I love desserts that use very few ingredients and that can also be made wherever I travel and Crème caramel is the perfect example of this using basically, milk, eggs, cream and a little sugar. This French classic certainly looks impressive and you may think it sounds like it would be too difficult to make but in reality it’s a gently baked custard set over a caramel base and uses no fancy ingredients. This recipe is based on one from Ottolenghi’s book “Sweet” with slight different ratio of cream to milk and the replacement of orange zest instead of ginger (which I have made many times and is also also delicious by the way)! This dessert is elegant, light, fragrant and the perfect way to end a heavy winter meal or one rich with spiced food. It is also just as delicious in summer and perfect easy sharing food. I prefer to serve it as a large centrepiece instead of smaller ramekins as you can serve up an amount appropriate to the appetite of the guest!

There are a few points to consider here – you need a 23 or 25cm baking dish/flan dish (preferably with a fluted edge but not necc) that can sit inside a roasting tray as you are going to bake and steam it at the same time. You also need to go low and slow on the temperature as if the temp is too high and you cook it too fast you will have scrambled eggs. I have done this a couple of times in an overly hot oven and whilst the result is not unpleasant it is certainly not what you want to aim for and more reminiscent of sweet scrambled eggs :-(!

Another tip – you need to make this 1-2 days before you want to eat it, so this is not a spontaneous “whip up last minute” dessert. On the upside you will have dessert done and dusted two days in advance which is a total win for me when entertaining. You can even make it up to 3 days in advance and it will keep for 4 days easily if wrapped with cling-wrap. The reason this pudding needs to be refrigerated 2 days before it’s eaten is because when you turn it out you want all the caramel to have dissolved and melted so it runs all over the custard and this takes it own sweet time. I have left this dessert for one night before and some of the caramel still stuck to the bottom which is a shame and a waste as it is delicious!

Ingredients – serves 8-10

250ml Pouring Cream

750ml Whole Milk

Zest of 1 large orange or 2 small oranges

1 tsp vanilla extract

400g Caster sugar ( I like Natura golden caster sugar as it is unbleached)

6 large eggs

For the caramel

1. Preheat oven to 150°C. Place a 23 cm (9 inch) pie or flan tin in the oven while it heats up so that when you pour the caramel in you can swirl it around easily without it getting ridgid too quickly.

2. Place 200g of sugar in an even layer in a large (preferably non-stick) saucepan and cook gently over medium heat until it’s dark amber in colour paying attention so it doesn’t burn and DO NOT STIR but rather swirl the sugar around to make sure it all melts evenly.

3. Pour the caramel in the preheated flan dish and swirl it around to fully coat the bottom. Place the dish in a high-sided baking/roasting tray and set aside to firm up.

For the custard

1. Whisk together eggs and remaining 200g sugar until smooth but not frothy as you don’t want lots of bubbles. Add the milk, cream, vanilla & zest and whisk gently until fully combined.

2. Pour custard mixture into the caramel-coated dish and create a water bath by pouring some recently boiled water into the baking tray around the flan dish so that it reaches about halfway up the sides of the dish.

3. Bake for an hour until set and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Depending on the size and material of your dish cooking times can vary, so start checking at 50 minutes. As soon as the crème caramel starts to “jiggle like jelly instead of like water”, remove it from the oven. 

4. Cool to room temperature in the water bath, then transfer to the refrigerator to chill and let the custard set and the caramel dissolve.

5. When ready to serve, carefully run a small knife around the edge of the dish and place a large plate over the dish and quickly and bravely flip the whole thing over. I don’t serve anything else with this dessert – it is just perfect on its own!