Lemon Coconut Posset with Golden Cardamom Shortbread

I know what you're thinking....what the hell's posset?!?! I had never heard of it but I saw it in a recent Food and Wine magazine and thought it sounded nice and light, basically lemon curd and cream whipped up, much like a syllabub but without the wine or alcohol factor. I've been wanting to try coconut whipped cream for ages now so this seemed like the perfect dessert to try it with.

FIVE cans of coconut milk later, we got there! Sigh...despite following all online coconut whipped cream tutorials to a 'T' mine just wasn't whipping like in their photos. I used full fat coconut milk, chilled it overnight to separate, scooped out just the thick cream, chilled my mixer bowl and beater but it just wouldn't whip up fully, you certainly couldn't get little whipped peaks like in the photos. 

I eventually determined that it's all down to brands. The first 2 brands both didn't whip really well but I used them to make the posset anyway and it was still really good, just a little more "floppy" than I would have liked. Then I decided to skip out the middle man and use one of those cartons of coconut CREAM you can buy here in the grocery store. I didn't even have to chill it and it whipped up great, held together and gave a perfect texture for the posset. Yay!

The whipped coconut cream is whisked into a homemade citrus curd made with agar. I actually use lemon and orange juice here as I find the orange counters some of the lemony bitterness and simply adds a nice flavour. 

Altogether this is such a light, cool and incredibly creamy dessert, perfect for a light ending, particularly after a curry. It's very zingy and while the coconut flavour is definitely there, it's not overpowering. We all really loved this, including my son.

I decided to add a biscuit to this dessert as I think the change in texture is nice and it kind of finishes off the dessert. I saw this recipe for Golden Cardamom Shortbread in my Canadian Living magazine and thought the flavours would go wonderfully with the lemon-coconut posset. I don't use cardamom much at all, I've only threw in a couple pods into curries so it was all new territory really. 

First, I couldn't find ground cardamom anywhere. A quick search online indicated that it's actually quite expensive so that may be why! Thankfully the pods are cheap, I already had a jar, and I do have a spice grinder, so I made my own. If you have a spice grinder I highly recommend it as this came out so incredibly fragrant and was really very easy.

In the end, I love these biscuits, the cardamom does give them a slightly more exotic taste, like a citrusy spicy ginger which goes wonderfully with the coconut posset, I tend to crumble them on top of the posset as I eat it! That being said, if you don't like cardamom or are unsure about it, simply replace with 1/4 tsp cinnamon or a little ground ginger.

Lemon Coconut Posset

Serves 4 - 6.

• 80ml fresh lemon juice, sieved

• 80ml orange juice, no pulp, I found bottled better here

• 1 Tbsp agar flakes

• 100g (1/2 cup) golden caster sugar

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• 250ml carton coconut cream, or the equivalent from chilled cans.

• 1/2 cup icing sugar

• 1/2 tsp vanilla

First make the curd: In a saucepan add the lemon juice, orange juice and sugar. Stir off the heat for a few minutes, just so it's well mixed and the sugar can start to soften. Sprinkle over the agar flakes and let sit for 1 minute. Give it a good stir then turn the heat on and bring to the boil stirring now and again. When it comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer and simmer for 3 - 5 minutes, until the sugar and agar have dissolved.

Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool and set, once cool enough place in the fridge for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.

Now it should be set but once you give it a good stir it should be like lemon curd in consistency. I have always found at this point that it has little gelatine like balls in it, and who wants little hard bits in their dessert? No one. That's who. So take a fine sieve and push the curd through it to get it nice and smooth. Make sure you scrape any smooth curd clinging to the underside of the sieve when you are done. Now you should have a small bowl of smooth curd, pop it back in the fridge.

If you are using boxed coconut cream simply add the 250 ml carton to a mixer bowl and whip up, adding the icing sugar and vanilla halfway through. If you are chilling cans of coconut milk you will need about 250 ml of cream from the cans, one can should suffice but you may want to chill 2 just in case.

Now take your curd out of the fridge and whisk in about 1/2 cup of the coconut whipped cream until smooth. Now scrape the curd mixture into the coconut whipped cream and whisk really well. Spoon the mixture into serving bowls, whatever you like, I used my martini glasses here and got 3 servings but to be fair, they are a bit big, four servings would a better amount, or even up to 6. I like to pop them back in the fridge to chill and set a little more, although, you can eat them now.

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Golden Cardamom Shortbread

• 100g (1/2 cup) vegan butter

• 50g (1/4 cup packed) brown sugar

• 100g (3/4 cup) plain flour

• 2 Tbsp cornstarch

• 2 Tbsp rice flour

• 3/4 tsp freshly ground cardamom or 1/4 tsp cinnamon or ginger.

• granulated sugar

• gold edible dusting lustre - optional

First, if you are grinding your own cardamom it really is very simple. You want to grind just the seeds from inside the pods, I just smashed them with the side of a wide bladed knife and split them open.

Here are the pods on the left with the seeds from inside on the right.

Place the seeds in a spice grinder.

And grind until it is fine in texture, it's really quick :-)

Now, in a small bowl add the flour, cornstarch, rice flour and ground cardamom and whisk well. In a large bowl add the vegan butter and brown sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in 2 additions, beating well after each addition.

Line a baking sheet with baking paper and preheat the oven to a low 150C. Pack the dough into a tablespoon measure then scoop out and roll into a ball. Repeat until all the dough is gone, keeping them on a chopping board or plate.

Now roll each ball into some granulated sugar and place on the baking sheet a little apart from each other. I got my little design here from the bottom of a crystal rose bowl I have:

I just dipped the underside of the rose bowl into the sugar then pressed each cookie giving it the pretty design. A lot of wine glasses have decorative bottoms so you could use that too! 

Now pop them in the preheated oven and back for 30 minutes. Let them cool on the sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to fully cool.

If you like you can dust them with some edible gold lustre, mine's by sugarflair and happened to be vegan, I used a new clean little eyeshadow brush and just dusted a little bit on. To be honest I wouldn't bother doing it again though, it was mostly for the picture ;-) As you can see they are just as nice and sparkly without the E-numbers!

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Nutritional Information

Lemon Coconut Posset                                  

(Based on 1 serving out of 4)                                                                                 

Calories: 293                                                                   

Fat: 12.1g                                                                             

Sat Fat: 9.9g                                                                       

Protein: 2.4g                                                                   

Fibre: 0.3g                                                                          

Carbs: 45.3g                                                                       

Sugar: 42.1g                                                                       

Sodium: 2.9mg

Golden Cardamom Shortbread

 (Based on 1 shortbread)

Calories: 92

Fat: 4.4g

Sat Fat: 1g

Protein: 0.9g

Fibre: 0.3g

Carbs: 12g                                                              

Sugar: 3.7g

Sodium: 47.8g

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