Lemon Posset with Berries and Grand Marnier

Lemon posset is a deliciously refreshing dessert for summer because it's served chilled, but great at any time of year using whatever berries you can find. You know how I love do-ahead desserts, especially when you're entertaining and have a lot of other things to do!  Lemon posset actually needs to be made at least several hours ahead of time for the cream to fully thicken and set so making it the day before is best.  

Last spring, after my husband and I were fully vaccinated, we traveled to Georgia to visit good friends who were also vaccinated.  One night, they hosted a dinner party and one of the guests brought this dessert.  We loved it so much I asked for the recipe.  Thank you, Debbi!  When we were recently invited to dinner at a friend's home,  I offered to bring dessert and made Debbi's lemon posset.  Everyone loved it and also requested the recipe.  

Posset gets it's name from an old-time English drink dating back to the Middle Ages made by curdling milk with spiced wine or ale.  Thank goodness, it is more commonly known today as a creamy, pudding-like dessert made by boiling cream and sugar and adding lemon juice and zest or other citrus flavors.  That's it!  No temperamental eggs or gelatin, flour or cornstarch needed to thicken it. Many Americans have never encountered posset but it's so delicious and fairly easy to make that I think it will become very popular.  This recipe is based on one by Ina Garten, and we all know her recipes are wonderful!  

This particular recipes uses cream, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and limoncello to make the posset.  If you have a good liquor store near you, you can find small bottles of limoncello which hold at least 3 tablespoons, enough for this recipe.  Our Total Wine had several varieties to choose from.  I was also able to find a very small bottle of Grand Marnier for the berry topping.  The Grand Marnier and sugar-soaked berries are so delicious with each spoonful! 

I made some pecan shortbread cookies to go along with the posset but store bought pirouettes would also be a lovely garnish, although neither is really necessary as this is a satisfying dessert on its own.  

I hope you give it try!  

Lemon Posset with Berries and Grand Marnier

Printable Recipe

The Lemon Posset should be prepared the day before serving in order for the custard to fully set. 

Hands On Preparation Time, 20 minutes

Servings: 6  

Note:  I needed 8 Servings so I increased the recipe, ingredient amounts for 8 in parentheses. I used strawberries and raspberries but any berries would also work well. 

3 cups (4-1/2) heavy cream

1 cup (1-1/2) plus 2 (3) tablespoons sugar

1 (1-1/2) tablespoon lemon zest (2 to 3 lemons)

¼ (1/2) teaspoon kosher salt

⅓ (1/3 c plus 2-2/3 T) cup lemon juice

2 (3) tablespoons limoncello liqueur

1 (1-1/2) cup fresh raspberries, picked over

1 (1-1/2) cup sliced fresh strawberries

3 T Grand Marnier (or limoncello)

Combine the cream, 1 (1-1/2) cup of the sugar, the lemon zest, and salt in a medium saucepan.* Bring to a boil over medium-high, stirring with a wooden spoon to dissolve the sugar. Lower heat to a vigorous simmer and cook 6 minutes, without stirring.  Watch the mixture carefully. If it begins to boil up toward the edge, take the pan off the heat for a few seconds before continuing to simmer.

Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and limoncello and set aside for 20 minutes. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a 4-cup glass measuring cup, pressing on zest to release as much liquid as possible. Discard zest. Divide mixture evenly among six (or eight) 8- to 10-ounce glasses or bowls.  Allow to cool on the counter and then refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, either overnight or up to 3 days.

Thirty minutes before serving, combine raspberries, strawberries, the remaining 3 tablespoons sugar and 3 T Grand Marnier (or limoncello) in a bowl and allow to macerate. To serve, spoon the berries and their juices onto the custards.

*Don't use a saucepan smaller than 6 inches round and 5 inches tall.

Adapted from: English Lemon Posset  - Barefoot Contessa

Rhubarb Almond Crumb Cake

This is probably the best rhubarb recipe that I've made.  Seriously delicious.  I recently saw this on Chow Chow Linda, a very nice blog that I follow full of great Italian recipes, but it is originally from a contest winner at Food 52.  I'm sure Linda, being Italian, was attracted to the fact that it has a slight Italian twist to it with the almonds in the crumb topping and almond extract in the cake.  I was worried how the almond flavor would taste with the rhubarb but it wonderful! 

This was such a delicious cake that I can't wait to try it with other seasonal fruit.  The nuts in the topping could be varied with the type of fruit also. The bonus was that it tasted even more delicious the second day after the moisture from the rhubarb had a chance to blend into the cake. It's a perfect coffee cake for the morning, for snacking in the afternoon, or you could make it an after-dinner dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  You can see my rhubarb plants are still going strong in the background. 

I did reduce the amount of sugar in the cake batter from 1-1/4 cups to 1 cup and I think I could have even cut back to 3/4 cup easily as I don't like overly sweet desserts.  I also increased the amount of rhubarb from 1-1/2 cups to 2 cups.

We are hosting our gourmet group a week from Saturday - the first day of summer!  My husband and I will be busy getting the yard manicured and all the other things that need to be organized for hosting our group of 10 for this fun event so you will likely not see me posting or visiting as we get closer to the date. Until then - Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there and Happy Summer Solstice to all!

