Instructions: Put the mill: cream and vanilla extract into a pan and bring up to the barest of murmurs it mustnt boil.

While the milk is warming use a wire whisk to beat the egg yolks with the caster sugar in a heatproof bowl then mix the cornflour with 4 tbsp of cold water and beat this into the sweetened egg. Next slowly beat the hot vanilla milk into the egg mix then return the custard to the saucepan.

Set the pan over a gentle heat and cook for about 5 minutes stirring and scraping the bottom to avoid the custard catching. Dont allow the custard to get too hot and bubbly otherwise you run the risk of scrambling the egg s.

Once the flour has cooked out and the mixture has thickened remove from the heat. Serve hot or cold.

I like thick custard but if you want to make creme arrglarse the thin French custard then omit the cornflour and replace the vanilla extract with a split vanilla pod fishing it out before serving. Creme anglaise is a good substitute for cream and is best eaten cold. You can vary the milk to cream ratio: 300ml cream to 200ml milk will obviously give a richer custard.

Makes more than 500 rn l

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