Lemon delicious IS delicious

Have you ever ordered a dish at a restaurant and not expected too much of it, but then you taste it and the fireworks go off on your tastebuds?

This happened to me when I tried the Lemon Delicious at Felix bistro last year (drool over the dish here). I’d always imagined lemon delicious to be a rather old-fashioned granny dish, but it’s not; it’s deceptively light and tangy and zingy and, yes, maybe just a bit reminiscent of another era.

I was pretty happy, then, to find a recipe that produced that same ka-boom! effect as the dessert at Felix. I’ve reduced the sugar in this version to highlight the sharp lemony goodness and the result is a dessert that’s not too sweet and will have you coming back for more (if there's any left).

Lemon delicious pudding

makes 4 serves

Ingredients

40g butter

½ cup caster sugar

Grated rind of 1 lemon, plus 70ml lemon juice

2 eggs, separated

40g plain flour

¾ cup milk

Icing sugar, to dust

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan-forced). Grease 4x1 ½ cup soufflé dishes or ramekins OR one 6-cup capacity baking dish.

2. Place butter, sugar and lemon rind in a food processor and mix until pale and creamy. Add lemon juice, egg yolks, flour and then the milk one at a time, processing well after addition of each ingredient, until a smooth batter forms.

3. Using electric beaters, beat eggwhites until soft peaks form. Lightly fold in the lemon batter.

4. Pour mixture into prepared dishes and place in a large baking pan. Pour enough hot water into the baking pan to come halfway up the sides of the dishes. Bake for 25-30 minutes (or for 35-40 minutes if using a large dish), until top is lightly browned and set, with a creamy lemon curd underneath. Remove dishes from the pan. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

recipe adapted from BBC Australian Good Food

Ingredients: Flour, milk, eggs, sugar, lemon, butter

Place the prepared batter into small ramekins then place in a water bath before baking. The puddings do not rise very much, so there is no need to grease the ramekins all the way to the top like I did.

Golden goodness... but just wait until you dig in...

Light, fluffy sponge cake with warm lemon curd at the bottom

A dessert that lives up to its name, this really IS delicious