Vanilla cream

Very gentle, very smooth – good comfort food on its own, or combine with your preferred fruit puree. It is easy to vary the consistency of the vanilla cream as preferred: relatively more milk will give a more runny consistency; if a firmer consistency is preferred, reduce the amount of milk.

Ingredients

1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out
500 ml milk
100 g caster sugar
4 egg yolks
20 g corn starch

Method

In a saucepan, bring 400 ml milk, vanilla pod and seeds, and sugar to the boil, while stirring. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove vanilla pod. In a small bowl, whisk, remaining milk, eggs yolks and corn starch together. Add to the hot milk while stirring. Bring back to the boil for 1 minute, while stirring constantly. Immediately remove from the heat, pass through a fine-meshed sieve to remove any lumps. Transfer to a bowl, set aside to let cool, refrigerate until ready to serve.