Trio of crème brûlées with palmiers

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 140C/285F/Gas 1
2. For the crème brûlées, lightly butter 12 very small ramekins.
3. Place the sugar and egg yolks into a bowl and whisk together.
4. Place the milk and cream into a pan over a low heat and bring to the boil.
5. Gradually pour the hot milk and cream mixture onto the eggs, whisking constantly to combine.
6. Place the chocolate into a clean bowl. Pour a third of the custard onto the chocolate and whisk well until all the chocolate has melted.
7. Strain the chocolate custard into four of the ramekins.
8. Pour half of the remaining custard into a clean bowl. Add the lemon zest and juice, stir to combine, then pour into four of the clean ramekins.
9. When the caramel has cooled, garnish each mint crème brûlée with a sprig of mint; garnish the lemon crème brûlées with a twist of lemon peel; and garnish the chocolate crème brûlées with some shards of chocolate.
10. Add several palmiers to the plate and serve.

Required techniques

• Zesting citrus fruit
• Caramelising sugar with a blow torch
• Knife skills: how to finely chop
• Zesting citrus fruit
• Removing the meat from cooked lobster