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Vanilla Sauce

This simple sauce is delicious drizzled over the poppy-seed sweet bread or the rum raisin apple pie.

Recipe information

  • Total Time

    1 1/2 hr

  • Yield

    Makes about 2 1/4 cups

Ingredients

2

cups whole milk

4

large egg yolks

1

/4 cup sugar

1

teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Special Equipment

an instant-read thermometer

Need to make a substitution?

Preparation

  1. Bring milk with a pinch of salt to a simmer in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Whisk together yolks and sugar in a bowl until combined, then add hot milk mixture in a slow stream, whisking. Transfer custard to same saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard coats back of a spoon and thermometer registers 170 to 175°F. Pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl and stir in vanilla. Cover surface of custard with a round of wax paper and chill until cold, at least 1 hour.