Earl Grey Tea Custard Teacup
As seen on TV
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Earl Grey Tea Custard with Milk Ice Cream, Lemon Curd, Sea Buckthorn Caramel and Rum Savarin
Jeffrey builds a layered dessert inside a delicate teacup. At the base sits a rum-soaked savarin (lightly poached in a rum and honey syrup) alongside pieces of lemon curd (butter, egg yolk, lemon juice and sugar, set). Inside the cup: sea buckthorn caramel painted up the sides, a layer of reduced milk ice cream (milk reduced 4:1 and churned with no eggs for a pure toasted-milk flavour), and an Earl Grey tea custard made from tea-infused milk, cream and egg yolks. A very thin baked tuile biscuit sits on top as a crack-through lid.
Jeffrey: "It's called Milk or Lemon or Both. I really wanted to do a really lovely tea dessert. An Earl Grey tea custard. Churn the milk for a nice milk ice cream. Some lemon curd. A nice caramelised sea buckthorn jam just at the side of the plate. You need a bit of bitterness and sweetness as you're eating the custard because it's quite fatty underneath. Savarin, which I'm going to poach lightly in a quite light rum syrup. And then a nice very thin biscuit on top to kind of crack through. It just wanted to feel like a nice cup of tea."
Jeffrey: "I've reduced it from four down to one. And churned it. I just wanted it to taste like pure milk."
VETERAN ROUND (Simon Rogan, mentor): Simon (mid-cook): "Immaculate. Toasted. Absolutely delicious. Toasted the milk. Now it's a case of just getting those layers right."
Simon on the layers: "Triflesque. I love dishes like that. It's going to be quite simple in appearance, but the complexity is in the layers. It's a simple dessert. You've got to get the balance of each layer right."
Mark: "It's not over-soaked, so it hasn't gone mushy. The texture is great."
Mark: "This syrup's amazing."
Ciaran: "Immediately you get that tea flavour which I love." Ciaran: "I didn't get the sea buckthorn in the first few mouthfuls and then I dug for it."
Mark: "Be nice with some more of that."
Simon final feedback: "Milk or lemon or both. I like that it was plated in a teacup, but I wanted a bit more grandeur from it. Think saucer, milk jug, sugar pot, a tea set to really punch home the sense and sensibility link. The savarin for me needed a little bit more rum. The sea buckthorn on the outside, I wanted to taste more, as I thought the dessert was lacking acidity. The Earl Grey custard had a really nice flavour. Not too weak, not too strong, just right. But there was slightly too much in it for me. The milk ice cream was fantastic. I really enjoyed that. The tuile biscuit was a pleasing crunch, but again, quite sweet. When you're doing a layered dessert, you have to make the layers very different in taste and texture so you can differentiate between them, but you weren't far off."
Score: 8. Jeffrey finished third in the heat and was eliminated, so this dessert received no judges’ round.
