How To Make Crème Anglaise (Custard) | Baking Basics #10

Custard, or Crème Anglaise as it is known by the French, is the pinnacle of British dessert making! Nothing goes over a warm pudding that is absolutely drowned in a thick vanilla custard! Yum, yum, yum! Try serving this custard with these Mini Pineapple Upside Down Cakes, or leave it to cool and use it to make a Classic British Trifle.

Whilst shop-bought custard can be very good (Ambrosia´s the way to go if you´re living in the UK), custard is fairly easy to make yourself and should be part of every baker´s (or home cook´s) repertoire! So, in this tenth baking basics post, I am sharing with you how to make a classic British vanilla custard!

Custard? Crème Anglaise? What´s the difference?

Custard? Crème Anglaise? What is the difference between those two? In short, nothing. As you will know, the French are known for their amazing pâtisserie skills and they have a lot of different names for all the types of pastry cream fillings they use. Whilst the most common ones are the thicker Crème Pâtissière, Crème Diplomat or Crème Chantilly, ideal for filling and piping, the French also have a name for the runny vanilla cream us Brits love to pour over literally everything – custard! So, the French have named it after us and called it Crème Anglaise, English Cream (N.B. slightly offended at the English part – what about the rest of the UK?!?!🤣).

How do you make Custard/Crème Anglaise?

Now, custard, or Crème Anglaise can be made in a few different ways. Starting with the liquid, people either tend to use double cream, milk or a mix of both. Personally, I think a custard made entirely from double cream is a bit much. And why bother buying both cream and semi-skimmed milk to mix them, when you can just go down the easiest route which is to use just full-fat milk! One ingredient, amazing taste, win-win! So, that is the route I have taken in this baking basics post.

When it comes to setting the custard (i.e. helping it thicken) some recipes rely solely on the egg yolk, whilst others also add a little cornflour to help the custard along. I think cornflour isn´t the traditional way and is more commonly used to make the thicker Crème Pâtissiere (check out the baking basics post for that here). However, to reduce the risk of making a super runny custard, I have included a little cornflour in the basic recipe below to help guarantee success! Due to the large volume of milk, you´ll still end up with a smooth, silky and pourable custard, but don´t run the risk of it being to runny!

Step-by-step Picture Guide to Making Custard/Crème Anglaise

Top Tips for making Custard

The most difficult thing about making custard is having patience! Be gentle when you heat the milk and eventually the whole custard mix. If you are impatient and increase the heat, you risk the eggs scrambling when you pour the hot milk onto them or are waiting for the custard to thicken! So, when making custard, slow and steady wins the race!

Also, as I said, my personal tip is to use a little cornflour in the recipe to make a thick and pourable but not super runny custard! The ratios of milk to thickening agents in the recipe below are perfect to achieve that!