Lemon Pudding Cakes

Lemon Pudding Cakes
from Ellen's kitchen, thanks to Cook's Illustrated

Lemon Pudding Cake

Ingredients for lemon cakes:

• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• finely grated zest from 3 lemons, plus 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 cup (7 oz) sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 1/4 oz) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs, separated, plus 2 large whites
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients for blueberry compote:

• 1 tbs unsalted butter
• 10 oz (2 cups) blueberries, either frozen or fresh
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• pinch salt
• 2-3 tbs sugar

Adjust:

• oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees.  Bring milk and cream to simmer in medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Remove pan from heat, whisk in zest, cover pan, and let stand for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, fold kitchen towel in half, and place in bottom of large roasting pan.  Place six 6-oz ramekins on top of towel, and set aside.

Strain:

• milk mixture through fine-mesh strainer, pressing on zest to extract liquid; discard zest.  Whisk 3/4 cup sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt in large bowl until combined.  Add egg yolks, lemon juice, vanilla, and milk mixture, and whisk until combined.  Batter will have the consistency of milk.  

Using:

• stand mixer fitted with whisk, whip egg whites on medium-low speed until foamy, about 1 to 2 minutes.  Increase speed to medium-high and whip whites to soft, billowy mounds, about 1 minute.  Gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar and whip until glossy, soft peaks form, about 1 minute.

Whisk:

• one quarter of whites into  batter to lighten.  With rubber spatula, gently fold in remaining whites until no clumps or streaks remain.  Ladle batter into prepared ramekins; ramekins should be nearly full.  Pour enough cold water into roasting pan to come 1/3 of the way up the sides of ramekins.  Bake until cake is set and pale golden brown, and pudding layer register 172-175 degrees at center, 50-55 minutes.

Remove:

• roasting pan from oven and let ramekins stand in water bath for 10 minutes.  Transfer ramekins to wire rack and cool completely.  Serve plain or with blueberry compote.  

For blueberry compote:

• melt butter in saucepan over medium heat.  Add blueberries and bring to boil (if fresh, crush one third of them against side of saucepan with wooden spoon). Lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until 1/4 of juice remains, about 15 minutes (or to desired thickness).  Remove from heat.
• stir in lemon juice and salt, and sweeten to taste with sugar.  Serve at room temperature or chilled.