serves 4-6

500 ml full fat milk

300 ml cream

1 vanilla pod, split lengthways or a drop or two of vanilla extract

1 cinnamon stick

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

200 g sugar

2 Tbsp butter, melted

2 stale but not too stale croissants, halved horizontally

2 apples, halved, cored and roughly chopped

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan and grease a large pie dish or baking. Put the milk, cream, vanilla and cinnamon in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Put the whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a mixer or in a mixing bowl using an electric whisk and whisk until pale and fluffy. Slowly pour the boiled cream into the egg mixture, whisking vigorously until evenly incorporated.

Pass the mixture through a fine sieve and discard the vanilla bean, cinnamon stick and any bits of egg shell that may have accidentally crept in.

Brush the melted butter over the croissants and arrange them in the prepared pie dish or baking pan. Scatter the apples over the croissants in the pan, then pour the custard in over the top.

Using a spatula, press down the croissants so that they start to soak up some of the lovely custard mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. It should still be a little runny in the middle.

Serve with vanilla ice cream, or just some whipped cream flavoured with a little lemon and vanilla extract.