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🍋🥜 Lemon Pistachio Desserts – Delicate Mini Citron Look-Alikes

A tangy lemon curd core, nutty pistachio crunch, and light mousse wrapped in a velvet-coated citrus shell.
These lemon pistachio desserts combine curd, mousse, and praline in a bright citrus shape with a velvet finish – fresh, tangy, and elegant.
These Lemon Pistachio Desserts are little works of edible art – shaped like lemons, bursting with citrus flavor, and balanced by a sweet pistachio crunch. Inside the velvet shell lies a frozen lemon curd core, surrounded by airy lemon mousse and resting on a crisp pistachio dacquoise layered with praline and white chocolate.
They're playful, fresh, and sophisticated. If you love citrus-forward desserts and pistachios, you're going to love this one – especially if you enjoy creating desserts that look like miniature fruits.
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Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings 8 Mini Cakes

Ingredients
  

✳️ Lemon Curd Insert

  • 1½ gelatin sheets
  • 70 g sugar
  • Juice and zest of 4 organic lemons
  • 1 egg
  • 50 g butter cubed

✳️ Pistachio Dacquoise

  • 80 g sugar
  • 3 egg whites
  • 70 g pistachio flour blanched pistachios, finely blended
  • 25 g all-purpose flour
  • 30 g powdered sugar

✳️ Pistachio Praline Layer

  • 50 g sugar
  • 50 g water
  • 100 g pistachios peeled
  • 80 g white chocolate

✳️ Lemon Mousse

  • 2 gelatin sheets
  • 100 ml lemon juice
  • Seeds of ½ vanilla bean
  • 60 g sugar
  • 100 g heavy cream
  • 100 g Greek yogurt 10%
  • Optional: yellow food coloring

✳️ Decoration

  • Yellow velvet spray
  • Small green lemon stems edible or decorative

Instructions
 

Lemon Curd Insert

  • Soak gelatin in cold water.
  • In a saucepan, combine sugar, lemon juice, zest, and egg.
  • Cook over medium heat while whisking constantly until it thickens (about 10 minutes).
  • Remove from heat, add butter, then gelatin. Stir until smooth.
  • Pour into small lemon-shaped silicone molds and freeze until solid.

Pistachio Dacquoise

  • Preheat oven to 240°C.
  • Whip egg whites, sugar, and vanilla into a soft meringue.
  • Fold in pistachio flour and powdered sugar.
  • Spread into a thin layer (no more than 1 cm) on parchment paper.
  • Bake for 5 minutes. Cool completely.

Pistachio Praline

  • Roast pistachios at 240°C for 5–6 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, boil sugar and water to a golden caramel.
  • Add roasted pistachios and stir on heat.
  • Spread onto parchment and let cool.
  • Blend until smooth and fluid (natural oils should release).
  • Melt white chocolate and mix into the praline.
  • Spread a layer over the pistachio dacquoise.
  • Once set, use a small round cutter to cut out 4 bases.

Lemon Mousse

  • Soak gelatin in cold water.
  • Heat lemon juice, vanilla, and sugar until just below boiling. Melt in gelatin.
  • Whip cream to soft peaks and fold in Greek yogurt.
  • Add food coloring if desired.
  • Fold in the cooled lemon mixture.
  • Fill each large lemon silicone mold about 2/3 full with mousse.
  • Gently press in the frozen lemon curd insert, then a pistachio base.
  • Freeze until completely solid and ready for demolding.

🧩 Decoration & Assembly

  • Unmold the frozen desserts.
  • Spray with yellow velvet spray according to the product instructions.
  • Insert a decorative green lemon stem into the top of each.
  • Refrigerate until ready to serve.