Ingredients

Method

Preheat the oven to 150ºC / 300ºF

Separate the yolks from the whites. Place the whites to one side and add the yolks to a mixing bowl. Add the sugar to the yolks and whisk together. Put to one side.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, place the cream and the vanilla scraped from the vanilla pod and the pod or vanilla essence if using that and bring the cream to just under a boil.

Add a small amount of the cream to the egg mixture and whisk immediately. Gradually add the rest of the cream to the egg mixture stirring constantly.

Strain the custard into a jug and pour the mixture into 6 ramekins. Place the ramekins in a shallow roasting tin and fill the roasting tin with water half way up the sides of the ramekins. This is called a bain-marie.

Place in the oven to cook for an hour. They are cooked when there is a little jiggle in the centre of the pudding.

Remove the ramekins from the roasting tin and allow to cool then chill until you are ready to use.

To serve, sprinkle the soft brown sugar onto the top of each ramekin and using a blow torch , scorch the top of the desserts. You can also place them under a preheated grill until the sugar melts and is golden brown.

Once the sugar has melted it will harden to give a thin layer of hard caramel on top of the dessert which cracks when you dive in and gives a crunchy texture.