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.

Curd Cheesecake

Cheap curd cheese in waitrose and memories of my polish friend's mother's cheesecake inspired me to make this recipe. I found the recipe on http://nami-nami.blogspot.com/2006/05/cheesecake-with-curd-cheese-and-lots.html . If you only have one set of beaters for your hand whisk, beat the egg whites first off, its a real job to clean the cheese mixture off the beaters, and for beating egg whites, they need to be really squeaky clean. The end result was really tasty - but not the same as the one I remember - the quest continues....!

150 grams butter, softened
175 grams caster sugar
2 to 3 juicy lemons (depending on your taste), juiced and zested
3 medium eggs
250 grams low-fat milk curd cheese or ricotta
125 grams plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
Cream the soft butter with caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, whisking thoroughly each time.Mix in lemon juice, grated zest and curd cheese. Sift in flour and baking powder and mix the dough until combined.Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then fold into the dough, little by little.Pour the dough into a buttered and floured 20 cm cake tin.Bake in the middle of 180C oven for 40-50 minutes, until the cake has risen and is lovely golden brown.Let it cool for an hour in the tin before cutting into pieces and serving.

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

I had a jar of lemon curd to use up so I made up this recipe. Makes 20
100g Self raising flour
100g caster sugar
2 large eggs
100g butter
250g lemon curd
150g blueberries
200g mascarpone
Preheat oven 180C
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and smooth. Alternatively sift the flour and crack the egg in to the mixture and beat until smooth. Stir 100g lemon curd in to the mixture and 100g of the blueberries. You need to make sure you have 40 blueberries left to decorate the cakes. . Spoon the mixture in to cake cases and bake for about 15 minutes and golden brown.. While the cakes are cooling, mix together the mascarpone and the rest of the lemon curd. You want it to be marlbed so you can still see a swirl of lemon curd. Spread or pipe the mascarpone on to the cakes and put two blueberries on top of each one.

Raspberry Lemonade Cordial

I got this recipe from a the Sainsbury's magazine. It tastes divine - so summery and the colour is perfect pink. it makes about 500ml.

200g caster sugar
Juice of 3-4 and finely pared peel of 2 unwaxed lemons ( about 175ml juice)
150g raspberries
2 tbsp sifted icing sugar

Puter the caster sugar in a pan with 200ml water and the lemon peel. Stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil and boil vigourously for 2 minutes without stirring. Set aside to cool. Mix in the lemon jjuice and strain in to a large bottle or jug. Whiz the raspberries with the icing sugar in a blender and strain in to the lemon mixture, discarding the seeds. Stir together and chill. To serve, dilute to taste with chilled still or sparkling water.

Mascarpone Lemon Mousse

This is very light and fluffy, I try to have a standby pot of mascarpone in the fridge. It is very quick and easy.
8oz/250g Mascarpone cheese
1/3 cup caster sugar + 1/8 cup caster sugar for the egg whites
2 lemons
2 eggs, separated
serves 4


1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until pale.
2. Beat in the mascarpone cheese, the lemon juice and the lemon zest from one of the lemons until smooth.
3. In a clean bowl, with a clean whisk, whip the egg whites until soft peaks form.
4. Add the 1/8 cup of sugar into the whites and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
5. Gently fold the whites into the mascarpone/lemon mixture until no streaks remain.
6. Divide among 4 ramekins and refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight.

Lemon Cheesecake

This is a great one to make with toddlers - my sister in law gave me the recipe.

200g digestive biscuits
55g butter
250g mascarpone cheese
175ml tin condensed milk
2 juicy lemons
fresh fruits or grated chocolate to decorate

20cm shallow loose bottomed tin
Put biscuits in to a plastic bag and bash them with a rolling pin until they look like breadcrumbs

Tip into mixing bowl
Melt butter in a smalll suacepan and pour over the biscuit crumbs and mix
Press evenly in to the tin and leave to rest in the fridge for 1hr
Put the mascarpone and condensed milk into a large bowl. Carefully grate the lemon skin and add the zest then squeeze in the juice as well.
Beat everything together until the mixture is smooth then spread it over the biscuit base and chill in fridge for at least an hour. Decorate just before serving.