Frozen lemon mousse and lemon meringue topping

A few days ago my roommate Jaclyn and I watched the Martha Stewart video on how to make a frozen lemon mousse and I thought, "I absolutely have to make that!" Though I have to say, I very rarely make deserts and it was a challenge but I took a crack at it.

So, I went out and got the necessary ingredients:

Frozen Lemon Mousse
2 cups fresh lemon juice
8 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
2 sticks of butter
2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 cup heavy cream

An all necessary sifter
A spring form (Martha Stewart's is the best!)

1. In a pot, over medium heat I mixed the lemon juice, butter, eggs and sugar. I mixed and stirred till the mixture boiled and bubbles appeared. (approx. 10 mins)

2. I put the mixture in a glass bowl (through the sifter), sitting in a bowl that is itself sitting on ice water, cover with a plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours

(now you have successfully prepared lemon curd, which you can use as jam spread or on top of melted cheese, or goat cheese...but I digress)

3. In a bowl whisk the heavy cream till it becomes creamy and sticks to your whisk instead of falling off of it. Once it reaches this consistency you can add the lemon curd and fold over until the curd and cream are fully combined and there is no white or yellow.

This new mixture can be placed in the springform and left in the freezer for at least 4 hours, but I left it in for 6 to be sure...



Candied Lemon Zest

1. Peel a lemon and cut very thin stripes of the zest, making sure you only have the yellow part and not the white spongy pat of the lemon peel. Put the strips in a bowl and add boiling water, leave for 20 minutes and drain.

2. In a small pot over medium heat add 3/4 cup water, 1 1/2 cup sugar and the lemon peels. Cook for 12 minutes and then cover the pot and leave for at least 6-8 hours.


Now, Martha's way of serving this mousse is on a layer of lemon curd and syrup topped with whipped creme fresh and candied lemon zest. However, since this desert was following fish and I am not a huge fan of creme fraiche I made my own variation of toppings.

The thing is I love lemon pie, it is a real family favorite, and I wanted to get close to a lemon pie, but with a frozen base an dno pie crust. One of the great variations of the lemon pie is the meringue on top of it.

Lemon Meringue Topping
Since I had the 8 egg whites left from the eggs used for the lemon curd, I added 3/4 cup of lemon juice and 1/2 cup of sugar and beat the eggs.

I then poured the meringue in a foil pie pan and put in the oven (preheat at 250F) and let it bake for 35 minutes.


Once the mousse has been frozen and taken out of the freezer I topped it with the lemon meringue and dipped my knife in warm water to cut through the mousse easily and served with the candied lemon zest.

It took a while, but the result is most rewarding.

LM