2 cups whole milk
5 egg yolks
â…“ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pour milk into a medium-sized sauce pan and heat to the point where the milk begins to scald. Remove from heat. In a medium bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar. Very slowly, drizzle about half of the milk into egg yolk mixture, stirring constantly until the eggs are tempered. Then add tempered eggs back to the rest of the scaled milk. On low to medium heat cook mixture stirring continually watching to make sure it does not get too hot. If it does, the eggs will congeal and cook. (If you have to, keep removing the pan from the heat, stirring as you go.) Continue this for about five minutes or until mixture thickens. Immediately remove from heat, then add vanilla and stir. Place a fine sieve over a bowl and pour the custard mixture through the sieve to filter out any egg bits that started to congeal. Cover the bowl with a large piece of plastic wrap, pushing the plastic down to touch the top of the custard. (This will prevent a skin from forming on the custard as it cools.) Refrigerate until completely cooled. The finished sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a day and used as needed for recipes calling for custard sauce including Poached Pears in Red Wine or Apple Crisp.