Parfait

Method

1. Chill a small mould, ramekin or mini loaf tin of about 8 cm in the freezer, lining it with cling film if you want to turn the parfait out cleanly. Put 1 egg yolk and 1 pinch fine salt in a heatproof bowl set on a damp cloth so it cannot slide, and have a hand whisk or electric beater ready.
2. Put 30 g caster sugar and 20 ml water in the smallest saucepan you have and set it over a medium heat. Swirl, do not stir, until the sugar dissolves, then boil for about 3 minutes to 118C on a sugar thermometer — the soft-ball stage, when a drop in cold water forms a soft pliable bead.
3. Whisking the yolk steadily, pour the hot syrup down the inside of the bowl in a thin, unbroken stream, avoiding the whisk so it does not spin sugar threads onto the sides. Keep whisking hard for 6 minutes: this pate a bombe should treble in volume, turn pale ivory, hold a slowly dissolving ribbon, and feel no warmer than your hand.