Lemon delicious | organised castle

Prompts from several different sources inspired me to make a Lemon Delicious pudding yesterday.

First, a Facebook group post encouraged members to make a post recipes for a childhood favourite food.

Second, my brother, sister and brother-in-law were coming for dinner. What better, than to share a dessert from our common childhood memories?

Third, another Facebook group discusses how our grandparents lived, including cooking and preparing food.

I had not made Lemon Delicious since 2012 when I began eating a gluten-free diet, however, I was not going to let that stop me.

I have posted the recipe for Lemon Delicious on the blog previously. See here. Unfortunately the photos have disappeared from the old post and I am unable to retrieve them.

So, here it is again – with the addition of the gluten-free option.

LEMON DELICIOUS

1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons plain flour (use gluten-free flour if required)
Juice and rind of 1 lemon
2 eggs
1 cup milk

Cream the butter and sugar. Add flour, juice and rind. Mix well. Separate the eggs, add yolks and milk to mixture. Place the whites in a separate bowl and beat until stiff. Fold the beaten egg white into the mixture. Pour into an ovenproof dish. Stand the dish in a tray of water (about 2-3cm deep) and place in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes or until the top is firm to touch and golden.

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The finished product is like a lemon self-saucing pudding. This can be served warm or cold with ice-cream, cream or custard.

NOTES:

As a nod to past generations, I did not use my Kitchen Aid mixer to cream the butter and sugar. I used a bowl and tablespoon – hard but satisfying work. I also beat the egg whites using a hand-held rotary beater. The results were equally as good as any I have made previously using electric appliances.

The ‘sauce’ of the pudding was somewhat thicker than other efforts and I think this was probably due to using gluten-free flour which does tend to absorb more moisture. I would probably ad the juice of another half a lemon in order to rectify this. Despite this, the pudding was extremely well-received by the dinner guests and I will definitely be making it again before too long – especially as the lemon trees are absolutely laden with fruit.

This week I have 2 desserts for you to try. They would possibly be regarded by many as ‘old-fashioned’ but that is not necessarily a bad thing – they have stood the test of time. These recipes come from a time when dessert was created from basic ingredients from the pantry and leftovers, along with seasonal produce from the garden.

LEMON DELICIOUS

1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons plain flour
Juice and rind of 1 lemon
2 eggs
1 cup milk

The finished product is like a lemon self-saucing pudding. This can be served warm or cold with ice-cream, cream or custard.Now for the trifle. I am writing the specifically in response to a question from Jeni. I make trifle about once each year and do not use a recipe. It is the result of my memories of eating trifle when I was a child. So, here goes:

TRIFLE

Sponge cake (a little stale is better)
Jelly (red or green)
Custard (cold and thick pouring consistency)
Coconut
Tinned peaches
Jam
Orange juice/peach juice/sherry

You do need to plan ahead and make the jelly the day before. Use only 375ml water instead of 500ml to make the jelly a bit stiffer. Pour into a shallow dish to set.

Slice cake into thin slabs, spread with jam (strawberry is my preference) and sandwich together. Cut cake into small pieces and set aside.

Cut jelly into cubes (bite-sized pieces).

Cut the peach slices into bite-sized pieces.

Assemble the trifle in a glass bowl starting with a layer of cake pieces. Drizzle with a little of the juice or sherry. Sprinkle with coconut and pour a small amount of custard over the cake layer. Add jelly, then peaches with a little coconut and custard between each layer.

Repeat the process until all ingredients are used up. Finish with a generous sprinkle of coconut.

HINTS & TIPS

The coconut can be toasted or slivered almonds may be used as well. I used some sliced glace cherries to garnish the trifle this time. Many trifles includes cream but I do not eat cream and prefer to serve it as an optional garnish.

Trifle originally evolved as a way of using up leftovers. If you want to know more about the history you can read it here.

There is nothing definitive about making trifle. Just do as you please and enjoy!