Nigel Slater's Simple Lemon Pudding

 This is another "honeymoon" recipe. A few meters from the cottage where we stayed was the most beautiful garden - filled with lemon trees, lavender, shrubs, bushes and flowers. We had a few grocery basics and were in the mood for a little pudding. Nigel Slater came to the rescue and we started preparing our lemon pudding. When Luke sliced open the first "lemon", we noticed it was not quite a lemon, but a grapefruit.

 Back to the orchard garden we went, and with a careful eye, picked out what we were certain were lemons, returned to our chopping board to continue with pudding. It worked, wonderfully. A base similar to lemon curd, topped with a light sponge-like topping - we enjoyed it with our magnificent view, and a sprinkling of icing sugar. This recipe also started my obsession with lemon curd.

Lemon Self-Saucing Pudding
recipe from here
Serves 2, with leftovers.

Ingredients:
50g butter
200g caster sugar
1 lemon, zested
100ml lemon juice (include the zest from the zested lemon)
3 eggs , separated
50g plain flour , sifted
250ml milk
icing sugar for dusting

Method:
Heat the oven to 180C. Beat thebutter, sugar and lemon zest until they are pale and creamy  - with a mixer or food processor ideally. Add the lemon juice, egg yolks, flour and milk one by one until you have a smooth batter. Beat the egg whites until firm and fold the two mixtures together.

Pour the mixture into a buttered ovenproof dish and put it in a baking tray half filled with hot water. Bake for 45-50 minutes until the top is lightly browned and set and the bottom is still quite wobbly.

Remove the dish from the tray, dust with icing sugar and serve hot, with or without cream.