Vanilla Bean Custard With Sour Cherry Sauce Recipes

Steps:

• Heat oven to 300 degrees. Place an oven rack one-third of the way up from the bottom. Choose a small roasting pan large enough to hold four 6-ounce custard cups, and fill it with enough water to go halfway up the sides of cups. Place pan without cups in the oven. Meanwhile, combine cream, milk, and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan; bring to boil.
• Whisk together the yolks and sugar in a medium bowl until light and fluffy. Slowly whisk in the hot milk until completely combined, then pour into custard cups, and place them in the pan of hot water. Bake on the lower shelf until the custard has set and is no longer liquid when lightly touched in the center, 30 to 40 minutes. Remove pan from the oven, remove custard cups from the water, and place on a wire rack to cool. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Steps:

• In a 2-quart heavy saucepan bring 2 cups of the milk, 2 tablespoons of the sugar, and the scraped vanilla bean to a boil over medium heat.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Slowly pour 1 cup of the hot milk mixture, whisking constantly, into the egg yolk-sugar mixture. (Do not pour the entire yolk-sugar mixture into the boiling milk mixture, as it will curdle the eggs.) Whisk in the remaining milk. Pour the milk-yolk mixture into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Do not boil.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the rum. Strain the mixture through a fine wire sieve into a heat--proof bowl. Place the sauce in an ice bath. When cool, transfer the sauce to a bowl. Cover the surface with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator, until ready to use. Sauce will keep in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 days if well sealed.

Steps:

• Place the cherries, sugar and cinnamon in a medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Stir in the vinegar. Place the cornstarch in a small bowl and stir in the water until smooth. Add to the sauce and cook until sauce begins to thicken, about 2 minutes longer. Strain. Serve over vanilla ice cream, poundcake or poached pears.

Steps:

• Prepare an ice-water bath; set aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolks, sugar, and salt until well combined.
• Pour milk into a heavy-bottomed, nonreactive saucepan. If using the vanilla bean, scrape seeds from pod halves into the milk using the tip of a knife. Add pod halves. Place over medium heat until small bubbles appear around the edges of the pan.
• Remove from heat and slowly pour milk mixture into egg mixture, whisking constantly. Pour mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a spatula, until slightly thickened and coats the back of the spatula, about 5 minutes. Pour into a medium bowl and set bowl in ice water bath. Let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Stir in vanilla extract, if using.
• Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into another bowl, cover, and refrigerate until serving.

Steps:

• Make sauce:
• Combine cherries and sugar in heavy large saucepan; toss to coat. Let stand until juices form, about 2 hours. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until liquid thickens slightly, about 12 minutes. Remove from heat; mix in brandy. Transfer 1 cup cherry mixture to small bowl; reserve for use in ice cream. Mix preserves into remaining cherry mixture in saucepan; reserve for sauce. Chill both cherry mixtures separately at least 2 hours. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover and keep refrigerated.)
• Make ice cream:
• Pour half and half into heavy medium saucepan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean; add bean. Bring to boil. Remove from heat; steep 30 minutes. Whisk sugar and yolks in medium bowl to blend well. Bring half and half to simmer. Gradually whisk hot half and half into yolk mixture. Return mixture to same saucepan. Stir over medium-low heat until custard thickens and leaves path on back of spoon when finger is drawn across, about 4 minutes (do not boil). Remove from heat. Mix in whipping cream and vanilla. Refrigerate until cold, stirring occasionally, about 2 hours.
• Using ice cream maker, process custard until almost firm, following manufacturer's instructions; add reserved 1 cup cherry mixture. Process until ice cream firms, about 15 minutes longer. Transfer to container; cover and freeze. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep frozen.)
• Scoop ice cream into bowls. Top with reserved sauce and serve.

Steps:

• In a saucepan, combine the milk and vanilla bean and bring just to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover and allow to sit 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the yolks, sugar and salt until thick and light-colored, and set aside.
• Discard the vanilla bean and very slowly whisk the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Return the mixture to the saucepan, set over medium-low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens just enough to coat the back of the spoon, about 10 minutes. (Do not overcook or the custard will curdle.)
• Immediately remove from the heat and strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Serve warm or chilled. (If necessary, rewarm the sauce in the top of a double boiler set over barely simmering water.)