Lambda carrageenan follow-up post: “creme anglais”

Just a quick follow-up on last week’s eggless custard using lambda and iota. In that post I mentioned that you can make creme anglais using just lambda. So I decided to make some with the left over cream base. I know many chefs also make creme anglais with a lower fat content (10% or 18% cream). In those cases you can compensate by increasing the amount of lambda to 2g per 500g of cream base.

Recipe is as follows:

500g base ( 450g 35% cream, 50g sugar)

1g or 0.2% PureLux (Lambda carrageenan)

Here is a close up of the creme anglais. Just to show the sheen and thickness. The thickness can be easily adjusted by the amount of lambda. Also, if you just happen to make a batch that was too thick, just put it in the vitamix and add more cream base until you’re happy. Just make sure it’s at the lowest setting!!!

Additional thoughts:

I just want to add that there really are many ways to achieve similar results. I know that creme anglais in traditional terms is a cream sauce thickened by egg yolks. Moving away from tradition, you could say it is simply thickened cream. There are many ways to achieve that. This is just ONE of many. Chefs may prefer to use the classic technique because they like the flavour egg yolks impart, and I can completely agree with that. In fact, I love the flavour of egg yolks. But what if some chefs don’t want to have that flavour, or if they are making it for someone vegetarian or has an egg allergy? Again, this is just one of many methods to make thickened cream.