I have set up kind of a makeshift double boiler. You can buy one of these, and I know my mom
had one of these growing up. You just need a big pot with a fourth to a half an inch
of water, and you'll just need a nice glass bowl to put on top. The point of a double
boiler; the heat from the boiling water is going to be an indirect source of heat on
your bowl. You don't want a direct source of heat for this. You can't put this in a
microwave, or on a stove, it?s just too much heat for this dish; it?s really, really delicate;
but you also don't want the boiling water to be touching it. That's why we only have
a very small amount of water in there. So that we just have the steam coming up. That
creates a double boiler. I already have the Marsala wine measured and set off to the side.
When I'm working with this on the double boiler, I want to be able to work continuously. Whisking
continuously, while pouring Marsala wine into the eggs and sugar. I don't want to have to
stop to pour it into the measuring cup, and put it down; that's too long. I want to be
able to work continuously at the double boiler. We're adding the Marsala wine very slowly.
The point of putting this over the double boiler and getting that heat; we want to cook
the eggs so that you're not eating raw egg. However; you do need to stream this in and
whisk consistently, I mean, sorry, continuously because you don't want a scrambled egg; that's
gross. You want to be whisking the entire time. That's why it was so important to have
this pre-measured. I'll tell you what you're looking for; when you know it'd done. Two
things; one is color, and I'll be honest, that's a little bit...that can be variable.
I use a little bit darker color of a sugar. That's just the sugar I like to use, so mine
is going to come out a little darker than normal, but it's typically a pale yellow.
Again, mine is a little darker because of the color sugar I use. The other thing that
you're looking for is the consistency of it. Right now, it's pretty liquidy, from the wine.
What you want is when you're whisking it, once you get to the point where you can pull
your whisk through it, or pull a spoon through it and it creates just a slight little river,
you're done. Take it off right then. I've made the mistake before. Don't think, oh,
just a little bit longer; I need a little bit bigger river through the middle of it.
Don't do it, because you'll overcook the egg. I've done that before. As soon as it makes
just that little parting way through there, and you'll see it when it happens; see how
it's not doing it yet?, It just all streams together; it's still too liquidy. We're going
to keep whisking it, and you want to get it off the heat. When you're ready to take it
off, you'll want to take it off quickly because there's still going to be heat in the bowl,
so it will actually continue to cook. So if you have to err on either side, err on the
side of undercooked, if you think it is. Simply because it will continue to cook, and you
don't want to overcook it. We're right on schedule. I can tell it's getting just a little
bit thicker; I can just feel it in my whisk, of course, it's very foamy. You see how it's
moving just a little bit slower across there? We're getting there. Patience is a virtue.
As you can see, the color is a nice light yellow, it's a beautiful color. Once it starts
to thicken it thickens pretty quickly, so we're about to that point. See how thick it
is? Look at that. It's starting to leave a little bit more of a trail when I go across
it. That's about where you want it, so I'm going to remove it right now before it gets
overcooked. Be careful, the steam will get you; I like to step back a little. I'm going
to go ahead and remove that all. Again, there's still heat in the bottom of that bowl. Now
actually whisking this without the heat is releasing a lot of the heat in there, so this
is actually to help it cool down. Next, I'm actually going to put it in a separate container
so it can cool a bit quicker. I'm going to stick it in the fridge. You can't just put
some..well, I would put it in a separate container. I was about to say that you could leave it
in this container to cool, but it makes me nervous for it to keep cooking in that hot
container. I would remove it, which I'm going to do. You can even see it's even thickened
since I've taken it off the double boiler. Look at that, just in the last thirty seconds.
Look at that, it's much thicker. Now it's like a nice custard, and we don't want any
more. At this point, if it cooks any more it will just taste like egg, and that's not
good, but right now, it's yummy.