St Clements crêpe soufflé

Serves 4

(Jason Lowe)

This is a classic French dessert, and although it's not actually a soufflé, the filling does rise a little, transforming a simple pancake into a luxurious and interesting pudding. You can make this with any fruit really and use different flavourings and alcohol in the filling.

quantity of the basic pancake batter
4 blood or ordinary oranges
2 lemons
1tbsp Cointreau
2 egg whites
30g caster sugar

For the custard

One-third of a vanilla pod
200ml single cream
4 egg yolks
50g caster sugar
1tsp cornflour

First make the custard: split the vanilla pod in half lengthways and scrape out the seeds with a point of a knife. Put the cream, vanilla pod and seeds into a small saucepan and bring to the boil.

Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for about 10 minutes. Then, in abowl, mix the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together.

Remove the vanilla pod from the cream. Pour the cream on to the egg mixture and mix well with a whisk.

Return to the pan and cook gently over a low heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the custard thickens (but don't let it boil). Remove the custard from the heat and give it a final mix with a whisk and transfer to a clean bowl.

Meanwhile, finely grate the rind of two of the oranges and the lemons and juice all of them. Simmer the juice and zest in a pan until you have about a tablespoon left.

Stir half into the custard with the Cointreau and add the rest to the pancake batter. Cover the surface of the custard with clingfilm to prevent a skin forming and leave to cool.

Make 4 pancakes with the batter as described on the previous page. Clean a mixing bowl and whisk with boiling water to remove any traces of fat, then whisk the egg white until fluffy, add the sugar slowly and carefully fold into the custard.

Divide the custard mix between the pancakes and spread almost to the edges, then fold in half and half again and place on to a baking tray. Cook in the oven for about 6-8 minutes; they should rise a little but don't worry if they don't . Transfer on to warmed plates and serve.