Blood Orange Posset: Only 3 Ingredients
Indulge in a luxurious and velvety dessert experience with blood orange posset. This rich and creamy delight is infused with the tangy and vibrant essence of blood oranges, which imparts a beautiful rosy peach hue to the dish. The flavour is bold and zesty, yet beautifully balanced and not too sharp, making it a delightful treat for all palates. With this simple and effortless recipe, you can create a mouth-watering pudding in no time. Be sure to plan ahead though, as it does require a few hours of setting time.
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Fourteen years ago today, I started my chocolate recipe blog, Chocolate Log Blog. It morphed into what you see today, a vegetarian recipe blog with an emphasis on whole foods. But I’ve never lost my love of chocolate.
Thus today’s post not only marks a delicious and simple pink dessert for Valentine’s Day, but I’ve crowned my blood orange possets with thematically appropriate chocolate shavings. They marry (see what I did there?) very nicely.
Dive Right In
- What Is A Posset?
- What’s The Difference Between A Posset And Syllabub?
- Blood Orange Posset
- Ingredients
- How to Blood Orange Posset
- How To Serve Blood Orange Posset
- Why Won’t My Posset Set?
- How To Make Lemon Posset
- Other Blood Orange Recipes You Might Like
- Keep In Touch
- The Recipe
What Is A Posset?
The classic posset which isn’t nearly as well known as it should be is lemon posset. It’s a very simple dessert made with only three ingredients: lemons, cream and sugar. It is, however, more than the sum of its parts. Never has so little effort gone in and such deliciousness resulted.
Posset started life in the middle ages as a sweetened and sometimes spiced hot drink. Hot milk was thickened with wine or ale and served as a restorative quencher.
The drink morphed into a sort of custard made with eggs in Shakespeare’s time. However, it was the Victorians that turned it into the delightful creamy citrus dessert we now know and love.
What’s The Difference Between Posset And Syllabub?
There’s not a huge amount of difference between these two classic stalwarts except for one key ingredient. Possets are always made with citrus fruit where as syllabub is made with wine. It may, or may not contain citrus too.
It’s pretty certain they both evolved from the old English drink, posset, as described in the previous section.
Blood Orange Posset
With its soft peachy pink hue, blood orange posset makes a perfect Valentine’s Day dessert. Blood oranges are in season mid-February in the UK and it’s easy to get hold of these crimson juicy fruits. Posset is also an excellent easy make ahead dessert for both date-nights and dinner parties. Either way, it’s sure to impress.
You don’t, of course, have to use blood oranges to make posset. Seville oranges give a refreshing sharp zing, much like lemons. Navel oranges will give a sweeter result and limes a hint of the exotic.
Posset takes less than ten minutes to make, but you do need to plan ahead as it requires one or two hours in the fridge to set.
When it’s time to tuck in, savour each spoonful of this blood orange posset and bask in its silky smooth texture and sumptuous flavour. Serve with shortbread and a grating of chocolate, if liked.
Blood Orange Posset: Ingredients
As I’ve already stated, you only need three simple ingredients to make posset. These are: double cream (heavy cream) for richness, sugar for sweetness and blood oranges for flavour and zing.
You will also need a small saucepan, a microplane* (fine zester) and four ramekins, small dessert dishes* or glasses.
Double Cream (Heavy Cream)
You need standard double cream for this recipe, not extra thick cream and not whipping or single cream. If you use anything else you won’t get the delicious velvety mouthfeel you’re expecting. Another downside is that the posset either won’t set properly or it’ll be too solid.
Boiling the cream thickens the finished posset a little and also makes it creamier.
Sugar
Golden caster sugar is the best to use in this recipe. Golden granulated is okay too, but it will take longer to dissolve.
I’ve used a lot less sugar than you’d normally find in a modern posset recipe, but it’s plenty sweet enough. When it comes to sugar, less is often more.
If you’d like to scale up the flavours a little, use vanilla sugar or cardamom sugar instead. It’s ever so easy to make your own.
Blood Oranges
Blood oranges are my citrus of choice for these particular possets, mostly because they’re in season now and I like the flavour. However, as I’ve already stated you can use pretty much any type of citrus instead.
Acidic citrus juice is the key to this dessert as it naturally thickens the cream. You’ll need both the juice and zest.
