Sunday, November 14, 2010

Lemon Delicious

Or, in this case, Lemon/Lime Delicious. It's my birthday, and I'm going to have one of my favourite desserts for dinner. That's one of the good things about being old, you can have pudding for dinner if you want to.

The only thing wrong with this one is that it requires two bowls, I believe in minimising dishes where possible but it's not possible here. First, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.


Butter either one ovenproof dish or some ramekins. I'm making a half recipe and four ramekins is about right for that:


Beat the softened butter …


… add the castor sugar and beat again until light and fluffy …


… add grated citrus zest …


… and juice, and mix …


… then add flour and baking powder …


… the recipe says self raising flour, but I never have that …


… mix again, then add egg yolk and milk …


… and mix again. It always curdles, it's the lemon juice and milk and small amount of flour:


Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks …


… and fold into the rest of the batter:


 Distribute the mixture between the ramekins, or pour into the larger dish …


… than bake at  180°C until cooked. The little ramekins cook faster than a big dish will:


I think these were in for about 20 minutes. The tops spring back when you press them once they're cooked:


The mixture separates out into a super-light souflée-ish sponge on top of  a gorgeous lemony custard:


Best eaten with cream poured over - I used yoghurt, which is also good, but cream is perfect.

Recipe

Lemon (or other citrus) Delicious
(I made half this amount)

Ingredients:
220g castor sugar
125g butter
60g flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp grated citrus zest (at least half lemon)
4 tbsp citrus juice (at least half lemon)
2 eggs, separated
1250ml milk

Method:
Cream butter and sugar. Mix in flour, citrus zest and juice
Mix egg yolks and milk into the batter
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks, then fold into the batter
Spoon into greased dish(es), then put them into a bain marie with boiling water coming half way up the sides of the dish(es).
Bake at 180°C until done. Probably about 20 minutes for individual dishes, or 45 minutes for one big one.
Serves 6.

2 comments:

  1. ps: Happy Birthday!

    don't know how I miss that out from your 1st paragraph.... must be due to old age!

    ReplyDelete