Easy Baked Lemon Puddings

Categories : baked sweets, desserts & sweet snacks, Recipes

Luscious, creamy, tangy, sweet lemon puddings. Easy to prepare and even easier to eat.

Easy Baked Lemon Puddings www.thefoodiecorner.gr Photo description: The lemon puddings with only a little sugar on top and a strawberry on three of them. Set up is the same as previous, but the camera is a little closer.

I love lemons. I love everything lemony. From savoury to sweet, hot to cold, food to drink, and so on and so on. It’s not rare for me to choose a tart, lemon flavoured dessert over chocolate. Are you shocked? Well, it depends on the day, but yes, it happens. I mean give me one of these lemon bars any day.

Easy Baked Lemon Puddings www.thefoodiecorner.gr Photo description: One lemon pudding sitting on a scrunched up linen tea towel. The top is sprinkled with icing sugar and there are some strawberries, mascarpone cheese and a small camomile flower decorating the pudding. To the top left of the photo are some scattered strawberries on the wooden surface.

Anyway, moving on. Lemon puddings. There are loads of recipes out there, and mine is a variation of several. However, they all call for beating the eggs separately and then folding them into the mixture. I’ve done away with this step. Yes, I just added the eggs – whites, yolks and all – along with the rest of the ingredients. Hey, it’s all about making life easy, is it not?

Easy Baked Lemon Puddings www.thefoodiecorner.gr Photo description: The decorated puddings sitting on the wooden surface, with scattered strawberries and two lemon halves around them. A spoon is lying next to one of the ramekins with a dollop of the pudding on it.

I have a feeling the egg white thing makes a big difference in terms of texture for the puddings. Mine aren’t like some of the ones I’ve read about on the internet. They all mention a cake layer and then a sauce underneath. Mine are more like a thick creamy pudding with a thin cake-like layer on the surface. But you know what? They are delicious. So I’m happy with them as they are. Both gorgeously creamy and easy to prepare.

Easy Baked Lemon Puddings www.thefoodiecorner.gr Photo description: The light green wooden surface with lemons and strawberries scattered on it, in a back to front S formation down the middle of the photo. At the top, the sieve with icing sugar in it.

This is a prefect dessert option for meals that have a lot of meat, so over on the Greek side I’ve suggested it for Easter lunch. I imagine you all know what Easter lunch is like here, right? Roast lamb on a spit over charcoal, and a whole load of other weird bits wrapped around huge skewers and cooked over the fire. It’s not for the faint-hearted. Anyway, lemony desserts are great as they are light tasting and cut through the fatty meatiness of barbeques.

Easy Baked Lemon Puddings www.thefoodiecorner.gr Photo description: Two decorated puddings and the bowl of mascarpone sitting horizontally across the photo. The centre ramekin has a spoon with some pudding perched on top of it.

I suggest serving the puddings with some fruit such as strawberries, raspberries or blueberries. Strawberries are in season now here so this was the best option for me. I did sprinkle some icing sugar over them to bring out some sweetness, as it’s still a little early and they aren’t at their 100% best yet. Go ahead and just choose your favourite berry type fruit. I also tried some mascarpone on the side, but to be honest it didn’t really add anything to the dessert. The lemon flavour combined with the fresh sweetness of the strawberries is all it needs. So it’s in the pictures but not in the ingredient list.

Easy Baked Lemon Puddings www.thefoodiecorner.gr Photo description: A close up ¾ view of three decorated puddings. The one in front has a spoon in it, and a piece of pudding missing.

So, what dessert do you serve after a meaty meal? Let’s hear some ideas, maybe I’ll try something new this Easter!

Easy Baked Lemon Puddings www.thefoodiecorner.gr Photo description: A closer view of the one ramekin with a spoonful of creamy yellow pudding lying beside it. The pudding is decorated with two pieces of strawberry and a little camomile flower.

Ingredients

50gr butter or margarine, plus extra for ramekins

200gr sugar

1 Tbs lemon zest (from about 1 large lemon)

100ml lemon juice, freshly squeezed

3/4 tsp vanilla essence

3 eggs

50gr flour, all purpose

1/2 tsp salt

Strawberries to serve

Icing sugar to sprinkle over puddings and strawberries

Step 1

Preheat oven to 160C fan assisted (180C conventional). Generously grease 5 or 6 ramekins with the butter or margarine. Mine have a capacity of 1 cup, and I needed 5. If yours are smaller you may need 6.

Step 2

In a bowl beat the butter or margarine with the sugar. I used an electric whisk but of course you can use a mixer. Add the lemon zest (my mixture looked like wet breadcrumbs at this stage), beat some more, add the lemon juice and then the vanilla beating after each.

Step 3

One by one add the eggs, beating after each one. It will all look curdled. Don’t worry.

Step 4

In a clean bowl whisk the flour and salt to incorporate them and get rid of any lumps.

Step 5

Add about a third of the flour to the mixture, beat, add half the milk, beat, then repeat with another third of flour, milk and end with the last of the flour. Keep beating after each addition.

Step 6

Pour the mixture into the greased ramekins. Place them in a large, deep baking dish or tin. They need to fit comfortably so that the heat can circulate easily. Fill the baking tin with hot water from a kettle, so that the water comes half way up the side of the ramekins. Very carefully place the tin into the oven on the middle rack and bake for about 40 minutes. The time will depend on how large the ramekins are, so start checking after half an hour. You want the puddings to look like cake on top and spring back when pressed with a finger, but you’ll feel that they are quite squidgy underneath. They will also be slightly golden.

Step 7

Serve the puddings warm or at room temperature, with a sprinkling of icing sugar and some strawberries.