Lemon Posset

 

Ingredients

• 2 cups heavy cream 
• ⅔ cup (4 2/3 ounces) granulated sugar 
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest plus 6 tablespoons juice (2 lemons)
• 1 ½ cups blueberries or raspberries

Preparation

This dessert requires portioning into individual servings. Reducing the cream mixture to exactly 2 cups creates the best consistency. Transfer the liquid to a 2-cup heatproof liquid measuring cup once or twice during boiling to monitor the amount. Do not leave the cream unattended, as it can boil over easily.

1. Combine cream, sugar, and lemon zest in medium saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Continue to boil, stirring frequently to dissolve sugar. If mixture begins to boil over, briefly remove from heat. Cook until mixture is reduced to 2 cups, 8 to 12 minutes.
2. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in lemon juice. Let sit until mixture is cooled slightly and skin forms on top, about 20 minutes. Strain through fine-mesh strainer into bowl; discard zest. Divide mixture evenly among 6 individual ramekins or serving glasses.
3. Refrigerate, uncovered, until set, at least 3 hours. Once chilled, possets can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Unwrap and let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with berries and serve.

Another from Spruce Eats

Fiadone

For a couple of years now, I have been fascinated with Corsica. It all started several years ago during a trip to Paris when I wandered into a tiny restaurant in the 15eme Arr. called Le Beau Violet (92 Rue Entrepreneurs). It was a single room--the chef, Roger, cooked in clear view and frequently smoked a cigarette despite the laws to the contrary. If you wanted to use the restroom, you needed to leave and walk a few doors down the street. You basically eat what Roger gives you (with the occasional choice;) deferring to his judgement is probably best. Several courses later and close to midnight, I finished the meal with dessert and some myrthe liqueur. The final course was fiadone--a Corsican lemon cheesecake made from brocciu (an AOC whey cheese produced in Corsica).

It's hard to find brocciu outside of Corsica, but you can simulate the experience using ricotta. This is a slightly grainy, lemony cheesecake with no pastry shell. And as far as cheesecakes go, it's simple to make and good for a light, summertime dessert. In the first instance, I was guided by Rolli Lucarotti's Recipes from Corsica; Clotilde has also blogged about it. Here's how to do it.

Ingredients

• 500g brocciu or ricotta
• 150g caster sugar
• 4 large or 5 medium eggs
• zest of 1 large lemon
• 1 Tbsp. eau de vie (I used some limoncello) 
• salt

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF.
2. Separate the yolks from the whites. With the yolks, combine the sugar, zest, limoncello and cheese until smooth. 
3. Add a pinch of salt to the whites and whisk them into soft peaks. Fold some of the egg whites into the cheese mixture, then fold the mixture into the remaining egg whites until combined. 
4. Pour the mixture into a buttered and floured spring form pan. 
5. Bake for 30-35 mins until golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and let cool for at least half an hour. 

Not everyone whips their egg whites--but I think this improves the texture. And with a hand-mixer, it's no big task. 

Hughenden Manor Apple Cheesecake

This weekend, some friends of ours took us to Hughenden Manor, the country home of Benjamin Disraeli. The house was gorgeous, with portraits of family and friends (including a large one of Lord Byron) and a lot of the original decoration. The best part, though, was the walled garden. Full of just-ripening apples, pumpkins, chard, kale, pears, and even figs (!), it was the perfect place to take a break in the middle of the afternoon.

On the way out, I stopped to buy some apples. Fifteen for £1 meant that I went home with enough to make dessert--and more! I picked up some cream cheese, sour cream, lemon, and digestive biscuits at Sainsbury's, and that was that:



The base recipe for the cheesecake is an old one my mom gave me a couple years ago.

Crust Ingredients
1.5 cup digestive biscuit crumbs
about half a cup of sugar, more or less
4 T melted butter
Nutmeg

Crust Directions
Preheat the oven to 350˚
1. Mix the crumbs, butter, and sugar together and pat onto the bottom of a springform pan.
2. Bake at 350˚ for 10 minutes.
3. Sprinkle with nutmeg and chill.

Cake Ingredients
1 lb cream cheese
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1-2 T lemon juice
1 T vanilla
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1 T mixed spice (nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, etc)
1 cup sour cream

Cake directions
Preheat oven to 325˚
1. Cream together cream cheese, sugar, and eggs.
2. In a separate bowl, mix lemon, lemon juice, vanilla, and flour.
3. Mix dry ingredients with wet.
4. Add the spice.
5. Fold in the sour cream.
6. Pour into springform pan and bake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
7. After baking for 45 minutes, turn off oven and let sit in closed oven for another 20 minutes to half an hour.
8. After this, take the cake out of the oven and let cool on counter.

