Lemon Curd Dessert Shots

Of course, you probably know me very well for invading Vocal with my film studies stuff and articles entitled ‘a filmmaker’s guide’. I have often explained that I love to bake as well. Since I was young, I have loved the idea, the creativity and the relaxation of baking different things. I love to make macarons, layer cakes and gingerbread in particular and the activity of it really gets me away from my laptop (where I’m sure you know that I spend most of my life). So, I hope you enjoy me talking about what I bake and why I bake it complete with pictures (if not very good) of me actually baking, my baked goods in the process of being created and when they’re finished. I’m really happy to share this with you. And if you like, you can show me your baking (yes, I spend a lot of time writing, but I also spend a lot of time reading other people’s articles!), I would love to see it. Since I was in school, I was always interested in creating things, whether that be pieces of writing, welding things to make small statues or baking foods and making sweets (candy, if you’re American). I hope you enjoy looking at some of the stuff that has honestly kept me sane, because I seem to be going slightly mad.

Lemon Curd Dessert Shots

There's a few steps to this one:

1. Shortbread
2. Lemon Curd
3. Assembly
4. Meringue

and I'm going to take you through how and why I made this dessert on the day that I type up this article. (So the pictures are super fresh and new and basically from about a few hours ago).

Lemon is one of my favourite flavours of anything. It comes after mint on my palette and so, lemon and mint must be incorporated somehow into every aspect of what I eat. Normally, when I make fish or chicken, I use lemon and when I make the vegetables, I sneak in a bit of mint. I drink mint teas and lemon teas, I love mint in my coffee and lemon in my biscuit. Honestly, lemon and mint are the two most wonderful flavours I know and this Lemon Curd Dessert shot may not have mint, but it definitely has a lot of lemon.

When it comes to dessert shots, they are a lovely treat and just the right size as well. Not too much of anything and just sweet enough because, well, I don't like anything too sweet. In dessert shots, I like to use Boston Shot glasses because they have such a lovely wide rim which is easy for shaping things into and yet, it gives a lovely ease of access when eating as well.

So, let's make it then...

Part 1: To Make the Spiced Shortbread

• 75g Plain Flour
• 50g Chilled Butter
• 25g Caster Sugar
• 1 tbsp Ground Ginger
• 1/2 tbsp Ground Cinnamon

1. Preheat your oven to 200C
2. Line one baking tray with parchment paper
3. Cream together the butter and sugar in a bowl and then add the spices.
4. Fold in the flour and mix it together until you get a dough
5. Refrigerate this dough for half an hour
6. Roll out your dough and cut it any way you please because it's going to be mashed up afterwards anyway. Place it on the parchment paper.
7. Bake for 15-20mins at 200C and then, allow to cool for 15mins
8. When cooled, crumble them up and line the bottom of your shot glasses with them.

Put them in the fridge when you're finished lining the shot glasses and let us now move on to the next step... the curd.

Part 2: To Make the Lemon Curd

• 2 Lemons, juice and zest
• 100g Caster Sugar
• 50g Chilled Butter
• 2 Beaten Eggs

1. Grab a pot and put in two cups of warm water. Set over a medium heat and wait for it to simmer.
2. Put all the ingredients except for the eggs into a separate heat-proof bowl and place it atop the pot. Bring the pot of water to a soft boil.
3. Start your whisking as the butter melts into the sugar.
4. Add the beaten eggs and keep up your whisking until it turns into a custard-like mixture.
5. Sieve the mixture of the remaining zest into a jug
6. When done, take your shot-with-shortbread out of the fridge and separate the curd equally across the shot glasses to fill them just before the rim starts to properly widen.

Once you've finished this step, put it back in the fridge to set whilst you get on with the meringue...

Part 3: To Make the Meringue

• 2 Large Eggs
• 112g Caster Sugar
• 112g Icing Sugar

Whilst you're waiting for the meringue to make and watching the oven as you go, you can start part of the assembly process that doesn't require a lot of work.

Line the top of the curd in your shot with some jam of your choice. I used black cherry because it balances the sweet tartness with a bold flavour. Also, lemon and cherry taste great together.

Then, you can add an optional whipped cream layer between the meringue and the jam so people don't just get one big mouthful of sugar when they come to eat it. Be careful as we approach the mouth of the beast though and you should get it back in the fridge to set so it doesn't melt in that hot kitchen...

Quick, get them back in the fridge before you have to take out your meringue!

Part 4: The Last of the Assembly

Once your meringue has cooled after 15mins of being out of the oven, place the small meringue balls atop the dessert shots...

Grab the big meringue with the holes in it and place the shots in there. Sprinkle on some cocoa powder and you're pretty much finished for today... Well, there's the cleaning but that's your own personal problem.

A dessert you can eat around...