While most of my friends were ardent chocolate fans and had crowned the chocolate self-saucing pudding the “pudding of all puddings”, it took no more than a bite of my mum’s lemon self-saucing pudding to change their minds!
A favourite growing up, lemon self-saucing puddings are perfectly indulgent while being so light. Here’s what you need to whip up this beautiful pudding.
Lemon Self-Saucing Pudding Recipe
Equipment
- A whisk
- An oven
- An electric beater or a spoon
- A dessert spoon or soup spoon
- A baking dish/container
- A grater to zest your lemon
Ingredients
For The Cake Batter
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon Lemon zest
- 1 large Egg
- 165 grams All-purpose/plain flour, sifted
- 57 grams Unsalted butter, Melted plus about a tablespoon extra to grease your baking dish
- A quarter teaspoon Salt
- 1.5 teaspoons Baking powder
- 100 grams White granulated sugar
- 125 ml Milk
- Water
For The Lemon Sauce
- 3 teaspoons Cornstarch/corn flour
- 80 ml Lemon juice
- 66 grams White granulated sugar
Method
Preparing The Cake
- Start by preheating your oven to 160℃. While it heats, grease your baking container (a pie dish or casserole with an 8-cup capacity works just fine) with butter, and set the water to boil in a kettle (or on the hob).
- Combine the baking powder, flour, and salt in a bowl using a whisk to make sure they mix well.
- In another bowl, combine the sugar and melted butter. You’ll need to beat this to make sure it combines well—use an electric beater or a spoon to get in an arm workout by manually beating the ingredients together.
- Once the sugar and butter are combined well, add the egg and continue beating. We’re looking for a nice, even, light yellow throughout.
- After you achieve this colour, add the lemon zest and juice, stirring well to combine (don’t overdo the stirring, though, as we don’t want all the air to escape).
- To this wet mix, add about a third of the flour-baking-powder-salt mixture, mixing gently to combine.
- Add half the milk and continue stirring gently.
- Repeat the above two steps until all your flour and milk are mixed in. Again, make sure that you don’t overmix—we want an airy sponge and not a dense block!
- Pour the mixed batter into your greased baking dish. Now, it’s time to prep our lemon sauce!
- Preparing the Lemon Sauce
- Combine lemon juice, cornflour, and boiling water, ensuring a smooth, even mixture without lumps. Make it slightly runny; you should be able to pour this over your sponge easily.
Baking The Pudding
- Sprinkle granulated sugar evenly over the cake batter you’ve set aside.
- Slowly pour your lemon sauce evenly around the cake batter. Use an upturned soup spoon to achieve this, holding the spoon with one hand and pouring the sauce over the spoon with the other.
- We do this because we don’t want to create holes in the batter—we want the sauce to sit as a separate layer on top of the batter.
- Bake the entire thing for about 32-32 minutes. When you’re able to insert and pull out a toothpick with just a couple of crumbs stuck to it and the top of the pudding is golden, dry, and just beginning to crack, you know that your pudding is ready!
- Before serving, let the pudding sit for about 10 minutes (tempting as it is to dig in right away!). Then, dust the pudding with the icing sugar, scoop out your ice cream or cream, and tuck in!
- Don’t insert the toothpick over a centimetre deep when checking if the pudding is done, as you’ll break through to the sauce.
- When you’re pouring your sauce over the pudding, make sure that no cornflour is left behind. You need all of it to get your sauce sufficiently thick. If there’s some stuck to the bowl, swirl around a little hot water and pour it into your pudding.
- Letting the pudding sit will not only cool it and prevent burnt tongues but also let the sauce thicken more.
FAQ
Can You Store Lemon Self-Saucing Pudding?
You can store the pudding for three or four days in the refrigerator. Cover it with plastic wrap before doing so. Be aware, though, that the longer your pudding is stored, the more the sponge is going to soak the sauce. This doesn’t take away anything from the amazing taste, though!
Lemon Self-Saucing Pudding Recipe: Parting Thoughts
This bright, light, fluffy, tangy pudding is not just one for lemon lovers, but for all dessert lovers. Ready in less than an hour, it’s insanely simple to bake, magically separating into a sponge on top and a tangy, velvety lemon sauce beneath when baked.
Try this out—don’t be surprised if you never go the chocolate-pudding route again!
