At times, it seems like everything in Germany is covered in Vanilla Sauce; strudel, dumplings, cake and ice cream. It’s a thin egg custard, and very good if you make it with real vanilla and eggs. Germans like to serve it instead of (or even in addition to) whipped cream.
You can make a similar sauce by cooking up a vanilla pudding package using three cups of milk instead of two.
Makes 2 cups sauce.
- 4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 cups milk
- 1 T vanilla sugar or 1 tsp vanilla extract
Beat the egg yolks and sugar (and vanilla sugar) together until the yolks are thick and pale yellow and the sugar is dissolved, about 4 minutes.
Bring the 2 cups of milk to a boil in a heavy 2-quart saucepan and then pour over the egg yolks in a thin stream, using a whisk or electric mixer to stir constantly. Pour back into pan and heat without boiling until mixture coats the back of a spoon. Remove pan from heat and stir in vanilla extract, if you are using it instead of the vanilla sugar.
Serve warm or cold.
Tip: If you have trouble with this recipe, you may want to cook the egg yolk-milk mixture in a double boiler, which heats gently. Boil 2 inches of water in the bottom of your double boiler and cook the custard over that, stirring constantly.
You may also choose to have a bowl of ice water standing by to place the saucepan in if you heat it too much. Place it in the ice water if it looks like it’s curdling and stir briskly until it smooths out.
