Ice pop recipe using egg yolks by two different ways

Question

A few days ago i started reading about popsicles recipes. Searching this out i found out about two sort of recipes using almost identical ingredients to make a creamy popsicle.

The first recipes uses:

sugar, egg yolks, milk, heavy cream

1) Beat egg yolks and sugar until thicked and paled. Then put the milk and heavy cream on medium heat (not to boil). Then add 1 cup of the milky mixture in the egg yolks mixture and whisk; then put this in the milky mixture to cook whisking all the time until is ready.

The second recipes uses:

sugar, egg yolks, milk, corn flour

2) Whisk off the heat sugar, milk and corn flour. Add the milk gradually and whisk until the ingredients are dissolved, and then whisk in the egg yolks. Cook until ready.

Why in the first recipe we beat the egg yolks with sugar and at the second recipe type we just whisk them in? I would like to know the logic behind this and which recipe is better for the final result.

Answer 1

Because the recipe writers were used to those methods--seriously.

According to Harold McGee, in his On Food and Cooking (revised) beating eggs and sugar until they are pale--or even until they thicken--is only useful to indicate that the sugar is fully dissolved. Otherwise, it makes little difference to the outcome of recipes.