Lisa's Lemon Raspberry Desserts

This was a wonderful idea from Lisa my co-worker who suggested the wonderful combo of lemon cream, berries and tuiles.

Ingredients: Tuiles
1/2 cup cake flour
2/3 cup icing sugar
2 large egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup unsalted butter (melted and cooled)

Ingredients: Lemon Cream
1 cup sugar
Grated zest of 3 lemons
4 large eggs
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 4-5 lemons)
2 sticks + 5 Tbs. of butter, at room temp, cut into 1 Tbs pieces.

Ingredients: Accoutrement's
3 punnets fresh organic raspberries
a couple of tsp. worth of icing sugar

Method: Tuiles
1. Cut out a cardboard stencil of the size of the tuiles you wish to make (mine was around 12cm x 5cm).
2. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment, and trace the stencil onto the paper.
3. Preheat the oven to 350F.
4. In a large bowl whisk together the flour and icing sugar.
5. Add the egg whites and vanilla extracts and whisk until smooth.
6. Whisk in the melted butter until well blended (the batter should look smooth and shiny).
7. Use around 1 Tbs. of batter for each tuile. Place the batter in the center of the stenciled shape and spread with a metal spatula.
8. Bake for around 7-9 min or until the edges have a deep brown color and the center is still pale.
9. Remove carefully (these are remarkably thin) from the parchment paper and let cool on a wire rack.

Method: Lemon Cream
Have an instant read thermometer, a strainer and a blender at hand.
1.Bring a few inches of water to boil in a saucepan.
2. Put the sugar and zest in a large heatproof bowl (that will fit inside your saucepan of simmering water). Off the heat, rub the sugar and zest together between your fingers until the sugar is moist, and very aromatic.
3. Whisk in the eggs, and then add the lemon juice.
4. Set the bowl over the pan and start stirring with the whisk as soon as the mixture feels tepid.
5. Cook the lemon cream until it reaches 180F whisk the lemon cream the whole time.
6. Once it has reached 180F, remove it from the saucepan of simmering water and strain it into the blender. Throw away the lemon zest.
7. Wait until the temperature of the lemon cream is 140F before turning the blender on.
8. Once it is 140F, turn on the blender, and proceed to feed the butter into the lemon cream 5 Tbs at a time. Make sure you periodically scrape down the sides of the blender.
9. Blend for 3 min. on the highest setting - this makes the cream light and airy.
10. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Method: Assembly - to be done as close to serving time as possible
1. Place 1 tuile on a serving plate.
2. Spread around 1 Tbs. of the lemon cream on top.
3. Halve some raspberries and arrange them around the edges of the tuile.
4. Place another tuile on top and repeat.
5. Place another tuile on top, and then place the lemon cream on top. Instead of halving the raspberries for this final layer, simply stand them up (like the photo).
6. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve!

Taken and adapted from: Williams and Sanoma "Essentials of Baking pp. 136-7 and Dorie Greenspans book "Baking: From My Home to Yours" pp. 331-33.