Red Velvet Creme Anglaise (Red Velvet Pouring Custard) is thick, creamy and luscious with lovely bittersweet chocolate and vanilla flavor. A great pouring custard to pair with your desserts, and works just as well as a Bloody Custard Sauce for Halloween-worthy treats!INTERMEDIATE - This recipe can be a bit tricky for beginners. Since there is no cornstarch in this recipe, it is VERY important to keep stirring the mix and never leaving it unattended, to prevent curdling. It requires some patience. But after making it a couple of times, it becomes much easier!US based cup, teaspoon, tablespoon measurements. Common Measurement Conversions.
2tspvanilla extractI usually prefer to use vanilla bean, but I didn’t want the vanilla caviar to appear in the custard
42gbittersweet chocolate1.5 oz (chopped)
dropsred gel food coloringI 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.
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.