I loved the lemon star sandwich cookies I made last December so much that I couldn’t stop playing with the recipe. I’ve tweaked the lemon curd recipe into a fluffy cloud of lemon mousse to make this very elegant but easy lemon tart recipe. The addition of whipped coconut cream mellows out the tart lemon curd bite. I like both flavors but in this instance too much tart flavor would ruin this…dessert. ( Ha! Thought I’d go with the obvious pun, didn’t you?)
Ring Mold Presentation
I modified the original lemon curd recipe so that the mousse would have enough structure to stand up. If your mousse doesn’t stand up nicely on the cookie base, you have two options. You could par-freeze it before serving. This would require as many rings molds and servings since you could only unfold them at the last minute. The cookies might spread slightly in the oven. I didn’t find that this affected the presentation enough to worry about it. If you want to be a perfectionist, bake the cookies in the ring mold for the first 5 minutes then remove to the remainder of the baking time.
Canning Jar Presentation
For a more casual dessert, I would just go with the tart in a jar and present a more casual dessert. I used my 4 ounce canning jar. Bonus: they freeze well so you can make them way in advance! If you make the whole batch of butter cookies and lemon curd, you’ll have leftovers. Treat yourself to Lemon Ice Cream Sandwiches as well!
- ½ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 tbsp kosher unflavored gelatin
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 4 extra large eggs
- ½ cup agave nectar
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 can of coconut milk, refrigerated (just the cream off the top)
- 1 batch of lemon butter cookies
- Stir the gelatin into the lemon juice and lemon zest. Set aside.
- Beat the eggs and the agave nectar with a hand-held mixer on high speed until they’re light yellow and ribbon, or rest on top of the mixture for a second before disappearing when you lift the beaters.
- Stir the lemon mixture into the egg mixture, then put the top of the double boiler on the pot with the water boiling gently. The bowl should not touch the water. Beat on medium high speed until the mixture thickens and reaches 140° F. Take the lemon curd off the double boiler and beat in the butter ½ tablespoon at a time. Push through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl, place plastic wrap directly on the curd, and refrigerate until chilled.
- Place the cream off the top of a refrigerated can of coconut milk in a bowl and whip on high until creamy.
- Fold in one cup of chilled lemon curd.
- Ring mold method: Place a cookie in the bottom of the ring mold and scoop in lemon mousse mixture. Try to level the top of the mousse. Run an offset spatula around the ring mold to release it. Carefully remove the ring mold for a beautiful plated presentation and serve.
- Canning jar method: Take all the cookies that didn't survive intact from making the ring mold sized cookies and crumble them in a plastic bag with a rolling pin. Combine the crumbs with just enough coconut oil that they hold together. Take @2 tbsps of cookie crumb mixture and press it into the bottom of a 4 or 8 oz jar. Fill the rest of the jar with lemon mousse. The jars can be refrigerated for up to a week or even frozen.
Save the coconut liquid left over from the can of coconut milk for smoothies!
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