Desserts & Baking

Lemon posset with matzah brittle

8 to 10
Easy
20 minutes, plus overnight chilling time
40 minutes

Desserts are often overlooked at Passover or overcomplicated due to the dietary restrictions followed over the holiday. As a purist at heart, I can’t wrap my head around trying to make a cake using matzoh meal. I’d just rather not. I can live without reinventing the wheel for a week. And to be honest, at the end of a long, bountiful meal, nothing quite hits the spot like something light and fresh like a posset. The beauty of these little creams is that they look impressive and can be made well ahead of time. Where shortbread would do well alongside for dipping and general delight, in comes Passover’s more recent invention: matzah brittle. Alarmingly good and hard to stop eating, I suggest making a large batch to serve with your possets or to take to someone as a Passover-friendly gift that will certainly be welcomed.

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Ingredients

Method
    For the lemon posset:

  • 1.2 litre long-life cream
  • 1 lemon, zested
  • 280 g light brown sugar
  • 1/4 t salt
  • 3 T fresh lemon juice
  • 250 g Woolworths Flavourburst strawberries, washed and diced
  • 3 leaves basil, sliced chiffonade
  • For the matzah brittle:

  • 4 sheets matzah
  • 150 g raw flaked almonds
  • 270 g light brown sugar
  • 120 g unsalted butter
  • 2 t boiling water
  • 1/2 t flaky salt
  • 1/2 t bicarbonate of soda

Method

Ingredients

1.  To make the posset, place the cream and lemon zest into a saucepan over a medium heat and bring to a very gentle simmer. Once steam begins to rise from the surface, remove from the heat and set aside to cool and infuse, around 30 minutes.

2. Add the sugar and salt to the cream and return to a medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring continuously, for 1–2 minutes until the cream rises to the top of the pan. Don’t take your eyes off it at this stage to prevent the cream from boiling over.

3. Remove from the heat and strain through a sieve into a large measuring jug, stirring through the lemon juice. The mixture will thicken quickly at this stage.

4. Divide the mixture between 8–10 ramekins, glasses or coupés, 3/4 of the way up, and place in the fridge to set for at least 6 hours, but preferably overnight. 5 Before serving, combine the diced strawberries and basil with a pinch of sugar. Place a tablespoon or so of the mixture on each posset and serve with the matzah brittle on the side.

5. To make the matzah brittle, preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and lay the matzah evenly on the tray. Bake for 5–10 minutes to colour the matzah and crisp it up further. Remove from the oven and set aside.

6. Toast the sliced almonds in the same way, keeping an eye on them to ensure they don’t burn. Turn off the oven but leave the almonds in the oven to keep warm to prevent the brittle from setting too quickly.

7. Place the sugar, butter and water into a medium saucepan over a low heat. Stir until the sugar has melted. Stop stirring and allow it to darken to a rich amber colour. If you have a kitchen thermometer, the desired temperature is 140°C, or the “crack stage”.

8. Turn off the heat. Add the bicarbonate of soda and warm almonds, gently stirring to combine. The mixture will bubble and froth as you stir. Working quickly, pour the caramel over the matzah sheets as evenly as you can, taking care not to use any tools to spread the caramel so that you don’t change the sugar structure. I like to do this by individually placing the sheets of matzah onto plates and tipping the sheets of matzah to let the caramel run along the lengths of the sheets until evenly distributed. Be careful when working with hot sugar and take extra care not to touch it with your bare hands.

9. Set the brittle aside to cool completely, then break it up into rustic chunks.

Store in an airtight container and consume within 3 days.

Cook’s note: If sugar work feels daunting or if it’s something you don’t have time to do, make matzah brittle with store-bought salted caramel sauce. To do this, follow steps 1 and 2 of the recipe, then spread the caramel sauce all over the matzah and return to the oven until the sauce begins to bubble and turn a darker colour, which will help create that snap effect needed for a brittle. Remove the caramel matzah sheets from the oven and, while warm, scatter over the toasted almonds and flaky salt

Find more sweet treat recipes here

Yael  Lapiner

Recipe by: Yael  Lapiner

Yael Lapiner received her training at the Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in London and has since honed her skills abroad and at home in SA. She is also a certified nutritional coach, graduating from Stanford's School of Medicine in the USA. Her passion for cooking and living well influences her style of seasonal, whole, fresh recipes that anyone can cook no matter their ability. “Just like in a well-written recipe, everything in life is about balance and my style of eating, cooking and living embodies just that.

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