Lemon Custard Pudding

Got lemons? This is a good recipe to throw together if someone brings you lemons or puts them in the middle of a table or out the front of their house with a sign that says “Free” or “Help Yourself”. Don’t you love those signs? You might have surplus from your own tree, but if not, then it’s still worth picking up 6 lemons especially. It’s a fluffy pud that reminds me of heady citrus tarts I’ve eaten at cafe’s – but much lighter on the palate. Pillowy… and beckoningly more-ish. Once tasted, you just can’t seem to put the spoon down … so consider yourselves warned! The lemony sauce is like a thick, custardy lemon curd – not runny..but rather.. creamy and oozy. And none of this ‘pour over boiling water’ as you would with traditional self-saucing pud’s. Your extra water is saved for the ‘water bath’ on the outside of your pudding dish.
Lemon Custard Pudding

This recipe serves 6 to 8, so halve it if you seek only 4 standard serves.
-6 lemons (use for rind & juice)
-6 eggs (separate whites and yolks)
-500ml skim or reduced fat milk (but please yourself with whatever kind of milk you like)
-200ml of lemon juice (from your 6 lemons)
-4 teaspoons grated lemon rind/zest (use a lemon zester if you have one)
-140 grams of butter (plus extra to grease baking dish)
-230 grams caster sugar
-120 grams plain flour (yes, plain)

Optional: Icing sugar for dusting. I didn’t use it – but it adds to the presentation.
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*Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius.
*In a bowl, combine the butter, caster sugar and lemon zest. Beat until pale in colour.
*Beat in egg yolks one or two at a time.
*Add milk and flour alternately, beating until you get a smooth batter and then beat in the lemon juice. (My batter at this point appeared curdled. Fear not.. the end result was wonderful)!
*In a separate, large bowl, beat the egg whites until they are firm but not overly stiff. (If you’re using the same ‘beaters’ as for the lemony mixture, please wash and dry thoroughly, otherwise your egg whites will flop and won’t be fluffy and airy).
*Fold the lemony mixture in with the fluffy egg white mixture.
*Pour into a buttered, oven proof dish. (For this quantity I used a 4 Litre Pyrex glass dish which did the job nicely. If halving the mixture, go for a smaller 2 litre dish).
*Make sure your oven proof dish fits into another larger baking dish (eg. roasting pan with high edges), because you’ll need to fill up the outer, larger dish halfway-up with hot water. Like a ‘bath’.
*Bake for 50 min’s. (Check the pudding after 30 minutes. Mine started to brown a bit too quickly in one spot, so I turned it around and switched my oven to heat from the underside only. Alternatively, if yours is browning too quickly and you don’t have such oven settings, you can take the pudding out of the oven carefully. Then lower your oven shelf and put the pudding back and continue baking it. Or tin foil loosely placed over the top will help prevent over-browning, but that shouldn’t be necessary).
*Best served after resting for 15 minutes. Dust with icing sugar or serve with cream or vanilla icecream. Done!
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Two mixtures: The flour, butter, sugar-lemony-egg yolk mixture and in a separate bowl, the egg white mixture. The two are eventually folded together.

Beat egg whites until they are firm, but not overly stiff.

The warm, tangy lemon custard compliments the fluffy-light golden sponge in a way that only self-saucing pud’s can.

This recipe was tweaked by ‘moi’ (for my family’s tastes) and tested, but originally inspired by the fabulous ‘Jill Dupleix’ and her book ‘Good Cooking’.