Lemon Posset with Shortbread
A posset is three ingredients and about ten minutes of work, and it still comes out tasting like something you would order in a restaurant. Cream, sugar and lemon juice, boiled briefly and then left alone in the fridge to set. There is no gelatine and no faffing about, as the acid in the lemon does all of the work.
I have an out of control sweet tooth and would happily argue that pudding is the most important course of any meal, so I make this more often than is strictly sensible. It is very rich though. Small pots are the right call, and the shortbread on the side is there to break up all that cream.
The only thing that can really go wrong is the boil. The cream needs a full rolling boil for exactly three minutes before the lemon goes anywhere near it, otherwise it will never set and you will have a very nice lemon sauce instead. Set a timer rather than guessing.
Make these the morning before you want them, or the night before if you can wait that long. The shortbread keeps in a tin for a week so it can be done well ahead. My no bake lemon cheesecake is the bigger version of the same idea if you are feeding a crowd.
Lemon Posset with Shortbread
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 4 hours 35 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours 55 minutes
Serves: 6 people
Serving size: 212g
Calories per serving: 743
Fat per serving: 53.5g
Ingredients
For the shortbread
- 125g butter, softened
- 55g caster sugar
- 180g plain flour
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp demerara sugar, for sprinkling
For the posset
- 600ml double cream
- 150g caster sugar
- 3 lemons, zested and juiced
Method
- Heat the oven to 160C. Beat the softened butter and caster sugar together until pale, then work in the flour and a pinch of salt until it comes together as a soft dough.
- Press the dough into a lined 20cm tin, prick it all over with a fork and sprinkle the demerara sugar over the surface. Bake for 30 minutes, until pale gold at the edges.
- Cut the shortbread into fingers while it is still warm and leave it in the tin to cool completely and crisp up.
- For the posset, put the double cream, caster sugar and lemon zest into a saucepan and bring it to a full rolling boil, stirring so the sugar dissolves.
- Boil hard for exactly 3 minutes, keeping an eye that it does not climb up the sides of the pan, then take it off the heat and stir in the lemon juice.
- Leave the mixture to sit for 10 minutes, then pour it through a sieve into six small glasses or pots.
- Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight, until set. Serve each posset with a couple of shortbread fingers alongside.
