Tuesday, April 15, 2008

St Clement's Surprise Pudding

Looking over the web, versions of this recipe have a bad press. Just get lots of air into it and you should be fine. These are obviousy great hot, but when cold it goes to a kind of egg custard which is also very nice. I made some of the mixture intoa big puddding and the rest in to little puddings in ramakins. I adpated the recipe from the bbc website.


Ingredients
1 orange
2 lemons
100g/3½oz unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
200g/6oz vanilla sugar or plain caster sugar
4 medium free-range eggs, separated
75g/3oz plain flour
500ml/17fl oz milk
Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
2. Butter a 2 litre/3½ pint shallow ovenproof dish.

3. Grate the zest from one of the lemons and the orange, then squeeze the juice of all three.

4. Cream the butter with the sugar and lemon and orange zest. Beat in the egg yolks one by one. Do not panic if the mixture curdles.

5. Next beat in the flour a spoonful at a time, alternating with slurps of milk and orange and lemon juice.

6. Once that is all in, whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, and fold lightly into the batter.

7. Pour the mixture into the baking dish, then stand the dish in a roasting tin.

8. Pour enough boiling water around the dish to come about halfway up the sides.

9. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until the pudding is golden brown.

10. Serve hot or warm, with or without cream.