Elderflower burnt cream with raspberries

<i>Serves 4</i>

If you have metal tiffin boxes, make your dessert in the box, ready to take with you. Is this delicious dessert French or English in origin? It's difficult to say, as burnt cream seems to have been around for as long as crème brûlée. We've been swapping recipes with the French since the Norman Conquest. It may even have been that both were derived from crema Catalan. But whoever had the idea of putting a mirror of burnt sugar on top, well, they deserve a golden custard tart. Crème brûlée and burnt cream come in many versions. I have added some concentrated elderflower cordial I made a month or so ago. (I can't resist picking free food if I'm walking past it and the elderflowers were no exception.) Those elderflowers are turning into berries now, ready for the game season - so it's too late to make your own cordial, you'll have to buy it.

If you have metal tiffin boxes, make your dessert in the box, ready to take with you. Is this delicious dessert French or English in origin? It's difficult to say, as burnt cream seems to have been around for as long as crème brûlée. We've been swapping recipes with the French since the Norman Conquest. It may even have been that both were derived from crema Catalan. But whoever had the idea of putting a mirror of burnt sugar on top, well, they deserve a golden custard tart. Crème brûlée and burnt cream come in many versions. I have added some concentrated elderflower cordial I made a month or so ago. (I can't resist picking free food if I'm walking past it and the elderflowers were no exception.) Those elderflowers are turning into berries now, ready for the game season - so it's too late to make your own cordial, you'll have to buy it.

If you don't have a blowtorch in your shed then you can get handy little domestic cheffy ones for that perfect, glazed topping.

600ml thick Jersey cream
100ml elderflower cordial
8 egg yolks
60-70g caster sugar
120g raspberries

Start the day before you want to eat the burnt creams. Bring the cream to the boil, add the elderflower cordial and simmer gently, whisking occasionally, until it has reduced by a third. Meanwhile, mix the egg yolks with 1 tablespoon of the caster sugar. Pour the reduced cream on to the egg yolks and mix well. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a low heat, stirring constantly without allowing it to boil, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.

Remove from the heat. Pour into your metal tiffin tin or 1 large or 4 individual heatproof gratin dishes like ramekins and leave to cool overnight in the fridge. Before you set off, sprinkle an even layer of caster sugar over the cream and caramelise under a pre-heated hot grill or with a blowtorch. Serve with the raspberries on top, or take them in a separate container.