How to make Lemon Posset – the Perfect Summer Dessert

Last Updated on July 3, 2024

An easy and delicious heritage recipe for Lemon Posset to make your own!

“I would desire no more excellent dish to prolong life, than a mess of posset curds.”

Thomas Dekker, The Honest Whore (1604)

The heritage of the lemon posset we enjoy today, made with double cream and fresh lemons, dates back to Medieval Britain when it was made with milk rather than cream, curdled with ale or wine, spiced with cinnamon or nutmeg and generally consumed warm for medicinal purposes or as a bedtime drink to help sleep.

Over the years, the dish evolved into a simple but delicious chilled dessert of Lemon Posset that is one of the best examples of kitchen alchemy I know! This ultra-posh, delicious, light and creamy pudding is based on just three ingredients – and it takes less than 10 minutes to make!

For a basic lemon posset, you’ll need double cream, caster sugar and lemons. That’s it. The ratio you’ll need is about 1 part sugar to 3 parts cream – and, depending on your palate, 1/2 to 1 lemon per person. I’ve given a recipe here for 4 desserts but it’s easy to scale up or down as there’s minimal cooking involved.

You will be zesting the lemons so ideally find the unwaxed sort (waxed lemons are coated with shellac, beeswax or similar). If you can’t, then dunk your lemons into some very hot water and leave them for 5 minutes till you see the wax floating to the top. Then scrub them gently and dry carefully.

Caster sugar is the best kind to use for this recipe as it will dissolve faster. You can use vanilla-infused sugar if you like for extra flavour, but I don’t find that necessary.

I only make this recipe with double cream or whipping cream (heavy cream for those in the USA). It sets perfectly with just 1 minute of boiling!

As with most simple recipes, it will work best with top-quality ingredients – really fresh lemons and the best cream you can find.

To finish the dish I like to use lemon verbena which I grow in the garden. Sometimes I infuse the leaves in the cream and remove them before serving, sometimes I just use a sprig as a pretty garnish. Raspberries are also a delicious garnish. Ideally, you need some pretty, light biscuits to serve on the side – my almond shortbread is a perfect addition, or really posh dark chocolate biscuits would be good too.

Start by zesting your lemons and juicing them. Set the lemon zest and juice to one side and put the sugar and cream into a heavy pan that’s at least twice the size you think you should need! When the cream boils it will bubble up and you don’t want to end up with cream all over your hob!

Heat the mixture very gently, stirring with a spatula to make sure none of the cream burns on the sides of pan. Once the sugar is all dissolved, turn the heat up to bring the mixture to a boil and let it simmer for a minute.

Take the pan off the heat and stir through the lemon zest and juice.

Pour the resulting mixture into heatproof glasses (or if you prefer into the shells of the lemons). If you want a smoother posset, you can strain it through a fine sieve to remove the lemon zest, but I don’t bother.

Put the glasses into the fridge and let them chill for three hours before serving. They will keep perfectly for 24 hours if you want to make them in advance.

Just before serving, garnish with mint, lemon verbena or raspberries

When everyone tells you how clever you are smile knowingly and don’t let on how easy this recipe is to make!

A few variations for you to try. Posset is traditionally made with lemons but you can use any citrus fruit – lime, yuzu or grapefruit for example. If you decide to use a different citrus, consider what the best garnish will be – I’d use mint for lime posset for example.

If the idea of a totally ‘soft’ dessert isn’t for you, then you can make a biscuit base with crushed digestive biscuits, butter and a little sugar pressed into the bottom of your serving glasses, then topped with the posset.

For a naughty variation, add a suitable liqueur to the cream mix along with the lemon juice and zest. I sometimes add a teaspoon of limoncello or Cointreau per person.

You can also add spices – nutmeg or vanilla are both good. But, at the end of the day, I like a simple lemon posset with no additions, not even the extra alcohol. It’s that good!

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