Simple to make and super delicious – this Red Velvet Creme Anglaise (or Red Velvet Pouring Custard) is thick, creamy and luscious with lovely bittersweet chocolate and vanilla flavor. It’s a great pouring custard to pair with your desserts, and works just as well as a Bloody Custard Sauce for Halloween-worthy treats! 🙂
I’m not particularly fond of scary movies (unless I know exactly what’s going to happen ahead of time). I HATE clowns and dolls. And I cannot step inside a haunted house. My anxiety would never let me enjoy any of those things. BUT, I love costumes, candy and coming up with fun Halloween-themed food! 🙂 If I could, I’d run a blog based ONLY on Halloween food! That’s how much I enjoy the process of coming up with a deliciously-spooky idea for Halloween party snacks, treats and desserts. But since it won’t make sense to do that all year long, just the whole month of October will do. 🙂
Today’s recipe is a bloody easy to make Red Velvet Creme Anglaise (or as I like to call it, Bloody Red Velvet Pouring Custard which I use in this Halloween chocolate skull cake. This red velvet custard is such a great dessert on its own, and it’s super simple to make. You can make it ANY TIME OF THE YEAR because it complements all kinds of desserts as a yummy pouring sauce. So you could call it red velvet creme anglaise (or red velvet pouring custard) any other time of the year, and then call it a bloody custard sauce for Halloween. 🙂
This red velvet custard sauce was inspired by my own Red Velvet Popsicles (Harley Quinn Popsicles). The combination of chocolate and red coloring gives really deep red color that’s gorgeous and perfect for replicating a blood-like effect for fun Halloween treats. Last year I made Red Velvet Hot chocolate, and this year I’m pouring this Red Velvet Creme Anglaise on ALL my desserts!
The trick to making a good creme anglaise is patience. You can’t rush a good custard sauce. You can take a short cut and add some cornstarch (cornflour) to prevent curdling (or make the eggs more resistant to heat), but a true custard does not require that. It envelops your dessert in a luscious, creamy, thick but pourable sauce that’s just sweet enough, and tastes richly of vanilla. Check out my comprehensive post on types of custard for everything you need to know about making delightful custards!
To make this red velvet creme anglaise, I added two extra ingredients – bittersweet chocolate and red coloring. So this red velvet custard is still just as luscious, creamy and thick, but it also has a great bittersweet chocolate and vanilla flavor.
Here I whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until the mix is pale and thick. You don’t HAVE to do this, you can just lightly whisk the egg yolks till the mix is smooth instead. For example, when I want a custard in a hurry, I only whisk the egg yolks until they’re smooth, but here I whisked a bit longer as I feel it makes the custard that much lighter and dreamier.
Chocolate is then dissolved in warm milk with red coloring (make you use red coloring that has no taste, some have a very bitter taste). The warm chocolate milk is then tempered into the fluffy egg yolk mix and heated again until it’s thick and coats the back of a spoon thickly (but evenly). It’s this second heating step where you need some patience. You have to stay there and stir the sucker. Get a spoon and get your arm ready for those figure 8 stirs, because you need to do that for at least 5 minutes on low heat. If you heat it too high, the custard at the bottom will curdle and set (red velvet scrambled eggs anyone?). And if you stop stirring, you’ll have the same issue.
After you do the custard test (a thick coating on the back of a spoon), let the red velvet custard cool down (away from the heat), and then you should ALWAY pour it through a sieve to remove ANY egg bits or scrambles pieces, just to be sure. Store the pouring custard in a seal-able bottle or jar. It can be refrigerated for up to 5 -7 days. Since this red velvet creme anglaise is so easy to make, I just make it as needed, and I don’t end up keeping it in the fridge for too long anyway.
You can serve this red velvet custard (or Halloween-worthy bloody custard sauce) warm, cold or at room temp. We usually love it at room temp. or slightly warm. Use this red velvet custard over any pudding or dessert where you’d normally use chocolate sauce and/or custard. It’s SO SO GOOD! 🙂 Here, I made a classic vanilla pound cake and poured this delicious pouring custard over the slices of cake.
I’ll be sharing a really fun cake recipe next week, where I used this red velvet custard. So make sure to subscribe or follow me to get the latest scoop. 🙂
Recipe
Red Velvet Creme Anglaise (Red Velvet Pouring Custard)
US based cup, teaspoon, tablespoon measurements. Weight measurements are recommended for accurate results whenever available.
Common Measurement ConversionsIngredients:
- 75 g white sugar ⅓ cup + 1 tbsp
- 6 egg yolks from large eggs
- 240 ml whole milk 1 cup
- 240 ml heavy cream 1 cup (35% fat preferred)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract I usually prefer to use vanilla bean, but I didn’t want the vanilla caviar to appear in the custard
- 42 g bittersweet chocolate 1.5 oz (chopped)
- drops red gel food coloring I use Tulip Red from Americolor
Instructions:
- Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until pale and fluffy.6 egg yolks, 75 g white sugar
- Place the milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan with the chocolate and a few drops of red food coloring and heat the mix over medium heat. Whisk the milk to dissolve the chocolate completely. Add more red coloring as needed to get a bright red color.240 ml whole milk, 240 ml heavy cream, drops red gel food coloring, 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Temper the egg yolk mix with about ¾ cup of the hot milk, while continuously whisking the egg mixture. Return the tempered milk-egg mix back into the saucepan with the rest of the warm milk.
- Heat the custard over medium (or medium low) heat while whisking continuously (or stirring in a figure 8 pattern) to prevent the milk mix from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan or curdling (please see recipe notes). The milk must be heated until it thickens. This step will take some time (and patience!) depending on the stove and saucepan you use.
- When the custard has thickened and coats the back of a spoon (but still remains pourable), remove the saucepan from the heat. Do not let the custard come to a boil, as this can curdle the eggs.
- Immediately add the chopped bittersweet chocolate and stir to completely melt the chocolate. The custard should have a deeper, blood red color after adding the chocolate. You can add more red color if you like at this stage too.42 g bittersweet chocolate
- When the chocolate has melted, strain the custard through a sieve to make sure it's smooth.
- Serve the creme anglaise while warm. The sauce will continue to thicken as it cools down, so if you need to warm it up again you can do so in a saucepan (my preferred method), or in the microwave.It can also be served at room temperature.
- Extra creme anglaise can be stored in the fridge for up to 2-3 days.
Recipe Notes
Notes on cooking custard
To prevent curdling or burning, the custard needs to be cooked while being continuously stirred. If you haven’t made custard before, I would recommend cooking this over low heat, or even using a double boiler method. You can regulate the heat by removing the pot from the pan occasionally and continuously whisking to evenly and gently heat and thicken the pouring custard. Another tip (if you are a beginner at making creme anglaise or any custard), is to dissolve 1 – 2 tsp of cornstarch in the milk (while it’s cold), before heating the milk and cream together. The starch lowers any chances of the custard curdling.Nutrition Information:
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
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