James Martin's crème brûlée

James is back with a mouthwatering taste of France, treating us to his decadent crème brûlée.

Serves: 8

Ingredients

350ml double cream125 ml milk2 vanilla pods, split and seeds scraped4 eggs4 egg yolks130g caster sugar

Method

• Preheat the oven to 150c/325f/gas mark 3

• In a saucepan, gently warm the cream and milk with the vanilla pods and seeds, then remove from the heat and leave to infuse and cool for about 20 minutes

• In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolks with 50g of the sugar until smooth. Remove the vanilla pods from the pan, then whisk the infused cream mixture into the egg mixture

• Pour into 8 ramekin dishes until nearly full. Sit the ramekins in a high sided ovenproof dish and pour enough warm water to come two-thirds of the way up the ramekins.

• Carefully transfer to the oven and cook for 30 minutes until just set. Remove the ramekins form the water bath, leave to cool and then chill in the fridge for one hour.

• To serve sprinkle over the remaining 80g caster sugar and blow torch to form a crisp caramel. Alternatively, heat the grill to high and grill until until the sugar is crisp and golden.