Delizia al limone

No dessert is more lemony and delicious than the so-called “Delizia al Limone”, lemon delight.
The yellow of lemon meets the yellow of the sun in the Sorrentine peninsula, to create a dessert that represents Neapolitan cuisine across the world.
Delizia al Limone was invented by Carmine Marzuillo in 1978. Its mounded shape, covered with lemon cream and a wild strawberry, recalls a woman’s breast.

Let’s make it together!

Ingredients for our version, which yields 18  single-serving delights.  

Limoncello soaking syrup

Ingredients

  • 120 ml Limmi Sweet & Sour
  • 75 ml Limoncello liqueur

Preparation

In a small pan, mix the Limmi Sweet & Sour with the Limoncello.

Lemon cream

Ingredients

  • 250 ml milk
  • 20 g corn starch
  • 40 g butter
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 40 g sugar
  • 6 tablespoons LIMMI lemon juice

Preparation

Heat the milk until it boils and while you wait, whip the sugar with the egg yolks. Mix in the lemon juice and corn starch, then add the hot milk while continuing to stir thoroughly.
Pour the cream back into the pan, and cook it until it thickens. Turn off the heat, and stir in the butter till well blended.  Let the cream rest in the refrigerator.

Mounds of sponge cake

Ingredients

  • 5 eggs
  • 100 g flour type 00
  • 50 g potato starch
  • 175 g sugar
  • 1 packet vanillin
  • 3 drops LIMMI lemon juice

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Beat the eggs with the sugar, add lemon juice a little at a time, then stir in the flour and potato starch.  Once well combined, pour the cake batter into semi-spherical silicone moulds measuring 10 cm in diameter. Bake for about 15 minutes.  When the cakes are golden, take them out of the oven and let them cool.

Filling and topping

Ingredients

  • 500 g pastry cream
  • 250 g whipped cream
  • 50 ml milk
  • 75 ml Limoncello liqueur

Preparation

In a bowl, combine the pastry cream with the lemon cream prepared earlier and 200 gr. of whipped cream.

Cut a hole into the base of each cake mound, (save what you take out to “plug” the hole later), brush Limoncello soaking liquid inside the hole, and pipe in the cream filling. Close the little dome back up, and get ready to decorate it.

Combine 50 g whipping cream with 50 ml of milk and the Limoncello to form a smooth glaze.

Cover the delights with the glaze. To decorate, pipe tufts of whipped cream around the base of each cake. Garnish the top with one tuft of whipped cream, crowned by a wild strawberry or candied lemon.