Mille crepe cake with diplomat cream

Brown a stick of butter, 113 g, in a saucepan between a simmer and a boil, keeping it moving and scraping the bottom and sides to prevent sputtering and stop the milk solids sticking.

When the mixture starts to foam, turn the heat down so it does not cross from brown into burnt, then kill the heat and let it deepen in colour in the pan. To stop it colouring, transfer it to a bowl instead.

Put two and three quarter cups of milk into the blender.

Add five large eggs and six tablespoons of sugar.

Add a teaspoon of kosher salt and one and a half cups of flour.

Blend everything except the butter, then stream in the brown butter while blending. It can be darker than this as long as it is not blackened and acrid.

Scrape all the golden brown milk solids left in the saucepan into the batter and blend once more.

Strain the batter into a container to catch unincorporated egg or clumps of butter, pressing any milk solids through with a spatula.

Rest the batter in the fridge at least four hours, ideally overnight, then bring it back to room temperature.

Whisk the room temperature batter to homogenize it; the colour evens out and it goes silky smooth.

Brush a very thin layer of melted butter over the bottom of the pan before adding batter.

With the heat on medium, portion a scant quarter cup of batter per crepe so each one is the same size.

Add the batter and immediately swirl it around the pan, patching any bald spots with a little extra.

When browning shows along the edge, peek underneath with the tongs and flip. Cook 90 percent on the first side and only 10 on the second, so that side is lacy and browned.

On a well greased nonstick pan a crepe that folds onto itself can simply be spread back out, because it is already cooked through on the first side.

Land each crepe on parchment and keep them covered with a kitchen towel, which stops them drying out and absorbs the steam so they do not go wet as they cool.

Repeat for about 20 to 21 crepes. Chill the stack, but do not hold them more than about 24 hours or they start to stick together.

Pour two tablespoons of cold water into a ramekin and sprinkle a teaspoon of powdered unflavoured gelatin evenly over it without stirring, to hydrate and soften it.

In the saucepan whisk five yolks with half a teaspoon kosher salt, half a cup of sugar and a quarter cup of cornstarch until very light and pale, scraping the yolk mixture off the sides.

Whisk in two cups of milk, a little at first to dissolve the yolk mixture, then the rest, loosening anything trapped where the bottom and sides meet.

Split and scrape half a vanilla bean into the pan and add the pod as well.

Cook over medium, keeping it constantly moving so no egg curdles or cooks, and getting the whisk into the corners of the pan. With cornstarch as the thickener it must come to a boil to fully thicken.

The foamy layer on the surface subsides and it starts to hold the marks of the whisk.

Hold it at a boil at least 15 to 20 seconds, whisking vigorously so nothing overcooks, then take it off the heat.

Off the heat, while it is really hot but not boiling, scrape in the softened gelatin; it melts in immediately.

Whisk in the cold butter a tablespoon-sized piece at a time. It drops the temperature and thickens the cream once chilled.

Pass the hot pastry cream through a strainer set over a bowl to catch the vanilla pod and any bits where the egg cooked. It strains much more easily hot.

Set the bowl of pastry cream into an ice bath in a metal bowl and stir, scraping the bottom and sides, to cool it rapidly. Tip out melt water as the level rises so none gets into the cream.

Empty and dry the outer bowl; the chilled bowl makes whipping the cream easier.

Whip one cup of chilled heavy cream to firm peaks, by hand or in a mixer, unsweetened, so it stiffens the filling.

Fold the whipped cream into the pastry cream in two additions, scraping down along the bottom of the bowl and rotating the spatula to bring the bottom to the top, until mostly streak free.

Pick an assembly surface: a cake stand, a cake round, the bottom of a springform pan, or an upside down dinner plate.

Place the first crepe on the surface. For upwards of 20 crepes a one and a half ounce scoop of filling per layer is about right.

Spread very thin layers with a small offset spatula, going almost to the edge and leaving about a quarter inch border so the lacy edges stay exposed.

Press down gently on the top crepe periodically to prevent doming in the centre, since the edges of the crepes are thinner than the middle.

Continue spreading and stacking until the crepes or the filling run out.

Without a kitchen torch, set the best looking crepe aside for the top instead of bruleeing it.

Cover and chill at least four hours so the gelatin sets fully and the layers fuse.

Sprinkle a thin, even layer of sugar over the surface and brulee it, then add a second layer and brulee again to build a glassy, shattering layer of caramel. The cake must be really cold or the torch melts the cream underneath.

Cut with a serrated knife to get through all the layers.