Lemon thyme infused mascarpone mousse on lemon curd with meringue

You might remember those meringue kisses with poppy seed, that I actually planned to include in a dessert during the holidays. Well, I didn't make anything that would have gone well with the meringue, tough I found out that meringue and ice cream are really great together. Okay, I knew that before, but I simply didn't want to confess, because meringue is really not mine, unless it comes to ice cream. Anyway, I used plenty of lemon zest lately, and as it was impossible to drink such a huge amount of lemonade so I made lemon curd. The only problem is that in my family noone likes lemon curd, therefore I always need some little tricks to make them eat it. So this dessert contains pretty much of recycled food and I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. To add an extra kick I infused the mascarpone mousse with lemon thyme, but thyme or basil would work just great too!

Ingredients:
for the lemon curd:
juice and zest of 3 lemons
4 egg yolks
200 g sugar
200 g butter

for the mascarpone mousse:
250 g mascarpone
2 egg yolks
70 g sugar
70 g water
200 ml cream
7-8 twigs lemon thyme

For the lemon curd bring water to the boil. In a heatproof bowl mix together the lemon juice, zest, sugar and butter and put it over the water bath. As soon as the butter and sugar is molten whisk in the egg yolks and whisk until the mixture is pale and thick. Pour into jars and chill for a couple of hours or even over night.

For the mousse bring sugar with water and half of the lemon thyme to the boil. When the sugar is molten remove from the heat add the rest of the lemon thyme and let it infuse until the syrup is cold. Depending on the intensity of the herb you might need more or less of it. Over a water bath whisk egg yolks with the syrup until thick and pale. Whisk the beaten egg yolk mixture with the mascarpone and fold in the beaten cream.

Put some lemon curd onto the bottom of a glass, top with the mascarpone mousse and chill for at least 3 hours. Sprinkle meringue on top before serving.