Monday, November 23, 2009

Lemon posset


If you have children, you may not find the word "posset" very appetising. But I assure you that this pudding, conjured out of three ingredients, is magically delicious. Serves 4-5.

350ml double cream
80g caster sugar
2 lemons, juice and zest

Gently, bring the cream and the sugar to a simmer in a small saucepan. Allow to simmer for three minutes. (I suppose that the simmering thickens and stabilises the cream, to counterbalance the curdling effect of the lemon.)

Stir in the lemon juice and zest. Divide the mixture between four (or five) bowls, cover with cling film, and refrigerate for about three hours. The posset should thicken into a blancmange-like consistency.

4 comments:

elwyn said...

Dear Nicholas,

The lemon possett looks mouthwatering.

At a three starred Michelin restaurant in France the plate of mignonettes served with the coffee included tiny little sponge bites with what was, to me, lemon butter. This revived my interest in lemon desserts knowing how simple it is to make lemon butter.

Living in Australia, lemons are plentiful and most suburban gardens would have a lemon tree so the cost factor for the fruit is negligible.

We tried lemon delicious pudding, thinking any child could do that, however although it was tasty it was a little too saucy. The recipe said to use the juice of two lemons and of course they vary so much in size and juice content. I have another recipe which gives exact measurements for the amount of lemon juice required. I am experimenting with this in preparation for Christmas since my daughter and neice and nephew do not like plum pudding. Last year we had golden syrup pudding as a second option. We shall serve the lemon delicious with passionfruit ice-cream.

Nicholas Clee said...

Thanks, Elwyn. Is lemon delicious pudding the same as lemon surprise pudding? There's a recipe for that (but with oranges) here:
http://nicholasclee.blogspot.com/2007/11/orange-surprise-pudding.html

elwyn said...

Dear Nicholas,

Yes, lemon delicious is the same as lemon surprise. It is interesting that you were not fully satisfied with the outcome of the orange surprise as I would imagine oranges would have similar properties to lemons or are they more likely to curdle than acidic lemons? I do not know. However, I have never come across a recipe using oranges or limes instead of lemons.

Nicholas Clee said...

Nigel Slater gives an orange-and-lemon version in one of his books (Real Cooking, I think). But I think lemon works best, because of the contrast between the acidity of the fruit and the blandness of the sponge.