Orange Posset with Orange Shortbread Cookies

A posset (spelled poshot) is a medieval English dessert of curdled hot milk or cream with wine traditionally,but also with lemon juice.The recipe is super simple,only setting takes time and patience.But the waiting time is worth the taste of the delicious dessert. Normally or atleast I have seen that the posset is served along shortbread cookies/fingers. I had few oranges to be used up and I decided to go for an orange posset and served it with orange shortbread.

I had referenced several recipe for posset mainly the BBC recipe and the EnglishKitchen recipe. I had seen the orange shortbread here,but went for round cookies instead of fingers.

Orange Posset:

Ingredients:

Heavy Cream: 1 cup
Orange Zest: 1-2 tsp

Caster Sugar: 4 tbsp
Lemon Juice: 1 tbsp
Orange Juice: 3 tbsp
Orange Extract: a dash

Preparation:
Add cream and zest in thick bottomed bowl and bring to boil on medium heat.Remove and let sit for 10-20 minutes so that the orange flavour infuses.

Put back on heat and add the sugars and the citrus juices.Mix well and cook till the sugar is dissolved and the mix starts to thicken.This takes just two-three minutes or so.At the end add in orange extract and then remove from heat.

Cool slightly and then pour in ramekins/serving bowls/cups and chill till serving time.

Serve with shortbread cookies garnished with more zest and candied orange peel.

A silky smooth set pudding. The taste was excellent. It set properly,despite me using low fat cream available here.

Orange Shortbread:
A shortbread is a buttery crumbly cookie and adds crunch when served with the silky smooth posset.

Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour: 3/4 cup
Cornstarch: 3 tbsp
Sugar: 4 tbsp + 2 tbsp for sprinkling
Orange zest: 1 tsp +
Salt: 1/4 tsp

Orange Juice: fresh squeezed: 2 tbsp
Unsalted Butter: 7tbsp cold

Preparation:
Sift together the flour,salt,zest,cornstarch and 4 tbsp sugar. Add in orange juice and then crumble the butter into it .Mix well to form a course sandy mix. Knead to form a dough.

Pinch off pieces of the dough,shape into a cookies, sprinkle the top wth sugar and then bake in a preheated oven at 300F/150C for 15-20 minutes or more until the edges start browning.

The original recipe went for 30 minutes where the shortbread was scored into rectangles,but my cookies were done in 12 minutes or so. After 12 minutes keep an eye on the oven.

Serve the cookies with posset or as a snack as such.

You can optionally add pepper to the posset just to spice it up.Both orange juice and orange extract are optional,I added them to make more orangey.


This is a simple dessert,but very tasty and yes you can definitely enjoy this with your loved ones or rather a perfect valentine dessert.So the posset and the cookies are going to visit the MM:Small Bites at Paulchen's, an event  by Meeta.