Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Place a small kitchen towel on the bottom of a ceramic baking dish and place six custard dishes on top of towel.

Bring about 2 cups of water to a boil in a tea kettle or saucepan. Keep hot.

In a medium saucepan, bring cream to a simmer. Keep an eye on the cream so that it does not boil over.

In a bowl, gently crack eggs (2-3 at a time) and use an egg separator to separate the yolk from the egg carefully. You can also do this by hand with the egg shells by slowly pouring the yolk back and forth between the egg shells, letting the egg whites fall into the bowl.

Once separated, place the six egg yolks in a large bowl. Whisk together yolks with maple syrup, salt, and vanilla paste. Then slowly pour in hot cream, whisking vigorously while pouring in cream.

Place a fine mesh strainer on top of a large measuring cup. Pour mixture through strainer into measuring cup to remove any foam or bubbles from liquid. Spoon off any extra bubbles that make it through the strainer.

Pour the mixture evenly into the custard cups, leaving about ¼ inch space at the top of each. Pour the boiling water into the baking dish enough to cover half of the custard dishes. Loosely cover with foil and place the pan in the oven.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until custard is no longer liquid but still slightly wobbly when gently shaken. Cool for 30 minutes on a wire rack. Then cool and refrigerate for 2 hours to overnight.

When ready to serve, serve chilled with a pour of maple syrup on top.