What do you do if you find yourself with an abundance of lemons that you bought for a different recipe, a recipe which you are no longer making? Good question. I was asking myself that the other night as I noticed the lemons were starting to get, shall we say, a little squishy. On the verge of no longer being usable, unless you want a dried up lemon as a decoration, and maybe you do. But if you don't, might I recommend this Lemon Pudding Cake?
I've made Classic Lemon Bars before, and while that is certainly always a crowd pleaser, I wanted to try something different. And while this is called a pudding cake, it's essentially something like a souffle. You've got a lot of eggs in this situation, and it has a very fluffy, souffle-ish texture to it once it's finished. In those above pictures, you can see how it's very perky when it comes out of the oven, but as you let it sit for a bit, it deflates down. Now typically that's no good for a souffle, so that's where the difference is here - you want it to deflate down a bit so you get that pudding-like texture on the bottom. So just what does this baby look like on the inside? When you scoop it out, it can look like a general lump of stuff, so here are a couple photos from a side angle of the pan.
As you can see, you've got a nice, pudding layer on the bottom, topped with a light, sort of sponge-y "cake" on the top. The cake melts in your mouth to combine with the denser pudding below with a delightfully fresh lemon flavor. It's easy to eat a lot of it as once because it's so deceptively light and airy, it doesn't feel as bad for you as other, heavier desserts. But there's still a lot of sugar in this thing, kids, so if you're sugar-averse, it's not the one for you, sadly.
Like I said, it's very hard to scoop it out in a nice-looking scoop, so it kind of turns into a glob like the below. But a very delicious glob. You can still see the pudding vs the cake parts, and that's what's important. You can eat it when it's cooled down but still warm, or at room temperature, both are delicious options. The original recipe says to eat it immediately, but I found it was just as good the next day. So, if you're looking to try your hand at something close to a souffle without feeling overly intimidated, give this a try, especially if you like lemon!
A fluffy and tart lemon delight with a pudding-like bottom and a cake-like top.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 teaspoon all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons grated zest and 1/2 cup lemon juice from about 4 lemons
- 5 large eggs, separated
- 1 1/4 cups whole milk, room temperature
- 2 quarts (8 cups) boiling water
Instructions:
- Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease 8-inch square baking dish. Whisk flour and cornstarch in bowl. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat 1/2 cup sugar, butter, and lemon zest until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in yolks, one at a time, until incorporated. Reduce speed to medium-low. Add flour mixture and mix until incorporated. Slowly add milk and lemon juice, mixing until just combined.
- Using clean bowl and whisk attachment, beat egg whites on medium-high speed until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes (this always takes longer for me). With mixer running, slowly add remaining 3/4 cup sugar until whites are firm and glossy, about 1 minute. Whisk one-third of whites into batter, then gently fold in remaining whites, one scoop at a time, until well combined.
- Place kitchen towel in bottom of roasting pan (yes, you heard that right) and arrange prepared baking dish on towel. Spoon batter into prepared dish. Carefully place pan on oven rack and pour boiling water into pan until water comes halfway up the sides of baking dish. Bake until surface is golden brown and edges are set (center should jiggle slightly when gently shaken), about 60 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool at least 1 hour. Serve.
