A showstopping – but surprisingly simple – lemon dessert …
I have a confession: I don’t actually love chocolate, which feels like quite a controversial thing to admit at this time of year, when the shelves have been stacked with Easter eggs since January. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll happily eat a Mini Egg or two (or a whole pack) on Easter Sunday, and I would never turn down my mum’s ice cream with hot chocolate sauce. But beyond that, for me, a sharp, lemony pudding will win every time.
Easter is a slightly confusing holiday to me. Somewhere between religious celebration, four days off work and the vague sense that spring is unfurling in the garden. For me, it’s admittedly all about the food, wrapped up with old memories and traditions.
Growing up, we had our own (perhaps slightly strange) traditions. My mum used to blow out eggs, wash them, fill them with chocolate and carefully paint our names on them before placing them in the chicken coop in our garden. On Easter morning we’d run outside to collect them for breakfast, completely convinced the chickens had laid chocolate eggs overnight. To this day I still don’t know how she managed it, or where she found the time.
Some family traditions have faded over the years, although a few are starting to reappear now that my two nieces are around. One that has stuck is our Easter tree. Every year we’d head out for a long walk in search of the perfect budding branch to bring home. We would wedge it into a bucket filled with stones and decorate it with the painted eggs we’d made over the years which mum would pack away carefully after Easter.
These days, it’s almond blossom from Mallorca, where my parents live now, and a collection of replica eggs painted over the last ten years. I don’t think the originals from the 1990s would survive the journey and unsurprisingly, I haven’t brought that tradition into my small flat. I might do an Easter egg hunt this year though, and start some new traditions of my own.
It took me ages to decide what recipe to share this month because I didn’t want to add to the hundreds of ways to use up leftover chocolate, suggest yet another way to roast lamb, or give you pastel-coloured cupcakes. Instead, I started thinking about what I cooked last Easter.
I made my slow-roast lamb with leek salsa verde (I’d happily recommend it again this year), alongside a fennel and potato gratin which was very good (and which will we also post online). For dessert, I made a lemon cream. At the time I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to use it for, but it ended up becoming two desserts. On Easter Sunday I made a mille-feuille – layers of shop-bought baked puff pastry, filled with dollops of lemon cream, whipped cream and raspberries and liberally dusted with icing sugar. The following day, when everyone was slightly sugared-out from chocolate, I baked a light sponge and dotted it generously with the same lemon cream. Both were exactly what everyone wanted after three days of chocolate eggs. The mille-feuille is so easy to put together and impressive to bring to the table. The lemon cream is essentially a lemon curd that’s blended with butter until it becomes something closer to a lemon crème pâtissière. It might sound complicated, but like a crémeux, it’s actually much simpler than it seems, and exactly the sort of recipe that’s good to have up your sleeve.
What I love most about it is how versatile it is – one good recipe that can lead to lots of others, which is always my favourite kind. Sometimes I’ll simply serve a spoonful with softly whipped cream and shortbread. It’s also lovely spread over a light genoise sponge and rolled into a Swiss roll before being heavily dusted with icing sugar and sliced. You can ripple it through whipped cream and spoon it over a pavlova piled high with raspberries, or even lightly poached rhubarb, if you can get it. One last thing before I go, if you’re going to make the lemon cream (please do), send me the ways you used it as I’d love to know – even if it’s eaten straight out of the container from the fridge! @kittycoles
LEMON MILLE-FEUILLE
Ingredients
• 150ml lemon juice
• zest of 3 lemons
• 2 large eggs
• 2 large egg yolks
• 150g caster sugar
• 225g unsalted butter, diced and at room temperature
• 350g ready-rolled puff pastry
• demerara sugar
• raspberries
• 200ml double cream, softly whipped
• icing sugar
Method
1. Put lemon juice, zest, eggs, yolks and sugar into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Cook, stirring regularly, until the mixture reaches 80°C on a thermometer. This step matters as it cooks the eggs properly and gives the cream that smooth custard texture.
2. Once thickened, pour the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug to remove the zest and any bits of cooked egg. Leave it to cool for about 15 minutes, until it’s around 60°C or cooler.
3. Using a stick blender, blend in the butter a few pieces at a time until smooth and glossy. A stick blender in a tall jug works particularly well because it stops you incorporating too much air.
4. Transfer to a container, press clingfilm directly onto the surface and chill for at least 4 hours, until thick. It will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. I often put it into a piping bag once chilled as it makes assembling the cake easier.
5. Unroll the puff pastry onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cut it lengthways into two even rectangles. Brush lightly with beaten egg and sprinkle with a little demerara sugar if you like a bit of crunch.
6. Bake at 200°C fan for 15 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden. Remove from the oven and place another baking tray on top to gently press the pastry down. Return to the oven for another 5–10 minutes until crisp, flat and deeply golden. Allow the pastry to cool completely before assembling.
7. Place one sheet of pastry on a serving plate. Pipe blobs of lemon cream and softly whipped cream all over the surface and tuck fresh raspberries between them. Place the second sheet of pastry on top and repeat with more cream and raspberries. Finish with a generous dusting of icing sugar and serve immediately.