simply over fresh fruit or pound cake. Here are a few of our favorite desserts to serve with this easy crème anglaise:
