Lemon Posset with Strawberries & Aged Balsamic
Posset is a traditional British dessert made with just three ingredients: cream, sugar, and (for lemon posset) lemon. It is made by heating cream with sugar and then adding lemon juice. The mixture is poured into a baking dish and refrigerated. The acidity in the lemon causes the cream to “set” to a custard-like consistency. What’s incredible is that this happens by itself, as a reaction of the cream and lemon, without the addition of the gelatin used to set panna cotta or the egg yolks used to set custard.
Part of the beauty of posset is in its simplicity, so it seemed unfaithful to tradition to dress it up too much. This version is served family style, topped with fresh strawberries and drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar.
You need a quality, syrupy, aged balsamic vinegar to make this. Look for those labeled balsamic condimeto. Condimento is a fraction of the cost of aceto balsamico tradizionale, but it has the same viscous consistency and a lot of the same complex acidity and sweetness. A good way to know you’re getting the quality you want is to gauge the viscosity: it should be so thick that it coats the inside of the glass when you turn the bottle.
You will need a 12 x 7 inch oval ceramic baking dish (or another baking dish with a 12-cup capacity) to make and serve the posset.
In this Recipe
- To make the posset, combine the cream and sugar in a medium stainless-steel saucepan and warm them over medium heat until the cream comes to a boil, about 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Turn off the heat.
- Using a fine Microplane, zest the bright yellow outer layer of the lemons into the pan. Cut one of the lemons in half and juice it; add 1/3 cup of the juice to the cream and stir to combine. (Reserve the second lemon to juice another time.)
- Pour the posset into an oval ceramic (or another 12-cup capacity) baking dish and refrigerate, uncovered, overnight or for at least 4 hours, until it is chilled.
- To serve, remove and discard the hulls from the strawberries. Adjust the blade of a mandoline to slice 1/8 in thick. Slice 2 slives lengthwise from a strawberry and check their thickness; you want the slices just thick enough that they don’t fall apart. If they are too thick, adjust the mandoline to slice thinner. If they are so thin that they don’t hold their shape, adjust the blade to slice thicker. Slice the remaining strawberries lengthwise to fall directly onto the posset. Just before serving, drizzle the balsamic vinegar in a thin thread over the strawberries.
