½ pint double cream
½ pint milk
two bars (200g) good dark chocolate
two egg yolks
2 oz vanilla sugar
preserved black cherries
caster sugar
Preheat your oven to gas mark 4.
Heat the cream with the milk; if you don't have vanilla sugar, add a vanilla pod and leave it to infuse for twenty minutes. In either case, take it off the heat before it boils, break the chocolate into it and stir till melted.
Beat the egg yolks (two is just enough for a light custard; one or two more will make it increasingly stiff, if you prefer that) with the vanilla sugar (or plain caster, if you're using the vanilla pod instead), then mix in the chocolate cream.
Divide the cherries, with a little of their liquor, between ramekins (these quantities are sufficient for six), pour over the chocolate cream mixture and stand in a bain-marie. Bake in the oven for thirty minutes.
Cool, and chill overnight. To serve, sprinkle a scant teaspoonful of caster sugar over each, shake and tap to spread it evenly then either caramelise under a seriously hot grill or go at 'em with a blowtorch till the sugar melts and bubbles and goes almost black. Leave for at least ten minutes, and up to an hour. The crust should be thin but solid beneath a tapping spoon.