1,601 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 77 videos

Egg yolks and caster sugar

We often come across recipes where we need to mix egg yolks with caster sugar.

This would appear to be a very ordinary and simple thing to do but, be warned, these two ingredients can behave oddly together.

87 K 2× 4.3/5 (29 reviews)

Last modified on: February 15^th 2018

For this post Comments Lasts posts Follow

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

Let’s take confectioner's custard (crème pâtissière, or french pastry cream) as an example: there’s a stage at which the egg yolks are mixed with the sugar. Is there anything particularly difficult about this? Not really. We mix the yolks and sugar together (without whisking) and that’s all, but there’s an important little tip well worth knowing. You might be tempted to separate the egg yolks from the whites and simply tip them into the weighed-out sugar, as shown in the photo below. Then why not go off to do something else, such as putting the milk on to heat up, before coming back to the egg yolks and sugar mixture later?

egg yolks and caster sugar

Why not? Because you will regret it if you do! Something starts to happen as soon as the egg yolks come into contact with the sugar. The sugar sucks out the water from the egg yolks (we say that sugar is hygroscopic) and this effectively begins to “cook” the surface of the yolks. The result is patches of hard yolk (like in a hard-boiled egg) which will not mix in when you add the boiling milk. These will remain as small lumps in your custard and spoil its normal smooth, creamy texture.

This might not seem like a big deal, but it happens very rapidly. If the egg yolks and sugar are in contact for longer than a minute, the reaction will begin and little hard lumps will start to develop.

How can we avoid this? It’s really quite simple, and this goes for any recipe involving a mixture of egg yolks and sugar: put the egg yolks into bowl, then add the sugar required and mix immediately with a spoon or, better still, with a soft spatula. Once mixed like this, the mixture can be left until later without any problem.

egg yolks and caster suger mixed

As a precaution, you can do what professional pastry chefs do: 1) make sure you use this method of mixing immediately, 2) strain your mixture of egg yolks+sugar+milk+vanilla+cornflour through a fine sieve when you pour it back into the saucepan. This way, you can be sure that your custard will be perfectly smooth. You might well be surprised by what you see left in the sieve: lumps, milk skin, bits of cooked egg yolk, shreds of vanilla pod…

straining cream

It is worth mentioning that professional pastry chefs will often strain their cold custard a second time through a very fine sieve before using, to make absolutely sure that the texture is smooth. But maybe that’s going a bit far for us amateurs…

To sum up: A recipe where egg yolks are mixed with sugar? Mix these two together immediately with a soft spatula, then you can safely leave them while you get on with the rest of the recipe.

Lasts posts

Hot Emulsified Sauces

In French cuisine, sauces are a very important part of a recipe—not just a side dish. In fact, they’re so important that, especially since the time of Auguste Escoffier, they’ve been classified into categories. And among these categories are “hot emulsified sauces,” or lukewarm ones. ...
September 9^th 20269585

Hot Dishes and Cold Dishes

When plating or serving a dish—whether hot or cold—on a plate, it’s very important to make sure they’re both the right temperature; in other words: if the dish is hot, the plate should be hot, and conversely, if the dish is cold, the plate should be cold. Is this really important? Let’s...
September 2^nd 20268223

In baking, cold is your friend

When you bake at home—especially when making pie crusts—you’ve probably noticed that it’s quite difficult to work with the dough when it’s hot. It gets soft, is hard to roll out, and breaks or crumples very easily. And this doesn’t just happen when it’s hot—even in a comfortable...
August 26^th 20268695

With vinegar?

When you buy a jar of pickles labeled “in vinegar,” you’re looking for their tangy, crunchy flavor to go with cold cuts, sandwiches, or salads. You expect to find small gherkins preserved in vinegar, with salt and herbs, but is that really the case?
July 15^th 20261,8374.8

Congratulate the chef

You've just finished a meal that you really enjoyed. The server approaches with the usual question: “How was it?” And then, as a natural reflex, you simply reply, “Yes, it was very good.” However, when the meal was truly outstanding, this brief exchange deserves a little more. .
July 7^th 20261,328 35

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Is it really necessary to cream egg yolks?

Let’s try and answer a question that crops up in cookery and patisserie, even if it verges on the existential: do the egg yolks in a custard recipe really need to be beaten until pale, or not?
February 28^th 201846 K4.3

The golden-brown finish on puff pastry

Let's take a look at the tricky matter of producing puff pastry with an attractive, golden-brown finish. French pastry chefs call this "dorure" (literally, "gilding"). Behind this quirky term there lurks a real problem (and the solution): when using puff pastry (pâte feuilletée) for a pie, or...
February 8^th 201851 K 24.6

What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?

This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .
February 7^th 2017138 K 14.2

A few tips for effective kneading at home

When you have to knead dough for bread or some other recipe, you may well use a food processor or the type of machine known as a stand mixer. The best-known brands are Kenwood and KitchenAid. They are useful tools, but here are a few tips to help you get the best out of them.
June 23^th 2021288 K 23.8

Fats for cooking

If you need to fry or sear anything a frying pan or saucepan, the temperature is likely to be high. In particular, I have cooking red meat in mind. In this case, what should fat should we use? And at what temperature?
January 23^th 201822 K5

The 2 comments already posted on this page

What is the best name should be given to a small household business that concentrate in making sweet cake, Bread and bun, pizza and pineapple pie?
Posted by Anonymous january 12^th 2020 at 19:25 n° 2
What about "Home sweet bakery"?
Posted by jh Auteur january 14^th 2020 at 15:43 n° 1

Follow this page

Receive an e-mail as soon as this page is modified or receives a new comment.

We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.

Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.