22 January 2013

Recipe Corner - Queen of Puddings [By @Cinabar]




I actually quite like cooking, particularly sweet goodies. So as an occasional bonus post I thought I’d write up some of my favourites as I make them.

Queen of Puddings Recipe – Serves 6


For those not in the know, it’s a traditional British pudding consisting of a layer of baked custard thickened with breadcrumbs, covered with jam and layer of soft meringue.


Base
500 ml milk (full fat is ideal, but semi is fine)
70 ml cream
10g butter (plus some for greasing)
2 egg yolks
110g breadcrumbs
25g Golden caster sugar
Lemon zest (make sure you buy unwaxed!)
Couple drops of natural vanilla essence (optional)

Filling
Jam of your choice (raspberry or strawberry is classic, but plum also works like magic). You can use as much or as little as you like, but around 5 tablespoons works well.

Topping
3 egg whites
65g Caster sugar (plus 1 teaspoon for sprinkling before baking)

You will also need a large oven proof dish, which needs to be greased.

Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees

Start by heating the milk and cream in a pan and bring it to the boil.
Turn the heat off and add in the butter, 110g breadcrumbs, vanilla (if required), 25g of sugar and the zest of the lemon. Stir well, the leave the mixture to cool (around 15 minutes). The breadcrumbs will absorb the moisture and the contents of the pan should thicken significantly.

Beat the two egg yolks in a separate bowl, and then add them to the pan (which should be just warm when you do this). Add the yolks slowly and stir well while adding.

Pour your mixture into your oven proof dish and bake for 30 minutes. Although it won’t go golden it should set and pull away from the edges slightly.

Once it is cooked, take it out of the oven. Turn to oven down to 150 degrees.

Melt the jam in a pan, and pour this onto of the base and gently even it out without disturbing the base.

In a separate bowl whisk three egg whites, using an electric whisk on full power. The eggs whites should fluff up and turn stiff. Very gradually add the 65g of sugar, while whisking. When the mixture looks very stiff and a little shiny it is complete.

Add the mixture on top of the jam. You can pipe it and make it look very tidy, or spoon it on and go with a more rustic look.

Sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar over the mixture to help it go golden when it cooks.

Pop it in the oven at 150 degrees for 25 minutes, it will look golden when it’s ready. If it browns too quickly turn the oven temperature down to 100 degrees and keep an eye on it.

Serve hot, with a splash of cream if desired.
By Cinabar

3 comments:

Paul said...

I've seen this on a menu before and had no idea what it was. Looks amazing though! :)

NLi10 said...

looks yummy!!

cinabar said...

Its such a fab soothing pud, proper winter food :-)