I was recently listening to two professional chefs talk on a podcast about easy-to-make desserts. One of them commented that dessert was sometimes nothing more than an excuse to extend a meal and bring it to a close and that what she was looking for, therefore, was not something that would set off fireworks or complicate her life by making an elaborate dessert but to have something that would serve that purpose. This idea kept spinning in my head and in a very brief and not rigorous investigation that I did using my friends as study subjects, I came to the conclusion that dessert is often socially necessary. A meal with guests where there is no dessert is a kind of unfinished meal, a host’s fault.
But just as dessert can be a social necessity, it can also be a mild headache. What do I conclude this meal with? After so much work cooking the main dish, do I have to start making a pastry work or am I going to end up resorting to a purchased dessert with the risk that that entails? Fortunately, neither is necessary. There are desserts, which we call here jetapostrewhich are very easy to prepare and which provide a solution to this problem.
These little glasses of lemon cream and meringue are nothing more than a simple adaptation of the lemon piea cake consisting of shortcrust pastry or sabera lemon cream (like this wonderful lemon curd) and an Italian meringue to top it off. In this case, we replace the dough with some cookies crushed with butter and a pinch of salt. We keep the rest of the preparations the same, although if you want to simplify it even more, you can change the Italian meringue, which is prepared with syrup, for French meringue, which is made with sugar (be careful, since it does not have syrup, this meringue is not cooked , so do not keep it more than a day in the fridge).
Difficulty
That of achieving a smooth lemon curd.
Ingredients
For 4 glasses
For the base
- 100 g vanilla cookies, Maria style
- 25g butter
- fine salt
For the lemon cream
- 3 eggs
- 2 yolks
- 2 lemons
- 30g of sugar
- 20g butter
For the meringue
- 2 egg whites
- 2 strips of lemon peel
- 30g of sugar
Preparation
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Crush the cookies in a bowl until they have a sandy texture. Add a pinch of salt and the melted butter.
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Distribute the mixture in the glasses. Crush so that there is a firm layer at the bottom and reserve in the fridge.
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In a saucepan, beat the eggs, the yolks, the juice and the zest of the lemons (reserve two strips of lemon peel for the meringue). Cook over very low heat, stirring constantly. As soon as it begins to thicken, add the cold butter and stir until melted.
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Distribute the mixture in the glasses and reserve in the fridge until they cool completely.
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Cut the two strips of lemon peel into very thin julienne strips.
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Prepare the syrup in a saucepan with the sugar, two tablespoons of water and the skins. If you don’t have a thermometer, prepare a bowl of ice water next to it. The syrup will be ready when it reaches 120 ÂșC; to check, take a little syrup with a teaspoon and plunge it into the ice water to cool. If you are able to make a ball with the cold syrup, it will be ready.
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Meanwhile, in a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. When the syrup is ready, remove the skins and reserve. Add the syrup to the whites in the form of a thread without stopping beating. It should be white, shiny and firm.
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Distribute the meringue in the cups with a spoon or sleeve. Optionally, lightly brown with a blowtorch. Finish with the lemon skins on top.
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