Food For Thought

VANILLA SAUCE
Vanilla sauce, sometimes known as custard sauce or sauce anglaise, is the basis for a number of sauces, fillings, creams, and frozen desserts.

Vanilla sauce is made by blending eggs, milk or cream, and sugar. When these ingredients are stirred together over low heat until the mixture begins to thicken, the result is a smooth, pour-able sauce. Those same ingredients, combined and then baked in a hot water bath, produces a custard.
If a thickener such as flour or cornstarch is added to the sauce, vanilla sauce becomes a pastry cream. Add some whipped cream and gelatin to stabilized the mixture, and you have a Bavarian cream. A frozen soufflé or parfait. And, if you cool and then churn the sauce as it freezes, it becomes ice cream.
This delicate sauce requires careful handling to prevent curling. Once it is cooked, it has to be cooled as quickly as possible to below 40 degrees and held under refrigerator to prevent food contamination or food-borne illness.

SELECT AND PREPARE THE INGREDIENTS AND EQUIPMENT

DIFFERENCES DO EXIST among vanilla sauce formulas. Some recipes may include whole milk, while others call for heavy cream, light cream, or a combination of cream and milk. Some recipes use only egg yolks; others use whole eggs or a blend of whole eggs and egg yolks. Some recipes call for a vanilla bean to flavor the sauce; others rely upon vanilla extract.

It is especially important to have all the necessary equipment assemble before beginning, including a heavy-bottomed pot or a bain-marie, a fine mesh sieve or conical sieve, and containers to hold the finished sauce during cooling and storing. To cool the sauce rapidly and safely, have an ice bath prepared.

1. Combine the milk with half of the sugar (and the vanilla bean, if using) and bring to a simmer.
Heating the milk or cream with the sugar dissolves the sugar for a smother, silkier finished texture. If a vanilla bean is used to flavor the sauce, add the seeds and empty pod to the milk, or cream, and sugar as it heats. (If desired, vanilla extract may be used instead of vanilla beans. Add the extract just before the sauce is strained in step 5.) Heat just to the boiling point. Keep an eye on the milk as it heats since it can easily boil over as it nears the boiling point.

2. Combine the egg yolks or eggs with the remaining sugar in a stainless steel bowl.
Beating the eggs and sugar together helps prevent the eggs from scrambling with they are combined with the hot milk or cream. Blend the ingredients well, using a whip, for long enough to dissolve the sugar into the eggs.

3. Combine the hot milk or cream mixture with the eggs.
To produce a smooth sauce, temper the egg yolks with a portion of the boiling milk mixture. Ladle the hot milk into the egg mixture a little at a time, stirring constantly, until about one-third of the milk or cream mixture has been blended into the eggs.
Returning the tempered egg mixture to the pot. Continue to cook the sauce over low heat until it begins to thicken. Stir the sauce constantly to prevent if form overcooking. Do not let the sauce come to a boil, because the egg yolks with coagulate well below the boiling point. The idea is to create a soft gel that will coat the back of a wooden spoon. The temperature of the sauce should not go above 180 degrees.

4. Strain the sauce and cool the sauce.
Once the sauce coats the back of a wooden spoon, strain it immediately through a conical sieve into a container. Cool the sauce in an ice-water bath if it is to be held for later storage or served cold, storing frequently as it cools, and refrigerate it immediately. Placing a piece of plastic wrap on the surface prevents a skin from forming.

5. Evaluate the quality of the finished sauce or custard.
A good vanilla sauce is thick and glossy and coats the back of a wooden spoon. It shows no signs of curdling. This sauce should have a smooth, luxurious mouth feel with a well-balanced flavor, neither too sweet nor to eggy.

VANILLA SAUCE

1 pt Milk
1 Pt heavy Cream
1 Vanilla Bean Split and Scraped
8oz Sugar
9oz Egg Yolks

1. Heat the milk, cream, vanilla bean pod and seeds, and half the sugar until the mixture reaches the boiling point.
2. Combine the egg yolks and the rest of the sugar and temper the mixture into the hot milk.
3. Stirring constantly, heat slowly to 180 degrees.
4. Remove cream immediately from the stove and strain through a conical sieve, directly into a container set in an ice bath.

Notes
Sauce can be made over a water bath for more control of the heat source.
1 tbsp of vanilla extract may be substituted for the vanilla bean. Add it just before straining the sauce.
All milk or light cream can be used in place of heavy cream.