- 1 vanilla bean
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 500g cream
- 6 tablespoons fresh ginger finely chopped
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 beaten egg
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
Preheat the oven to 180° Celsius or 350°F.
Cut the vanilla bean down its length, scrape out the middle and mix it with 1 tablespoon of sugar, place the mixture to the side.
Place half the cream, the ginger, and the rest of the vanilla bean in a small pot and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat leave to cool completely before passing it through a very fine sieve. Discard the rest of the ginger but remove the vanilla bean, dry it completely and place it in sugar for later use. Now stir the Vanilla-Sugar into the Ginger-Crème.
Mix the egg yolks, the beaten egg, the rest of the sugar with the remaining cream. Add the Ginger-Crème and mix well. Pour into 8 portion-sized forms of about 6cm diameter place on a deep baking tray with about 2cm of water in it and bake for about 30 min or until the Crème has stiffened. Leave to cool thoroughly and then place them in the fridge.
All, up to this point, can be done in preparation the day before serving.
Shortly before serving turn the oven grill on to its highest temperature, sprinkle the brown sugar equally over the Crème and place in the oven until the sugar has caramelized. Make sure the sugar doesn't burn, let them cool for a minute or two, to enable the caramel harden slightly before serving.