Monday, May 7, 2012

Simply: chilled lemon delicious pudding

Going through some recent cooking magazines, I was struck by how inconveniently specific some of the recipe ingredients have become. From micro herbs, to jamon, to fresh burrata and Kashmiri chilli and ‘organic nasturtium petals’ (yes, really), they often offer no substitute ingredient, so if you can’t get your hands on some organic nasturtium petals – or even know what a substitute would be – then you’ve probably stuffed up the recipe already.

Apart from ‘special occasion’ dishes for parties and the like, I much prefer ordinary, just-find-it-in-a-shop ingredients in my everyday meals. It makes things so much easier when you feel like a rice pilaf and you can make it with items you already have in the pantry, instead of having to traipse across town to the specialist spice place that stocks Kashmiri chilli.

Of course, my definition of ‘simple’ may be different to yours; in fact, it probably is, because if it involves anything remotely complicated (like food that's hellishly deep-fried), then I’m a lost cause. I’ve also found that the simple dishes are usually the old-fashioned ones that originated in about 1950, that were made by a post-war frugal generation – well, at least anything that doesn’t involve dripping or lard is okay.

Here’s an old-fashioned favourite, Lemon Delicious Pudding, but chilled for make-ahead convenience.

Chilled Lemon Delicious Pudding
serves 6

Ingredients
40g (1½ oz) unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup caster sugar
3 eggs, separated
60g (2oz) self-raising flour, sifted
350ml (12oz) milk
Finely grated zest of 2 lemons, plus 1/3 cup lemon juice
Icing sugar, to serve

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Grease a 1.2l (5-cup) capacity ovenproof dish with a little of the butter.
2. Beat butter and caster sugar with an electric mixer until thick and pale, about 10 minutes. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each yolk is added.
3. Add a third of the flour, beat well, then add a third of the milk, beating again. Repeat until all the flour and milk has been added.
4. Add lemon zest and juice and mix until a smooth batter forms.
5. In a separate bowl, beat the eggwhites until soft peaks form. Gradually fold the eggwhites into the batter until just combined.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared dish, then place the dish into deep roasting pan and fill with enough hot water to come halfway up the side of the dish. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for a further 30 minutes or until the pudding is golden.
7. Turn off the oven and allow the pudding to cool in the oven for 30 minutes (to stop it collapsing). Transfer pudding to the refrigerator to cool completely.
8. Serve with icing sugar dusted over.

recipe adapted from delicious (Nov 2011)

Various stages of preparation, including whipping the eggwhites before folding into the egg yolk, butter and sugar mixture.
The pudding is then covered and placed in a water bath before baking.

Like a typical lemon delicious pudding, a lemony sauce sinks to the base of the pudding, ready to be scooped out with the spongey top.

Make sure you get some sauce with the cake.

 A warm lemon delicious recipe is here.
Actually, I found that the cooling of the pudding made the sponge cake a bit dense, so I prefer the warm version. You can't beat the taste of either method, though. Very lemony and certainly delicious.

24 comments:

  1. This looks absoutely delightful! I love any tpe of pudding.. mmm nyum!

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  2. I totally agree with you! I wouldn't even serve crazy weird dishes like that at dinner parties either because who even knows what organic nasturtiums taste like? Probably not so delicious.

    Lemony desserts though...I love. This looks majorly delicious. And dinner party worthy.

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  3. I LOOOOOOOVE lemon delicious. Hot or cold...

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  4. I like the sounds of make-ahead convenience! Love this.

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  5. oh mannn yum! i just happen to have a whole lotta lemons lying around so this recipe sounds awesome to use them up!

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  6. This is one of my favourite desserts! I love the convenience of this cold version but like you, I think I prefer the hot one.

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  7. I like how simple recipes usually turn out tasting a lot less 'simple' than they'd seem.... This looks delicious! :)

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  8. I have made this lemon delicious for a while...yours look so pretty and perfect...great pictures as always Bel :)
    Hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

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  9. This looks so amazing I have made them many times nice pics :) wonder why I haven't posted lemon pudding as yet

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  10. This is my favourite one!

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  11. This looks absolutely gorgeous! I can't believe how good this looks. I've never tried anything like this. For now... I'm going out to buy some lemons :)

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  12. A lovely looking pudding with oozy sauce! Brings back great memories.

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  13. I agree, some recipes are so fancy now it intimidates me to even try and cook them. I have a lemon tree in the backyard so will definitely make this soon.

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  14. Agree! My day-to-day cooking is actually quite boring and usually involves pan-frying some sort of meat with any combination of veg, rice or pasta on the side, or Chinese stir-fries. Anything else just seems way to much of an effort!

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  15. Perfectly cooked. So light and gorgeous :)

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  16. Oh, my. Now this is perfection. Just my idea of dessert.

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  17. Lemon licious has to be up there as one of my alltime favourite desserts, yum!

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  18. It looks so spongy, light and delicious. A real sweet and tangy treat for any lemon desserts lovers.

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  19. I LOVE lemon desserts and this looks so good! Just found your blog and I will definitely be following you!

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  20. I love dessert that can be made ahead. Give me more time to prepare the rest of the dishes before the guests arrive. Absolutely pretty dessert to serve.

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  21. Now there's a blast from the past. Home economics, to be precise. Something about it being cold just doesn't sit right with me so I reckon I'd be nuking it in the microwave for a minute! And no organic nasturtium as garnish? Actually my neighbour has an abundance of it so it's always there for the picking. Not that they know I pillaged from them once already ;)

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  22. I Loove this! (my guests too!)
    Publiced it on my blog! (reference to yours!)

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  23. Good recipe although the castor sugar is omitted from the printed version.

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  24. There is nothing wrong with either lard or dripping. They are just as wholesome as butter and definitely better than most oils. But the pudding looks delicious, except I'd use ordinary flour instead of self-raising, which has a nasty after-taste.

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