Lemon posset is a classic English pudding invented in medieval times and mentioned in Hamlet. It was served back then as a milky, boozy potion to cure colds.
Posset goes back to Shakespear’s times
It’s very underrated, considering how ridiculously easy it is to make and how gorgeous it tastes: smooth and velvety but light, like a cross between custard and panna cotta.
Posset in medieval times was a spiced, rich milky-wine concoction, served more often as a remedy than a dessert. It is mentioned in Hamlet, Act 1 Scene 5. It still contained wine in 19th century, and it was thickened with bread, biscuits or egg yolk.
These days posset is purely a dessert and not boozy, but not as popular as it deserves – overdue a comeback. Because how can you do better for a pudding with only three ingredients: cream, sugar and lemon? And it’s neither an eggy custard nor a jelly-wobbly panna cotta, with no disrespect to either.
It deserves more renown
Posset is unbelievably easy to make: boil cream and sugar, add lemon, bingo. You might then fear it’s too runny and a disaster but you couldn’t be more wrong as it sets beautifully after half an hour in the fridge.
It’s the perfect dessert solution for when you’re stressed and hassled. It’s the dessert matrix. It’s the go-to dessert. And it works just as well as a crowd pleaser as a ‘fancy-a-sweet’ single cup. And it’s as delicious on a sunny hot afternoon as on Christmas Day.
How does it work?
Lemon added to cream, contrary to expectations, does not curdle it. Well, it does, in a way, but in the way that is very welcome in dessert making. Acid in lemon juice reacts with casein, the main protein in dairy, changing its pH from neutral to acid and initiating its coagulation.
All that scientific mumbo-jumbo means that the cream or milk sets, transitioning from a liquid to a gel-like semi-solid.
Regardless of the (albeit interesting) chemistry behind it, it’s a result: spoonable, delicious dessert made with just two ingredients if not counting sugar.
So how to make a cupful of delicious posset?
Simply bring cream and sugar to a boil and simmer it gently for a couple of minutes, to dissolve the sugar and to take the raw edge off the cream. Then, off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and let the mixture sit for ten minutes or so.
After that time, while it’s still runny, divide it between pretty glasses or cups and let cool then chill in the fridge for a couple of hours. Magic – it sets into a pudding.
The proportions of juice to cream is not set in stone but you need enough for the coagulation to take place, and also to give the posset a flavour.
Variations
Any other citrus will work just as well as lemon: lime, orange or grapefruit. I have not tried less common citrus like pomelo or yuzu, or non-citrus acidic fruit like pomegranates or grapes, but they might work decently well too.
Try adding some candied citrus peel or dried fruit to the posset, or some chocolate shavings on top. It is also indulgent with an extra dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkling of berries.
And a decent plain biscuit on the side is a must!
More lemon dessert recipes
Traditional, old fashioned British pancakes, perfect for Shrove Tuesday, are big, flat and easily foldable over savoury topping or the simplest and the best, lemon and sugar.
Lemon whoopie pies with vanilla buttercream: classic whoopie pies invented in New England, remade in old England following a recipe from an Aussie. Those cookies travel, eh?
Classic French madeleines, flavoured with lemon zest. Madeleine recipe is a five-ingredient bliss, wonderfully easy to mix and fine to store in the fridge to bake as and when. It gives you the Proustian taste of a French madeleine.
More cream-based desserts
Cherry cream dacquoise is an exquisite gateau which is far easier to make than you’d think. Almond meringue dacquoise layers filled with fresh cream and homemade candied cherries – a riff on black forest gateau.
Classic creamy panna cotta, the simple and exquisite Italian dessert. Vanilla flavoured, with whole milk and cream and only enough gelatine to keep it set, served with passion fruit puree.
Chantilly cream and pistachio mille-feuille made with ready made all-butter puff pastry, whipped cream and sweet pistachio crumbs. My easy version of the classic French, ‘thousand leaves’ dessert.