Topping Ingredients
Apples
Juice of half a lemon
A bit of sugar
Allspice

Topping Directions
I wasn't measuring anything at this point--just playing around--so the proportions are going to be vague.
1. Make applesauce with the above ingredients, keeping the skins on if you want the color, but taking them off before topping the cheesecake. Basically, boil the apples for about 25 minutes on medium with a bit of water, stirring frequently. Reduce to a thick sauce.
2. With two apples, cut into very thin slices, and place on a tin-foil covered baking sheet. Grill in the oven until slightly shriveled and browning.
3. Spread applesauce on top of the cheesecake, then some caramel sauce (see below).
4. Sprinkle apple pieces on top of the sauce, and drizzle more sauce on top.

Lavender-Lemon Fairy Cakes

After watching about ten episodes of Masterchef in the last week, I got the urge to be"Experimental Chef Macaroni", the contestant/cook who never quite appeals to the pub-hungry judges but manages to make it to the quarterfinal anyway. While narrating my trip to the grocery store in a deep and serious British accent, I decided to make these:

Ingredients for the Cakes:
3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 T lemon zest
juice of 1/4 of a lemon
1/2 cup butter, softened
7 T sugar
2 eggs
2 T pine nuts, crushed
2 T lavender milk (see below)
2 t vanilla

Ingredients for the Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese (softened)
3 1/2 cu powdered sugar
1-2 T lavender milk
2 t vanilla
36 raspberries

Ingredients for the Lavender Milk:
1/2 cup whole milk
1 T lavender


Making the Cakes
First, you need to make the lavender milk, which you should do about half an hour before you start baking:

1. Put the milk and lavender in a small saucepan, and bring just to a boil, remove from heat, and cover with tin foil. Let sit for another ten minutes, then strain the milk to remove the lavender, and put aside.

The rest is quite easy once you've gotten everything prepared.
Preheat the oven to 400˚ and place cupcake linings inside 12 cupcake tins.

2. Put all of the ingredients except the milk in a bowl or food-processor and pulse until mixed.
3. Add the milk while stirring, bit by bit, until incorporated.
4. Divide the dough evenly between the cupcakes. There will not be much dough in each, but these are not American MonsterCakes!!! They are dainty. :)

While the cupcakes are baking (which should take between 15 and 20 minutes), make the frosting:

5. Soften the cream cheese in the microwave, and mix with the confectioner's sugar.
6. Add the vanilla and the milk, and incorporate.

When you take the cupcakes out of the oven, let them cool and remove the paper lining.

7. Cut the tops off of the cakes to make them flat.
8. Glaze them with the cream cheese frosting.
9. Top with raspberries, and if you'd like, dust lightly with confectioner's sugar to finish.

Tart and sweet and herb-y, these are delicious and taste like the beginning of Spring, and, in that spirit, I've left my bedroom window open...

Wine-braised pears

Because Thanksgiving dinner is full of stodgy main courses, sides, and desserts (ahem, see below), I wanted to make something that would contrast with the usual--in a good way. Whether these pears are a side dish or a dessert is up to you.

Ingredients
6 Bosc firm bosc pears
5-inch stick of cinnamon, cut into about five pieces
1 t whole cloves
1 T vanilla
Almost an entire bottle of dry red wine (I used Merlot)
1 c white sugar
3-4 T lemon juice

Preparation
1. Pour wine, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla into a large stockpot (preferably one that is tall but not too large in diameter).
2. While you are bringing the mixture to a boil (making sure the sugar is dissolved and doesn't burn), peel the pears. I didn't peel mine completely, but the more skin you get off, the prettier the jewel-tone will be at the end.
3. As soon as the liquid is boiling, turn the heat down.

Now, at this point you have a choice. I cut the bottoms off of the pears--just enough so that they would stand up straight--and placed them in the pot. Unfortunately, the liquid didn't reach all the way up to the stem and after half an hour of braising, only about 3/4 of each pear had that nice, purple tone. I ended up having to flip them over for the last fifteen minutes just to get the color even, negating the whole point of the bottom-removal and straight-uppedness.

I recommend instead that you:

4. Cut the pears in half, lengthwise, and de-seed them with a melon-baller or a spoon.
5. Place them in the liquid in whatever orientation allows as many of them as possible to be covered with the spiced wine.

Then:
6. Cover the pot and bring everything to a very gentle boil.
7. Allow the pears to cook, covered, for about an hour.

What you're watching for is tenderness and that deep, royal color, but you don't want to cook anything so long that you end up with pearsauce.

8. Remove the pears and put them on a serving dish.
9. Take excess liquid and reduce it to approximately 1 cup of liquid, until a syrup forms.
10. Pour the syrup over your pears.

I added some of the extra toasted hazelnuts from the Gratin to the top of my pears, but there's no real need for that. In fact, if I could sprinkle anything on top it would probably be a gentle dusting of toasted pecans and a very, very small amount of gorgonzola or sharp cheddar cheese. The point of this recipe though, is to be as cheeseless and fruity as possible, so... well, if I ever add the cheese, I will do it in secret.