There are a few load-bearing moments in my youthful journey towards becoming a food blogger slash person obsessed with cooking; the epiphanic first time ever I saw Nigella Lawson’s face and cooking show in 2001, winning the best cake award at the 1998 Calf Club, my childhood adventures in microwaving (largely borne from the fact that we only had a microwave, but). Another such signpost is the lemon posset recipe from a Cuisine magazine—I want to say it’s from April 2002 but regrettably I lost the hard copy years ago—being my signature dessert at family gatherings for several years in my teens. It’s one of those recipes that feels like magic, and for reasons I can only chalk up to time management and perception of time itself, this is the first time I’ve recreated this dish for my almost eighteen-years-old blog. Except, here I’ve hoisted up the citrus stakes by replacing lemon with bitter pink grapefruit.

The ‘magic’ aspect, though I hesitate to sully the good name of science with such whimsy, is the relationship between the acid and the dairy—when the grapefruit juice hits the hot cream and sugar it immediately thickens, and, when refrigerated, becomes firm and luscious—the texture of ceramide-enriched moisturiser—suggesting gelatine, cooked egg yolks, whipped and stabilised cream—anything but what it actually is.

This fridge-cool, silky, satin-plump texture allows the citrus flavour to shimmer through, and to be honest, it’s hard to beat the original lemon version so don’t feel like you have to if you can’t find grapefruit, pink or otherwise. It’s not that this iteration outruns the lemon—it’s just a very worthy alternative. The bruising bitterness of the grapefruit is tempered by the fatness of the cream and sugar, but it still retains a slight edge—barely, I mean, this is by no means a challenging or confrontational pudding—but just enough to lend an air of lofty elegance. And the texture—the texture! I know I’ve already talked about it, but it bears repeating: this is so thick and lush and glossy, it tastes like you’ve spent hours toiling when all you’ve done is let some cream bubble away for precisely three minutes before tipping some juice in (and to that end; I tested this with bottled grapefruit juice and it was very serviceable.) “Tastes harder than it looks” is an incredible genre of food and this is in the upper echelon.

Finally, you absolutely don’t have to make the white chocolate mendiants—though they are a fun addition to drag through the thickened cream—and the contrast of snappish crunch and vanilla-plush sweetness against the grapefruit is excellent. I used pumpkin seeds to decorate these baubles partly because after getting you to buy cream and chocolate in this economy I’ll at least spare you from buying pistachios as well, but also their mellow, oily nuttiness adds to the pleasant contrast. Anyone who’s expressed an interest in cooking has probably been given silicone cupcake liners or muffin trays as a gift; they make the mendiants exceptionally easy to put together but just splodging melted chocolate onto a sheet of baking paper will also work fine.

If you’re in the mood for more billowingly creamy-fruity desserts that involve only marginally more effort, though nothing can quite compare to this ease of preparation, I recommend this vegan rhubarb panna cotta and passionfruit panna cotta, and my mango passionfruit summer trifle which is surprisingly midwinter-friendly.

And if I may, a reminder that you can sign up here to hear irregular and unobtrusive updates and details about my forthcoming 2025 debut novel, Hoods Landing. Find out more, which you probably already know, at my official author website.

Pink grapefruit posset with white chocolate pumpkin seed mendiants

This dessert is silky, satiny, and shockingly easy with a gentle citrus jolt from the grapefruit and discs of white chocolate for dragging through it, though the latter are entirely optional—all you really need to serve with this is the smallest spoons you can find. Use bottled pure grapefruit juice if you can’t find the real thing, or just replace with a couple of lemons. Recipe by myself, though I first learned about the alchemic chemistry and simplicity of possets from Cuisine magazine about 22 years ago.

• 1 large pink grapefruit
• 400ml cream
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g white chocolate
• 3 tablespoons pumpkin seeds

1: Grate the zest from the grapefruit and then squeeze out 100ml juice. If you don’t have an actual citrus squeezer or juicer, I recommend digging a fork into the flesh to coax out the juice.

2: Pour the 400ml cream and 100g caster sugar into a wide, heavy-based saucepan or nonstick pan, along with the grated grapefruit zest. Gently stir it over a medium-high heat, letting the sugar dissolve and the cream juuuust barely come to the boil.

3: Once you start to see bubbles speckling the edge, rather like the surface of a pancake as it cooks, set a timer for three minutes and let the cream bubble away gently but robustly, stirring constantly.

4: As soon as the three minutes is up, remove the pan from the heat and let it sit for five minutes, just to take the fresh heat of the stovetop off it. Stir in the 100ml fresh pink grapefruit juice—through a sieve if you suspect there is lots of seeds and flesh in there—at which point the mixture should immediately begin to thicken. Carefully divide it between four serving glasses or dishes, and refrigerate for about three hours—though you can leave them in the fridge for a couple of days quite happily.

5: While they’re chilling, melt the 100g white chocolate. You can drop spoonfuls of the chocolate onto a baking paper-lined tray, or—very simply—use a silicon muffin tray or cupcake liners and drop spoonfuls of white chocolate into them instead. Sprinkle the three tablespoons of pumpkin seeds over the surface of the melted chocolate and let the mendiants sit in the fridge until solidified.

Serve the possets straight from the fridge with a white chocolate mendiant on the side.

Serves 4—you could perhaps stretch to five or six if you have tiny wee serving glasses and a great big dinner beforehand, but four is the perfect division here.

Notes:

• If you can’t get hold of actual grapefruit, pink or otherwise, using 100ml of bottled juice from the beverages aisle at the supermarket works surprisingly well—just make sure it’s 100% juice.
• It goes without saying, but you can use lemon or lime juice in place of the grapefruit here with exquisite results.
• I could NOT find grapefruit at my local supermarket which did NOT help my snarling disdain and disgust with New Zealand’s supermarket duopoly; as always I recommend finding a nearby fruit and vegetable shop! JHC Fruit & Vege on Khyber Pass Road came through with enormous, lush pink grapefruits and plenty else besides.

music lately:

Astronomy Domine by Pink Floyd. Like holding your ear to a seashell, you can hear the entirety of Pink Floyd encapsulated in this one Barrett-led song if you sit with it long enough, but also the entire universe—its spaciness is delicious and makes you feel utterly flung.

The Hills by Rachel Chinouriri, I love her vocals and there’s a crunchy yearning to the production and chorus that is very welcome to me!

Beneath the Sands by Medicine, makes me feel like I have been administered an IV drip of pure red food colouring, this is of course, highly complimentary.

Posing for Cars by Japanese Breakfast, saw her live at the Town Hall last week in a sonically stunning concert where she played this song in a way that felt like it was done personally for me and my girlfriend; the guitar break at the end is monumentally exhilarating.

PS: As we enjoy our food we can’t forget those going violently without it. Words fail me when it comes to Gaza but—NZ-based humanitarian org ReliefAid’s Gaza Appeal continues to work to deliver water sourced and treated from within Gaza so give it if you’ve got it. And as always, the absence of dollars can have power too; check out the BDS page of Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa for some useful directions to not spend your money in. Also! You’ve still got a few days left to make a submission against the dangerous Regulatory Standards Bill, I know there’s a LOT to concentrate on right now and to know about and be angered by but don’t let this one pass you by. Heaps of people have put together easy instructions and outlines supporting you to make a quick or lengthy submission; this summary by Emily Writes is one such useful starting point that makes it easy to both understand and submit.