All the flavours of lemon pie, without the fuss of making a pie! Creamy lemon pudding, topped with a swirl of meringue. A great make-ahead dessert. Makes 4 large or 6 small puddings.
1/2teaspoonCream of tartar, or see Note 1 below for substitute suggestion
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Instructions
Preheat oven to 350F (regular bake, not fan-assisted), with the rack in the centre of the oven.
Assemble 4 large or 6 small ramekins, custard cups or oven-safe mugs or tea cups on a rimmed baking sheet. Set aside.
Separate the eggs. Place the egg yolks in a small bowl and whisk well with a fork. Set aside. Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer (make sure it's super clean!), with the stand mixer fitted with the whipping attachment. Alternately, place egg whites in a medium bowl and use a hand mixer.
Make the pudding: Add the sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest and salt to a food processor and process until the zest is finely ground. (Alternately, if you have no food processor, simply whisk the mixture in a small bowl for 30-45 seconds).
Add the sugar/zest mixture to a medium saucepan. Add the milk and whisk until smooth. Turn on the heat under the saucepan to medium. Cook, stirring constantly, until the pudding thickens. Boil 1 minute, then remove from heat.
Top Tip! In the next part, you will be adding hot pudding to eggs. In order to prevent the eggs from cooking and becoming chunky, you will want to add the hot pudding very gradually and whisk well while adding it. Start with just a drop, then two drops and so on, until you've added it all. This is called "tempering the eggs".
Spoon out a ladle-full of the hot pudding. Very, very slowly start adding small drops of the hot pudding to the egg yolks, while constantly stirring. Start by adding just a drop, then a couple of drops and so on, until you have added the full ladle-full of the hot pudding to the egg yolks. Add the egg yolk mixture to the saucepan. Add the lemon juice to the saucepan. Whisk to combine well. Return the saucepan to the heat, set as medium heat and cook, stirring, until the mixture boils. Boil 1 minute longer and remove from heat. Add the butter and whisk until the butter is melted.
Spoon pudding into serving dishes and place a sheet of foil over-top to keep them warm while you make the meringue.
Make the meringue: Add the cream of tartar to the egg whites in the bowl and whisk to combine. Beat at medium speed (4 or 5 on a Stand Mixer) until the whites are very foamy (like a bubble bath). Increase the speed on the mixer slightly and continue beating until the mixture whitens and starts to take shape. Gradually add the sugar until it is all added, then increase the speed of the mixer slightly and beat until the mixture is glossy, with stiff peaks.
Spoon the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a large star or plain tip or a ziplock-type bag. For the ziplock bag, cut off a 1/2-inch tip from the corner of the bag. Pipe the meringue on top of each of the hot puddings to cover completely, piping the meringue about 2 - 2 1/2-inches high. *You will have plenty of meringue and probably won't use it all.
Place puddings into the preheated oven and bake until the meringue is set and lightly browned, about 7-10 minutes (watch carefully so they don't brown too much).
Remove from the oven and let stand until cooled to room temperature, then place in the refrigerator (uncovered) to chill for at least 2 hours before serving.
Serve garnish with blueberry or other berries, a lemon slice quarter and/or mint leaves.
Notes
1. If you don't have cream of tartar, you can substitute 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or white vinegar.Tips!
I used a large star tip to pipe the meringue. You could also use a large plain hole tip. Alternately, just spoon the meringue into a ziplock bag and snip off the corner.
The meringue will shrink slightly during the chilling time, so don't be afraid to make a bit of an exaggerated swirl, as it will get a bit smaller.
Avoid weeping by ensuring the puddings are completely cooled to room temperature before putting them in the refrigerator to chill.
You can use any size ramekin or serving dish, but it must be oven-proof. The ramekins I used here are quite large, so I only filled them with pudding just slightly less than half full. If using smaller ramekins, you can fill higher.
The base recipe (1X), will make four large or 6 smaller puddings. You can double or triple the recipe, as needed.
Be sure to read the notes above this Recipe Card, for more tips on making this recipe. You'll also find Step-by-Step photos there, as well.