Fresh Berries and Vanilla Cream Sauce

Fresh Berries and Vanilla Cream Sauce

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

We usually think of serving fresh berries with cream, but this
recipe is a favorite dairy farmer's recipe. One would at first think that
dairy farmers would use cream with abandon; not so, as cream is the
most valuable part of the milk. For special Sunday desserts, berries
might be simply folded into cream to make a "berry fool," but a
vanilla cream sauce such as this one, which is a thin custard that pours like cream, points out the bright flavor of juicy berries. Try this sauce
also with baked fruit desserts such as apples, crisps, crumbles, or cobblers.
Fresh raspberries, strawberries, blueberries

6 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
21/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Pick over the berries. In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks with
1A cup of the sugar. In a heavy saucepan, combine the remaining
sugar with the milk; heat to boiling. Whisk about V2 cup of the boiling
mixture into the yolks. Return the yolk mixture to the saucepan and
cook over medium heat, whisking, until the custard is thick enough
to coat the back of a wooden spoon (about 160°F.). Turn the heat off
and stir for 2 to 3 minutes. Do not boil or custard will curdle. Add
the vanilla and pour through a fine mesh strainer into a serving bowl.
Chill, covered.
To serve, pour or ladle sauce over servings of fresh berries.