I also prefer sour, fruity desserts rather than purely sweet, chocolatey ones. If chocolate, then with orange flavour, orange peel or chocolate covered jelly, hm... And lemon desserts are one of my favourites. Tarte au citron, lemon meringue pie, lemon mousse or sorbet? Here with them!
Lemon sandwich is a versatile dessert. It tastes good on its own, with afternoon coffee or tea, as well as for breakfast the next day with some savoury jam. Although I don't believe you'll have any left by morning. In our house, it always just gets dusty afterwards. When I'm in the mood, I drizzle lemon glaze over it while it's still hot so it soaks up nicely and stays juicy and supple for a long time, but when I'm expecting visitors and want to wow guests with this humble cake, I make something extra to go with it. Cream, sauce or, as in this case, a little luxury in the form of roasted citrus with thyme.
Lemon sandwich with cream sauce and baked citrus:
225 g softened butter
225 g sugar
4 eggs
grated rind of 2 lemons
225 g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
Lemon topping:
juice of 2 lemons
85 g caster sugar
Cream:
375 g sour cream
1 - 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar
Baked citrus:
1 orange
1 red orange
1 pink grapefruit
a little sunflower or coconut oil
a little brown sugar
a sprig of thyme
To make the cream, mix the cream with the vanilla sugar. Spread a clean cheesecloth, cotton napkin or several layers of cheesecloth over a thick sieve, pour the cream into it and leave it to drip for a couple of hours. After a while, you can tie the corners of the cheesecloth, hang it over a bowl and put it in the fridge to drain. The longer you let the cream drip, the thicker the cream will be.Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a biscuit tin with baking paper or grease with butter and dust with flour. Beat the softened butter with the sugar until foamy. Gradually add the eggs one at a time, the grated lemon zest and finally mix in the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt). Layer the dough in the tin, smooth the surface and bake for 45 minutes, or until the dough is cooked through (insert a skewer into the centre of the dough and when it is dry when you pull it out, it is done). Leave to cool in the tin. If you want the lemon sandwich juicy and soaked in lemon glaze, while the dough is cooling, dissolve the sugar in the lemon juice (or heat it in a saucepan so that the sugar dissolves more easily), prick the dough in the tin thickly with a skewer all the way down and pour it over the dough by spoonfuls until all the glaze has soaked into the dough. Leave the soaked sandwich in the mould to cool completely.For the roasted citrus, preheat the oven on the top rack (grill).Peel the grapefruit and oranges, cut them into rounds and place them on a baking tray with baking paper. Sprinkle them with a little brown sugar, drizzle with oil, sprinkle with thyme leaves and put them in the oven under the grill for a few minutes until the edges of the citrus begin to turn brown and caramelise. Remove the citrus from the oven and leave to cool. Serve the lemon sandwich, sliced, with a dollop of cream cheese, slices of roasted citrus and a sprinkling of thyme leaves. The lemon sandwich will keep fresh (without the cream and roasted citrus) for a few days, or up to a month in the freezer.
