Baking with Citrus Fruit
Lemon Custard Cakes Perk Up Bland Winter Days
Perk up your taste buds with a taste of these light and flavorful Lemon Custard Cakes. They're an instant cure for the blandness of winter days.
Whether squeezed into lemonade, added to salsa or used as the base for a tangy bar cookie, lemons add just the right flavor to a variety of recipes. And during the winter, you can always take a retreat from the cold winds, ice and snow just by squeezing a few lemons and making lemonade. Or, if you're fighting a cold or sore throat, just squeeze some lemon juice into a mug of warm tea and you'll be on your way to feeling well again.
Yes, lemons are indeed a versatile citrus fruit, and they're great in many different desserts as well. This week, you can use lemons to bake a simple but delightful Lemon Custard Cake. These dimunitive desserts are baked right in glass custard dishes or ceramic ramekins, making them perfect for individual servings. When baked, you're treated to a cake-like exterior and a custard-like tangy lemon interior.
RECIPE
Lemon Custard Cakes
Serves 6
Unsalted butter, room temperature, for buttering custard cups
3 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest (1 1/2 lemons)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup milk
Pinch of salt
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Set a tea kettle or a pot of water to boil. Butter six 6-ounce custard cups and place them in a baking dish or roasting pan lined with a dish towel (this prevents the custard cups from sliding around on the bottom of the pan as you're carrying them to and from the oven.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the sugar until the yolks are light and fluffy; whisk in the flour. Gradually whisk in the lemon zest, juice and milk.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Add the beaten egg whites to the lemon batter and fold the egg whites gently into the batter, being careful not to deflate the egg whites (the batter will still be quite liquid at this point).
4. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared custard cups; place the baking dish in the oven and fill the dish with boiling water so that it reaches halfway up the sides of the custard cups. Bake until the cakes are puffed and lightly browned (but the pudding is still visible in the bottom), about 20 to 25 minutes. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature, dusted with confectioners' sugar.