Rhubarb Almond Crumb Cake

Adapted from Food 52

Printable Recipe

Serves 8 to 10

For the crumb topping:

2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 tablespoons slivered almonds, chopped
2 tablespoons rolled oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

For the cake:

An 8-inch spring form or deep cake pan

Butter for greasing the pan

2 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon almond extract
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 cups rhubarb, sliced into 1/2-inch pieces

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Melt the butter and set aside to cool slightly. Butter the sides of an 8" spring form or deep cake pan.  Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit the bottom of the pan.

For the crumb, combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Using a fork or your fingers, gently work in the butter until small clumps form. 

Combine the eggs, sugar, salt, and almond extract in a large bowl. Beat the mixture on high until it triples in volume, about five minutes. Fold in the melted butter, flour, and rhubarb. Evenly spread the thick batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the top.

Bake for 60 to 75 minutes, until the topping is deeply golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Place the pan on a cooling rack and remove the cake when it’s completely cool.

Pears in Puff Pastry with Lemon Caramel Sauce

 

Or call them, Tarte au Poires en Cage, which sounds even more delectable.  This recipe and I go waaaay back to a group of friends who shared recipes on a board on Gardenbuddies.com.  We fell in love with this recipe and the lattice pastry roller that cuts a beautiful lattice design in pie crust or puff pastry.  If you don't have a lattice pastry roller, you could simple cut slits in the puff pastry with a knife or wrap them in puff pastry and add cut-outs for decoration.  Flowers would be very cute at this time of year.

At our most recent gourmet group gathering at a friend's home, my assigned recipe was a French Pear Tart with Frangipane for the dessert.  Each couple is assigned one recipe so that the host and hostess can concentrate on the main course and everything else that goes into entertaining a group of ten people. Our assigned recipe reminded me so much of these caged pears and I knew the host and hostess wouldn't mind if I made the substitution as the recipes are much alike and this is such a lovely presentation.

Even though pear season is drawing to a close, there are still good pears to be found and these are poached and baked anyway so even less than perfect will do. So, if you or your mother loves pears, maybe you could treat her to this wonderful dessert on Sunday :) 

Pears in Puff Pastry with Lemon Caramel Sauce

Adapted from Here

Printable Recipe

Makes 6 pears in pastry.

Special Optional Equipment:  Lattice Pastry Roller

1 pkg puff pastry (2 sheets)
3 firm pears
1 cup sugar
3 cups water
1/2 lemon
1/2 cup almond paste – found in the pie fillings area – Solo is the brand I used
1 egg
3-4 tbsp cream
3-4 tbsp apricot jam
Warm water

Heat oven to 375F.

Place 1 sheet of thawed puff pastry on parchment paper and unfold. Gently roll seams with a rolling pin and then roll a lattice pastry roller across pastry and put back in refrigerator. 

(Alternately, if you do not have a lattice cutter you could try making your own designs in the puff pastry with a sharp knife or simply wrap the pear in pastry and add cut-outs over the top before baking.  Simply follow the procedure for making pastry cut-outs from the puff pastry 1/2" larger than the pear halves.)

Take the other sheet of puff pastry and cut out shape of a pear about 1/2" larger all around than a halved pear.  Cut as many as the number of pear halves you wish to make. You can use the hard paper divider inside the puff pastry package to cut a template to use. Chill all of the pastry while proceeding with the next steps.

Peel the pears, cut in half, core with a melon baler and rub with the lemon half.

In a saute pan large enough to hold the pear halves, bring the sugar and water to a simmer and add the pears. Cover partially and simmer for approximately 15 minutes or until there is only a slight resistance to a knife when inserted into a pear. When done, set aside pears on a paper towel.

To assemble and bake:

In a small bowl whisk together the egg and cream.

Take the pear half cut-out pastry out of the refrigerator. Take a small scoop of almond paste and roll in your hand to make an oblong shape and place it in the scooped out part of the pear from top to bottom and place the pear, cut side down, on the pear-shaped pastry cut-out. Brush the edge of pastry around the pear with the egg mixture.

Take a piece of latticed pastry (or larger piece of plain pastry) large enough to fit over one pear half and slowly and gently pull apart the dough so a lattice forms. Do this when the dough is as cold as possible but not so cold it breaks. You may have to go over the slits with a paring knife if they weren’t cut through to the bottom.

Lay each piece gently on top of the pear (the colder the dough the easier to handle). Press down gently and trim the edges with a paring knife.

Brush the top of the pastry with egg wash.

Bake for approximately 20-30 minutes or until the pastry turns a golden brown.

Combine the apricot jam and water and microwave until warm. Mix it together then strain it to get out the clumps of apricot. Brush it over the pears when they come out of the oven to give it a shiny glaze.

Garnish it with caramel sauce or a small scoop of the best vanilla ice cream you can find.

Caramel Sauce with Lemon

Source Unknown

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter

Stir sugar, water, and lemon juice in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat; boil without stirring until syrup is deep amber color, about 7 minutes. Remove from heat. Add in cream (mixture will bubble vigorously). Return to low heat; stir until any bits of caramel dissolve. Add butter; whisk until smooth. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.)