Cambridge Burnt Cream

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •6 shallow ramekins (about 150ml each)
• •Deep roasting tin for the bain-marie
• •Kitchen blowtorch
• •Fine sieve
• •Heavy-bottomed saucepan
• •Balloon whisk

Instructions

1. 1

   Infuse the cream

   Pour the cream into a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Split the vanilla pod down its length, scrape the seeds into the cream, and drop the empty pod in after them. Bring it slowly to the edge of a simmer, the point where the surface shimmers and a few small bubbles gather at the rim. Don't let it boil. Take it off the heat, cover the pan, and leave it to sit for twenty minutes. The vanilla needs that quiet time to give itself up to the cream.

   Use a real vanilla pod, not extract. The flecks matter, both for looks and for taste. A tired pod can be revived by scraping a little harder and letting it sit longer in the cream.
2. 2

   Whisk yolks and sugar

   While the cream infuses, whisk the egg yolks and the 75g of caster sugar together in a bowl. Not to ribbon stage, not until pale and fluffy. Just until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture turns the colour of thin buttermilk. This is a custard, not a sponge. You're not trying to get air into it.

3. 3

   Combine and strain

   Pour the warm vanilla cream slowly into the yolks, whisking gently as you go. Slowly is the word. If you dump it in, you'll scramble the eggs and have to start again. When it's all combined, strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug. The sieve catches any stray bits of egg and the empty pod, and the jug makes pouring into the ramekins easier.

4. 4

   Bake in a bain-marie

   Heat the oven to 150C/130C fan. Sit the ramekins in a deep roasting tin. Divide the custard between them. Boil a kettle, then pour hot water carefully into the tin until it reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Slide the tin into the oven and bake for thirty to forty minutes. The custards are ready when the edges are set but the centres still wobble when you give the tin a gentle nudge. Think of a shoulder shrug, not a handshake. A liquid centre means more time. A firm centre means you've gone too far.

   The bain-marie isn't optional. Water around the ramekins protects the custards from the direct heat of the oven and stops them curdling. Use hot water from the kettle so the oven doesn't have to work twice.
5. 5

   Cool and chill

   Lift the ramekins carefully out of the water with a cloth or a pair of tongs and set them on a rack to cool to room temperature. Then cover each loosely with cling film and refrigerate overnight. They need this time to set properly and to become properly cold, all the way through. A burnt cream that isn't cold isn't a burnt cream. It's soup with a lid.

6. 6

   Burn the tops

   When you're ready to serve, take the ramekins out of the fridge and blot any condensation from the surface with kitchen paper. Sprinkle a thin, even layer of caster sugar over each custard, about a tablespoon, tilting the ramekin to coat evenly and tapping off any excess. Fire up the blowtorch. Hold it a few inches from the sugar and move it in small, steady circles. The sugar will melt, bubble, and turn amber. Trust your nose: when it starts to smell of proper caramel, you're close. Keep going until you have an even deep gold, not black patches. Let the sugar set for a minute so the crust hardens, then carry the ramekins to the table.

   Thin and even is better than thick and piled. If you want a heavier crust, do two light passes with sugar and torch, letting the first one set before adding the second. Patience pays here.

Chef Tips

• •A real vanilla pod is worth the money here. Extract will do at a push, but this is a pudding of four ingredients and one of them is vanilla, so there's nowhere for a shortcut to hide. Buy the pod. You'll see the seeds in the finished custard and you'll taste the difference.
• •Low and slow is the rule for the custard. A hot oven will scramble the eggs and you'll end up with something grainy instead of silky. If your oven runs hot, drop the temperature another ten degrees. Trust the wobble, not the clock.
• •A kitchen blowtorch is the right tool for the crust. A hot grill works in a pinch, but you have to watch it like an obsessive and the heat from above warms the custard, which isn't what you want. If you cook at all seriously, a small blowtorch earns its place in the drawer.
• •Serve within ten minutes of torching the sugar. The crust softens in the cold custard after a quarter of an hour or so, and the first crisp crack is the whole pleasure of the thing. If you're having people round, torch the tops between the main course and the coffee, not before.

Advance Preparation

• •The baked custards can be made up to two days ahead and kept covered in the fridge. They actually benefit from the extra time to set and chill through.
• •Do not torch the sugar until just before serving. The caramel crust softens within ten to fifteen minutes of being made, and the whole point is that first clean crack when the spoon goes in.
• •The vanilla pod, once scraped, can be rinsed, dried, and buried in a jar of caster sugar to make vanilla sugar. Nothing in this recipe needs to be wasted.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 145g)