Lemon Desserts

Last year I used every spare minute (and some I shouldn’t have) to organize and catalog all my cookbooks. I have a large collection and it had become unwieldy with duplicates that I needed to cull. Trying to kill two birds with one stone, I was also hunting for a recipe for a dessert to take to our grub club last July. The theme was cool cooking—an idea that took shape when the hosts probably thought we’d be ready to cool off by the end of July.

Well, I’m afraid I outsmarted myself. I found a recipe that I was pleased about and put a post-it on the page. I even read it to Zig, who thought it was great. Now I can’t remember what cookbook it was in or even exactly what the recipe was except it was a lemon mousse or soufflé with berries. Not being able to remember something or find something drives me crazy and as I grow older it seems to be an increasing problem.

After spending a great deal of time looking for the recipe, I found some that I thought would suffice in case I never found the original. I came up with three that I like but never the one that I started with. Now the only problem was—which one should I take?

Lemon Soufflé with raspberry sauce

6 egg whites
4 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp flour
¾ cup milk, hot
Juice of 2 large lemons
½ cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. grated lemon rind
Pinch of salt
Powdered sugar
2 cups raspberry sauce (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Butter a six-cup soufflé mod and sprinkle it with sugar, shaking out the excess. Set it aside. Bring the egg whites to room temperature and set aside. In large saucepan, heat butter over low heat. Add flour and whisk the mixture until well blended. Add hot milk all at once and beat the mixture until very thick and smooth. Add lemon juice and sugar. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and lemon rind. Return to stove and reheat over very low heat until it begins to steam. Set pan aside off heat.

Beat egg whites and a pinch of salt in mixer with balloon attachment or by hand with a wire whisk until mixture forms soft peaks. Add a little of the beaten egg whites to the soufflé base and gently fold them in. Pour this mixture into the egg whites, using your hands to fold it in. Pour mixture into the prepared mold and set in the middle of the oven. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Serve immediately sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with cold raspberry sauce.

Raspberry sauce

4 cups fresh raspberries
¾ cup sugar
½ cup currant jelly
2 Tbsp. orange liqueur
¼ cup kirsch
Juice of 1 lemon

Wash raspberries, reserving 1 cup of the best. Place remaining berries in a blender with the sugar and blend at high speed for 3 minutes. Pass mixture through a fine sieve and reserve. Combine currant jelly with liqueurs in small pan and heat until the jelly is dissolved. Beat the mixture into the raspberry puree. Sprinkle soufflé with reserved fresh raspberries.

Blueberries in Lemon Mousse

1 quart blueberries
1 cup sugar, divided
5 eggs, separated
Juice of 2 large lemons
1 cup whipped cream
2 tsp. grated lemon rind

Wash blueberries and remove their stems. Pour them into glass serving bowl and sprinkle with ¼ cup sugar. In the top of a non-corrosive double boiler, beat the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar until the mixture becomes a light lemon color. Add lemon juice and cook over simmering water, whisking constantly until it heavily coast a spoon. Do not boil. Remove from heat and cool. Beat egg whites until they are stiff and fold them gently into the lemon mixture. Fold in the whipped cream and lemon rind. Mix well until very smooth. Chill and just before serving, cover the berries with the mousse.


Chocolate-Raspberry Ice Cream Pie (adapted from Woman’s Day)

12-15 whole chocolate graham crackers
5 Tbsp butter, softened
¼ cup sugar
1 pint vanilla ice cream
1 pint raspberry sorbet
1 pint chocolate ice cream (premium)
1 pint red raspberries
1 cup whipped cream or topping

Coat 9-in. pie plate with cooking spray. Pulse cracker in food processor until fine crumbs. Add butter and sugar and process until moistened. Press firmly over bottom and up sides of pie plate. Freeze 30 minutes. Place vanilla ice cream in the refrigerator for 0 minutes to slightly soften. Pack into crust with a large spoon; spread evenly. Freeze 15 minutes. Meanwhile, soften sorbet as above; spread on vanilla ice cream. Freeze until firm while slightly softening chocolate ice cream. Spread evenly on sorbet. Freeze at least 3 hours, or wrap airtight and freeze up to 1 week. To serve: top pie with half of the raspberries. Drop spoonfuls of whipped cream on berries; spread evenly. Top with remaining berries.