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Special

Jacques Pépin Makes Lemon Posset for Dessert

Premiere: 7/25/2022 | 00:04:16 |

This lemon posset is one of Jacques Pépin's simplest recipes. Adapted from Claire Clark the former pastry chef at The French Laundry, this chilled citrus dessert includes blueberries and mint.

About the Episode

Serves 2 to 3

“This recipe for lemon posset is from Claire Clark, former head pastry chef at Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry in Napa Valley, California. She is a Brit and shared this dish, which originated back in the 16th century as a remedy. It was a hot drink of milk curdled with wine or strong ale and flavored with spices. Now it has evolved into this simple, chilled, elegant, citrusy dessert, which is very similar to a syllabub.” —Jacques Pépin

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream
¼ cup sugar
1½ teaspoons lemon zest
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Blueberries, for garnish
Mint leaves, cut into chiffonade, for garnish
Pound cake, for serving, optional

Method:

In a microwaveable jug or small saucepan, combine the cream and sugar, stirring well. Heat the mixture in the microwave on high for 1 minute or bring to a simmer on medium heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool to warm and add the lemon zest and juice, stirring again; set aside to cool completely. Pour the cooled mixture into two or three glasses or serving dishes. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

Garnish with blueberries and mint leaves and serve with thinly sliced pound cake.

QUOTE

"I feel that if Jacques Pépin shows you how to make an omelet, the matter is pretty much settled. That’s God talking. "

— Anthony Bourdain

TRANSCRIPT

TRANSCRIPT

(light upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Jacques Pépin. And this is 'American Masters at Home'. (light upbeat music continues) This is one of the simplest recipes I think I ever done.

I wish I would've thought of that recipe, but it was taught to me by my friend, Susie Heller.

She's done many, many shows with me, a dear friend, came to visit me last week and she did all the book of Thomas Keller.

And when she was working on 'The French Laundry Cookbook,' she worked with Claire Clark, which was the pastry chef, the executive pastry chef there, a British woman.

And it was her idea of a posset, p-o-s-s-e-t which I think originated in England, it was a drink.

And now it's a kind of soft custard, very delicate, very delicate and delicious.

So here, how it's done, how I do it at least.

I have a cup of cream here, a cup of cream and a quarter of a cup of sugar, so it's four tablespoons.

Okay, so I mix it together and what I wanna do next is to bring that hot, so I put it one minute in the microwave.

And the second part of the recipe is really a lemon.

So the lemon here, I will do the rind.

I need, oh, a good teaspoon and a half probably of lemon rind, about, about like this.

That's more than enough here, those mini grates are really good to do and then the juice.

When I do the juice, I don't cut the lemon in the center, I cut it on the side like that to expose this and it's easier to press your juice.

And here, out of my lemon here, I'm going to add a good three tablespoons.

And this is what I want, three tablespoons of lemon juice and a teaspoon and a half of lemon rind.

I put it in the sift, so I don't get the seed.

Okay, I wanna make sure that that sugar is dissolved, and this is, this is hot, that's good.

I have here one, two, three, exactly.

Three tablespoons, lemon juice, teaspoon and a half of rind, I mix it, and this is it.

This is going to cool off a good three hours.

I'll put it in those, and I would think that that cup will serve three people easy.

It's quite rich, altogether, so here it is.

Now cover it, refrigeration, so this one, as you can see, I'm going to garnish it with blueberry and mint.

I love mint with that, so I'll take maybe the center of the mint for the garish, and this one, I will cut into what we call a chiffonade, very shredded, you do that for basil or, that goes so well with this, so here it is.

This way, a little piece of pound cake, too and you can see my custard there, just, on there.

Absolutely delicious, thank you, Claire.

Thank you very much and happy cooking.

(light upbeat music) (light upbeat music continues) Thank you for joining me. For more, subscribe to this channel or watch here.

Thank you and happy cooking. (light upbeat music continues) (light upbeat music fades)