Thanks for your ideas, I'm certain the answer lies with the extra egg yolk and adding boiling water to the water bath. Monpetitchoux, I like your idea of concentrating flavors, I'll try that, too. I had added fresh rasberries on the bottoms of my ramekins but they floated to the top. Hard to keep those buggers down. Also, what sugar do you think makes the best topping? I used turbinado but I don't think I melted it enough since it was still a little grainy. I do use the blow torch method, I feel I have more control that way.