Last month I shared my “Sundried Cherry-White Chocolate Bread Pudding” recipe, so this month I want to share the best accompaniment for that dish. As the holidays are quickly approaching there’s nothing like a beautiful Creme Anglaise Sauce except with the addition of Bourbon! This isn’t real difficult, but it does take some attention. I hope you enjoy this sauce with your Warm Bread Pudding.
BOURBON CREME ANGLAISE
1 quart Heavy Cream
1 tablespoon Vanilla
8 oz. Sugar
Dash of Salt
14 Egg Yolks
1) Heat the cream in a sauce pot to a simmer. Add the vanilla and salt
2) In a mixing bowl whip the yolks and sugar. This is called “creaming.”
3) “Temper” the warm cream slowly into the yolk and sugar mixture. For this you could enlist a partner! With the cream off the heat, use a ladle to slowly drizzle the cream into the sugar mixture while you are whipping—two busy hands or a partner with the ladle and a person on the whip. This can be done by one person. What I recommend is placing the mixing bowl on a wet towel to minimize the bowl’s spin as you are whipping.
4) Place the mixture back in the sauce pot on a low heat. Using a wood spoon or rubber spatula stir the sauce in a figure “8” motion as to keep it from sticking to the bottom or scrambling. We are looking for a “Nappe” consistency. Here is the attention part!!! I have used this term in other recipes: what this means is we want the sauce to stick to the spoon or spatula. You should see the “8” in the pan when it’s thick enough.
5) When the desired consistency is reached, we want to cool this down as fast as possible. I recommend straining the sauce through a mesh strainer (just in case we scrambled a touch) into another bowl. Place this in the fridge, uncovered for now.
6) In another saucepan, take 2 cups of a cheap Bourbon (This is not Pappyland). Think Jim Beam or Jack Daniels Whiskey. Reduce the booze to 25% of what you started with. Let cool a bit then add it to your Creme Anglaise.
7) When completely cooled, cover your sauce until it is time to eat!
Note 1 – Creme Anglaise is perfect the way it is. The addition of the Bourbon reduction really adds to the Bread Pudding. If you like, use the sauce base and flavor it with other stuff. For example, a Grand Marnier reduction would be excellent on Poached Pears, or a Baileys reduction on a Chocolate cake, or a Chocolate Creme Anglaise for a Berry Dessert. Those are just some possibilities to play with that use this Sauce Technique.
Note 2 – I appreciate your taking interest in these dishes. They truly all mean something to me. As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me. [email protected] or 440-725-7625
