Vanilla creme brulee Delicious contrasts of texture and temperature

CREME brulee – also known as burnt cream and Trinity cream – consists of a rich custard base topped with a texturally contrasting layer of hardened caramelised sugar. It is normally served slightly chilled; the heat from the caramelising process tends to warm the custard, producing a cool centre.

The custard base is traditionally flavoured with vanilla but can have a variety of other flavourings.

In this recipe the dishes that I use in the restaurant are shallow so there is more of a crispy topping.

VANILLA-FLAVOURED CREME BRULEE 250ml double cream

75ml full fat milk

1 vanilla pod, scraped

4 egg yolks

50g caster sugar

Three or four tablespoons of caster sugar for the topping

2 teaspoons of vanilla essence Turn on the oven to 1,400C, 375F. Put the milk, cream and vanilla pod in the pan and heat until it reaches boiling point.

Then turn off the heat, cover the pan and leave to infuse for 10 minutes.

Whisk the egg yolks and 50g of the caster sugar together until it is pale and thick. Add the vanilla essence and pour the boiling cream onto the mixture. Stir it in well, then evenly pour the mixture into four shallow ramekins.

Cook in a water bath (bain marie) in the oven until just set and no more, which should take 20 minutes. Leave to cool.

Once cool, sprinkle with a thin layer of caster sugar and, using a blowtorch, carefully caramelise until you get a nice golden brown colour.

If you don’t have a blowtorch, use the grill of the oven: make sure it’s very hot and place the four ramekins under it, watching closely all the time until they are a nice golden colour again.

Leave to cool and serve within two hours.