My husband and I loved it! It's usually just the two of us eating the entire dessert, so I did half the recipe. I regret this. We just ate a third of what I baked tonight. The crust reminds me of the outside of brioche. We actually really liked it. After reading the first two reviews, I did try to give the dough more time (~30 min) to rise in hopes that would help. Since I did half the recipe, I used an 8x8 pan and baked for 32 minutes. My oven runs hot, so I also lowered the temperature to 375 at the 25 minute mark and covered it with foil.

This dessert is delicious, and I’ll definitely be making it again. My only problem was with the dough, as it didn’t seem to rise at all during the first 1-1/2-hour rest. (I’m not an expert baker by any means, but perhaps the yeast wasn’t activated by the room-temperature ingredients. ) Despite that hiccup, it still came out quite yummy. I increased the lemon zest in the semolina mixture to 2 tablespoons, but even with that, I didn’t really taste it. I think I’ll add even more next time.

I had a pint of leftover creme fraiche from Costco (after a fancy dinner party) so I was excited to try this recipe. I think my yeast is dead as my crust did not rise. Wondering if using a bit of baking powder would be ok (because the most time consuming part of this recipe is the yeast rise). The creme fraiche layer seemed thin. I think I would use the entire pint next time so there's no leftovers. My semolina cooked up really stiff and I had to add lots more milk to smooth it out. The whipped egg whites were sufficient for the expanded amount of semolina. We broke into the cake while it was still hot, even though it only vaguely resembled the photos. Next morning, the cake more closely resembled the photo. Both were absolutely delicious!!! I've never had a cake like this, so I'm not sure I did it right.

My crust came out well. I did give it some extra time in the mixing bowl and in the pan, so it rested a lot more than was called for. The finished crust was tender and tasty. However, the creme fraiche layer was a little too sour for my taste. I think it could have used more sugar. I was also surprised by how much the semolina layer puffed up. It's a delicious custard, but mine does not look like the photo Milk Street posted. It's much more meringue-like than that. We ate our first pieces still warm from the oven, and they were really good but not great. I'm curious to see what the leftovers will taste like chilled.

I agree with the previous review. The crust is hard, like chewing cardboard. I saw this recipe before the first review was posted and was excited to try it because it was something different from anything i’ve made before; however, although the fillings are good the crust ruined it. So disappointed.