Ingredients

290ml/ ½ pint

full fat milk, ideally organic

15g/ ½ oz

butter, ideally organic

30g/ 1 oz

organic caster sugar

60ml/ 4 tablespoons

white breadcrumbs

Grated rind of 1 lemon

free range eggs, separated into whites and yolks

1 tsp

Steenbergs organic Fairtrade vanilla extract

30ml/ 2tbps

raspberry jam or raspberries in a sauce, warmed to make runny

110g/ 4 oz

organic caster sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 180oC /350oF.
Warm the milk then add the butter and sugar. Stir it all with a wooden spoon until the sugar has all dissolved, then add the breadcrumbs andlemon rind.
Seperate the eggs.Whisk the eggs gently by hand and add the Steenbergs organic Fairtrade vanilla extract into this. When the breadcrumbs mixture has cooled down a bit, stir in this egg yolk mixture thoroughly. Pour the breadcrumb custard mix into a pie dish and leave to stand for 30 minutes somewhere cool.
Put into the preheated oven and bake for 25 minutes, or until set. This can be done in a bain marie for even more exacting results, but it doesn’t need it if you watch over it. Remove and allow to cool.
Reducethe oven to 150oC /300oF.
Using the warmed jam, spread this over the top of the set breadcrumb-custard base. At my parents, we used some frozen raspberries from the garden which we warmed through and then added some sugar to; this was less sweet than using raspberry jam and had a better mouth feel or texture, but maybe are less close to hand.
Whip the egg whites until stiff and then whisk into this about 2 teaspoons of the caster sugar. Whisk again until very stiff and then fold in all but ½ teaspoon of caster sugar. Pour this over the top of the base, then sprinkle over the remaining caster sugar.
Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes until the meringue is set and lightly brown at the edges.
You could serve this alone, as we do, or with a luxurious clotted cream or even vanilla infused whipped cream.