This is my all-time favorite dessert. Ever. I love creme brulees and I love any kind of citrus dessert, but this dessert combines the best of both: tangy lemon flavor AND a crunchy broiled sugar topping. Mmmmmm……
The recipe was adapted from a Betty Crocker “back of the box” recipe.
If you’re serving this dessert for a dinner party, it is crucial to prepare your “mise en place” ahead of time. The puddings take a while to bake, once they’re prepared. You don’t want to have to be grating lemon peel and squeezing lemons while your guests are waiting for dessert.
Saucy Lemon Pudding
serves 6
1/3 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
2 Tbsp. finely grated lemon rind
(Having the lemon peel finely grated is important – I didn’t do a great job last time and they were little chunky bits of lemon in it. Chop it up a little with a knife after grating, if you need to.)
1/3 cup flour
1 cup milk
Optional: 6 – 8 Tbsp. superfine (caster) sugar
Cream butter and 3/4 cup of the sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in egg yolks, lemon juice and rind. Add flour; mix well. Stir in milk. Beat egg whites (separately) until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining sugar, beating until stiff peaks fork. Fold into batter; pour into 6 ramekins (6 to 8 ounce size). Set custard cups in baking pan; pour in boiling water to 1/2 inch depth. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.
From here you have two options:
The original recipe says to invert on a small plate and serve.
I prefer, instead, to sprinkle the superfine sugar, liberally and evenly, over the surface of each pudding (while it’s still in the ramekin) and then broil it lightly and evenly with a kitchen torch (a regular hardware-store blowtorch will work fine, too, if you buy a small adapter to go on the end) until the sugar has caramelized into a smooth, crunchy layer. In the past, I have used turbinado sugar, but I’ve decided that it’s too crunchy and I prefer the superfine, since it melts better into one, thin, smooth crunchy layer. Place the completed puddings (still in the ramekins) on a saucer, small plate or shallow bowl and serve. Warn your guests that the ramekins will be hot.
These are very, very yummy.
Hi, this looks amazing! I have aquestion though: do you think I could just bake the whole mixture in a glass baking dish, sort of like a lemon pudding cake? or do I need the ramekins? I only have four, so its a bit of a problem! Thanks for any help!
Ummm….maybe, but I don’t know for sure, because I’ve never tried it. My recommendation: just buy some more ramekins. If you try the cake and it doesn’t work, you’ve wasted the cost of all those ingredients. If you like cooking enough to consider making a dessert that requires zesting and squeezing fresh lemons, you’re definitely the kind of person that could use extra ramekins! 😉 I’ve seen some really inexpensive clear glass ones at Target – probably wouldn’t cost any more than the price of one batch of the ingredients. Besides, if you made the “cake” version – what would you serve it in? You’d still need small, heat resistant dishes of some sort – it just wouldn’t look right on a plate, so you’d still need ramekins to serve it in. If you have them on hand, you’ll be surprised at everything you use them for. We use ours for single servings of snacks, for a fruit cup to accompany breakfast, for melting a small amount of butter in the microwave for a recipe, for mise en place, to break eggs into so that you don’t get eggshells in your cake batter and MUCH more. Just break down and get some more; you won’t regret it. But, that being said, if you do decide to try the “cake” version…let me know how it turns out! Good luck and thanks for reading!