Lemon Charlottes And Lemon Curd

Total Time: 51 hrs Preparation Time: 48 hrs Cook Time: 3 hrs

Ingredients

• Servings: 6
• candied lemon peel
• 4 lemons, organic (they arent waxed)
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 cups water
• lemon curd
• 4 large egg yolks
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups whipping cream, chilled
• 42 soft ladyfingers (not the hard ones)

Recipe

• 1 this step (candied lemon peel and syrup) can be prepared up to 3 days ahead.
• 2 to make your candied lemon peel, line any small baking sheet with aluminium foi.
• 3 using your vegetable peeler, remove the peel from your lemons in long strips, making sure you do not remove the portion as well, only the yellow.
• 4 place the peel in a small saucepan, and just cover the peel with cold water.
• 5 bring to a boil, then drain.
• 6 repeating blanching process 2 more times in the same manner as stated above.
• 7 take your lemon peel, and cut into 1/8 inch wide strips.
• 8 in a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups sugar and 2 cups water to a boil, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves.
• 9 boil gently for 5 mins, and then add lemon peel.
• 10 simmer until peel is translucent (this will take approx 15 mins).
• 11 using a slotted spoon (do not throw away the syrup), transfer your peel to aluminum covered pan and sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the peels and toss to coat completely.
• 12 allow these to dry at room temp for 2 hours.
• 13 transfer peels to an airtight container and store at room temperature.
• 14 pour the syrup into a bowl, cover and chill.
• 15 for your lemon curd.
• 16 this step should be done the day before.
• 17 in the top portion of a double boiler over barely simmering water (ie: the water should not touch the top)whisk your egg yolks, whole eggs, sugar, lemon juice and salt to blend.
• 18 whisk constantly until mixture thickens and instant-read thermometer reads 160f (this should take approximately 6 mins).
• 19 now transfer mixture to a glass bowl, wrap in plastic wrap so that the plastic is touching the surface of the mixture, and refrigerate overnight.
• 20 take a portion (not all) of your candied lemon peel and finely chop enough to measure 1/4 cup.
• 21 place this in a small bowl and mix in 1/2 cup of lemon curd.
• 22 cover and chill.
• 23 beat whipping cream in a large bowl until speaks form.
• 24 fold 1 cup of whipped cream into the remaining lemon curd, cover and chill mixture.
• 25 cover remaining whipped cream and chill.
• 26 now, line six 3/4-cup souffle dishes (2 inches in dia with 1 1/2 inch-high sides) with plastic wrap, allowing 3 inch overhang.
• 27 take your ladyfingers and cut them into 2 inch lengths, keeping the ends for later.
• 28 stand 7 ladyfinger pieces upright, side by side, rounded side out, around the inside rim of each souffle dish.
• 29 place reserved end pices of ladyfingers in the bottom of each souffle dish, making sure to cover completely.
• 30 take out your chilled syrup, and brush ladyfingers lightly with this syrup.
• 31 spoon 1/4 cup lemon/whipped cream mixture into the center of each dish, and then genty spread a heaping tablespoon of lemon curd/peel mixture over the top of each.
• 32 cover and chill for at least 2 hours, and up to 1 day ahead.
• 33 now that they have chilled for a length of time, remove the charlottes from the souffle dishes by using the plastic wrap to lift up.
• 34 carefully remove the plastic wrap.
• 35 place charlottes on plates.
• 36 spoon reserved whipped cream into a pastry bag fitted with medium star tip(or be creative and use any kind of bag you can cut the tip off of for a less fancy but workable approach!) and pipe whipped cream rosette atop each charlotte.
• 37 sprinkle each with candied lemon and serve immediately.