You don’t need as much sugar as you would for lemon posset as blood oranges aren’t as sour. If you use a really sweet orange instead, you may want to reduce the sugar further.
How To Make Blood Orange Posset
Unless you have a particularly large blood orange, one is not enough for this recipe. You need the zest of two and the juice of about one and a half. I used the remaining juice to make the Vietnamese dipping sauce (nước chấm) for my Vietnamese pancakes (bánh xèo).
Step 1. Heat Cream
Pour the cream into a small, but deep, saucepan and add the sugar. Place over a low to medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Increase the heat and bring the cream to a boil. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for two minutes. Watch the pan carefully as, just like milk, cream can boil over very quickly.
Remove from the heat.
Top Tip
If doubling the recipe, simmer the cream for an additional minute.
Step 2. Zest Orange
Grate the orange rind finely into the cream. A microplane* is really good for this. If you don’t have one already I highly recommend getting one. It finely grates citrus, garlic, chilli, ginger, chocolate and more with ease and it’s quick to clean too.
Step 3. Juice Orange
Juice the oranges ensuring no pips escape. Measure the juice and pour into the cream. Don’t worry if it’s still hot, it’s fine as long as it’s no longer boiling.
Stir the cream until everything is well mixed.
Step 4. Decant Into Dishes
Whilst it’s still liquid, divide the posset between four small serving dishes*. Ramekins or small glasses are ideal.
Allow the possets to cool, then place them in the fridge to set for at least an hour, preferably two. The possets will keep well in the fridge for a couple of days.
Top Tip
The texture is perfectly smooth, despite the grated zest, so there’s no need to pass it through a sieve. However, if you don’t have a fine grater, then pour the mixture through a sieve before decanting into your chosen vessels.
How To Serve Blood Orange Posset
Posset is at its best if removed from the fridge fifteen minutes before serving. Slightly chilled is good, but really cold isn’t ideal.
Either leave plain or top the posset with curls of fresh orange zest or shavings of dark chocolate just before wowing your loved one, friends or family.
Serve it on its own or with shortbread for scooping. Other biscuits can work too, but shortbread is particularly good as it’s plain and not too sweet. This enables the posset’s zingy flavour and creamy texture to really shine.
Why Won’t My Posset Set?
There could be various reasons as to why your blood orange posset hasn’t set. But the most likely one is that you haven’t let it sit in the fridge for long enough. It needs one hour at the very least after the possets have cooled. Two hours or more is better.
Other things to look out for are making sure you’ve used the right cream, added enough citrus and boiled the cream.
Double cream (heavy cream) is the only cream to use in this blood orange posset recipe. If you don’t add enough citrus, you won’t have enough acidity to thicken the cream. Likewise, if you don’t boil the cream, it won’t be thick enough to set the possets properly.
Your posset should be smooth and creamy, but not runny. It needs to sit on a spoon without sliding off, but not be so thick it’s gloopy.
The exact colour of your blood orange posset will depend on the colour of your oranges.
How To Make Lemon Posset
To make lemon posset, follow the recipe as given at the bottom of this post. But instead of using oranges, use lemons instead. You’ll need another fifteen grams of sugar to offset the increased acidity of the lemons, but otherwise it’s good to go.
Other Blood Orange Recipes You Might Like
- Blood orange caramel sauce
- Blood orange chocolate cake
- Blood orange curd
- Blood orange squash
- Mini orange sponge cakes with blood orange curd
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these blood orange posset puddings, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or advice for making them?
I’d very much appreciate it if you could rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, please use the hashtag #tinandthyme so I can see them.
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Choclette x
Blood Orange Posset. PIN IT.
Blood Orange Posset
Equipment
- microplane (affiliate link) optional
Ingredients
- 300 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- 60 g golden caster sugar
- 2 blood oranges zest and 60ml juice
Instructions
- Pour the cream into a small pan along with the sugar. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.300 ml double cream (heavy cream), 60 g golden caster sugar
- Bring the cream to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for two minutes.
- Turn the heat off, finely grate in the zest from the two oranges and stir. I find a microplane* works well for this. Add the juice and stir again until well mixed.2 blood oranges
- Divide the mixture between four ramekins or small glasses and allow to cool to room temperature. Place in the fridge for at least one hour to set. Longer is even better and overnight is good.
- If liked, decorate with chocolate shavings or curls of orange zest before serving.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
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