By Mark Bittman
- Total Time
- 3 minutes
- Rating
- 5(183)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Strawberries, like asparagus, peaches, corn and a few other joys of summer, are perhaps best enjoyed unadulterated, at least at the beginning of the season, when the thrill of their newness is fresh. Later on, when you’re on your 10th quart, it’s time to tinker. I craved a kind of crème anglaise, a cooked but marginally thickened custard. But I wanted something a little more exciting than the standard vanilla-scented one. By jolting the custard with toasted almonds, I met that need, and with only a tad more work than in the original version.
Strain out the cooked almonds if you want a creamy sauce (and you should). Served warm, over good strawberries, with slivered almonds as a garnish, this is almost as good an option as shortcake.
Featured in: Fresh Strawberries With Almond Crème Anglaise
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Ingredients
Yield:6 to 8 servings
- ¾cup chopped almonds plus ½ cup lightly toasted slivered almonds
- 1cup milk
- 1cup cream
- ½cup sugar
- 4egg yolks
- 6 to 8cups strawberries, washed, hulled and quartered
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
363 calories; 25 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 11 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 30 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 22 grams sugars; 8 grams protein; 29 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Put chopped almonds in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, shaking pan occasionally, until fragrant and beginning to toast, about 3 minutes.
Step
2
Add milk, cream, sugar and egg yolks, and whisk well to combine. Cook, whisking almost constantly, until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Do not let it boil.
Step
3
While sauce is still hot, strain it through a sieve and let cool a bit. To serve, put a cup of strawberries in each dish, drizzle with warm sauce and garnish with slivered almonds. Sauce will keep, tightly covered, in refrigerator for up to 3 days.
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5
out of 5
183
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Cooking Notes
FL Cook
Love this recipe -- and love dairy....but trying not to include it in my diet right now.....can this be made with Almond Milk and if yes does the recipe need to be altered any?
Nick
Excellent. I would suggest allowing the pan to cool between toasting the almonds and making the custard. Alternatively, you could toast the almonds and make the custard in separate pans, moving the almonds from one to the next. Doing so would prevent accidental overheating of any of the ingredients that may otherwise happen if you begin adding the milk etc. directly to the hot toasting pan. A teaspoon or so of vanilla extract is also welcome.
Annette Rachlin
Nicks comments are excellent. I made a half recipe, and would have cooked the egg and curdled the milk mixture if I poured it directly into the pan. As it was, the pan was not cooled enough, and the mixture started to boil almost immediately. The recipe should say “set aside pan until completely cooled. The added vanilla was a good idea too.
Marsha
Traditional method is to combine sugar and cream, bring to slight boil, temper egg yolks with hot cream/sugar mixture whisking constantly, then add this mixture back into the saucepan. Whisk until thick over low heat. NEVER add raw egg yolks to a hot liquid or pan. I made this by this method and did not strain out the almonds for flavor and texture.
Emi
This was so incredibly good! I allowed the pan to cool slightly between toasting the almonds and adding the remaining ingredients. In the video, Mark uses a silver spoon to do the coat-the-back-of-a-spoon test, but I found that it pretty much "coated" the back of a silver spoon instantly and was not a good indicator of doneness. I instead used a wooden spoon (seems more common?) and found that was a better implement to properly determine thickness/doneness.
SR
added vanilla and a pinch of salt. Used sliced almonds and saved them, rinsed and dried to sprinkle on top!
Annette Rachlin
Nicks comments are excellent. I made a half recipe, and would have cooked the egg and curdled the milk mixture if I poured it directly into the pan. As it was, the pan was not cooled enough, and the mixture started to boil almost immediately. The recipe should say “set aside pan until completely cooled. The added vanilla was a good idea too.
Annette Rachlin
Nicks idea of cooling the pan saved my milk mixture from curdling and the egg from cooking! As I was making a half recipe, the mixture came to a boil almost immediately. The pan should be completely cool. The vanilla was a good idea too.
AlleyN
Out of this world good!The video was fun and helpful to drive home why it should not approach boiling, and other details.I used 1 cup vanilla flavored cream (real cream with vanilla) instead of plain cream, as that was what I had on hand.I also left the almonds in the sauce. (couldn't imagine straining those tasty almonds out!)
Joan
This takes way more than 3 minutes to prepare.
Matt
I haven't made this yet, but it sounds good. I use almonds often, whole, slivered, flour, etc.I wonder why one wouldn't use almond extract here. You get the flavor, and it would be less work, and no waste.
casz61
here's another (almost) unadulterated take on fresh strawberries: Set aside a few strawberries then slightly mash some others together in a glass bowl add some ground cubeb pepper and a slight dash of your best balsamic vinegar. Mix it all together gently and let them rest for two or three hours in the fridge, then serve with those you have set aside. Simple and easy. The pepper and balsamic embellishes the strawberry taste.
bette
Chopped almonds ---- ? How are these to be chopped? Finely? coarsely? Some other consistency?Straining the almonds from the custard was a trial and a tribulation. What kind of sieve does Mr. Bittman use?Anglaise has been a favorite since childhood but I would not make this treatment again.
Nick
Excellent. I would suggest allowing the pan to cool between toasting the almonds and making the custard. Alternatively, you could toast the almonds and make the custard in separate pans, moving the almonds from one to the next. Doing so would prevent accidental overheating of any of the ingredients that may otherwise happen if you begin adding the milk etc. directly to the hot toasting pan. A teaspoon or so of vanilla extract is also welcome.
FL Cook
Love this recipe -- and love dairy....but trying not to include it in my diet right now.....can this be made with Almond Milk and if yes does the recipe need to be altered any?
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