NOTE: Last Saturday I wrote this post then couldn’t find the recipe anywhere, how frustrating! Then I posted the post by mistake instead of saving it, then the tricksy recipe turned up. Anyway I’m such a goose, some of you have had a sneak preview of todays post. Get ready to feign excitement…
My youngest sister Daisy works part time at The Alternative Bread Company stall in The English Market in Cork. She’s a girl that knows a bloomer from a chleb at 50 paces. She gave me a huge loaf of sour dough recently and it took us a week to get through half of it and I wanted to make something with the rest. So I went recipe hunting!
The first thing that grabs me about a recipe is the picture. Does it make me think ‘I need to make this! I need to eat this!’. It usually does. But what about a fusty old book with no photos? Well then I go by the name. This my dears is The Queen of Puddings. Not just The Queens’ best friend ever or the first cousin of the Queen. This is The Queen. So I had to make it to see what she looked like.
What a fine thing. Sponge bread stuff, jam and Meringue? Oh you spoil me!
Ingredients
50g butter, softened
125g caster sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
600ml milk
150g breadcrumbs
4 large eggs separated
4 tbsp raspberry jam
Method
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Preheat the oven to 180. Butter a 1 litre oven proof dish or 4x300ml dishes
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Bring the butter, 25g of the sugar, the zest and milk to a gentle simmer in a pan
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Add the breadcrumbs and set aside, stirring often until thickened
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Stir the egg yolks into the mixture and spoon into the prepared dish.
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Bake for 15 mins or until just set.
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Heat the jam in a pan until runny, carefully spread over the top of the pudding
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Whisk the egg whites and the remaining 100g of sugar until it forms soft peaks.
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Spoon/pipe over the top of the pudding and bake for 10 mins until lightly browned and crisp.
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Serve immediately or while warm, although it was nice cold too, with cream.
All in all ten people tasted this when I made it and we all had the same reaction: It’s a slow burner. ‘I don’t know if I love it but I can’t stop eating it’ type of thing.
I think I do love it though.
Lilly x
Lilly Higgins: Food blogger, cookbook author and food photographer with a love for all things edible. Columnist with The Irish Times.
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