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Lemon Curd Pudding
Stir four ounces of butter and seven ounces of sugar over a slow fire to boiling point, then pour into a basin, and leave till nearly cold. Whisk six eggs well, and gradually mix them with the butter and sugar, and a large dessert-spoonful of flour. Add the grated peel and strained juice of two lemons. Line a pie-dish with puff-paste, pour in the mixture, and bake one hour in a slow oven.
A lemon curd baked in a pastry case rather than boiled in a jar — essentially a lemon tart with a very high butter and egg content. The whole recipe hinges on the temperature of the butter-sugar mixture when the eggs go in.
- Weights in cupsFour ounces of butter is one stick (8 tablespoons); seven ounces of sugar is a scant cup. A large dessertspoonful of flour is about 2 to 3 teaspoons — a dessertspoon sits between a teaspoon and a tablespoon.
- A slow ovenRead this as 300–325°F. At that temperature an hour is right for a deep filling; the custard is done when the centre wobbles as a set mass rather than rippling like liquid.
- Do not rush the cooling"Leave till nearly cold" is the instruction that matters. Boiled butter and sugar poured onto whisked eggs will scramble them instantly. The mixture should be barely warm, and the eggs added a little at a time with constant whisking.
- BasinSimply a mixing bowl. Use metal or ceramic rather than plastic, since the syrup goes in near boiling.
- Puff-pasteBought all-butter puff pastry is a fair substitute. Because the filling is wet and bakes slowly, blind-bake the lined dish for 15 minutes at 400F, then drop the oven to 300-325F before filling.
- LemonsAim for about 1/3 cup juice and the zest of two lemons, tasting before it goes in the pastry.
- Dish and yieldA 9-inch pie dish or deep tart tin takes the quantity. Serves six to eight; it is rich enough that thin wedges are enough.
- ServingLet it cool completely before cutting — the filling firms considerably as it sets, and cut warm it will slump.
Lemon curd appears in nineteenth-century cookery under names such as "lemon cheese" or "lemon butter", cooked gently with eggs, butter, sugar and lemon and spread on bread or used to fill tarts. The same mixture could serve several ends: potted in jars for the tea table, spooned into small pastry cases for a dinner sweet, or, as here, baked as a single large open tart. Six eggs and a quarter-pound of butter make this a richer dish than everyday fare.