Читать книгу The Vicar’s Wife’s Cook Book - Elisa Beynon - Страница 26

This menu didn’t feature a heavy main course, so for pudding I beefed things up just a little. Here, I give you my version of the old-fashioned dessert, ‘Queen of Puddings’. Mine, made with mellow apricot jam, is less oh-so-sweet and has a kind of hidden depth. Like some men. So, my version got a gender change.

575ml full-fat milk

40g butter

150g fresh white breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons ground almonds

150g caster sugar

finely grated zest of 1 lemon or orange

4 generous tablespoons good-quality apricot jam

4 large eggs

You can make this in an oval pie dish or a big shallow ovenproof bowl. It should be around 1.2–1.5 litres in capacity.

Bring the milk to the boil in a pan. Once it’s boiling, take it off the heat and stir in the butter, breadcrumbs, the ground almonds, 25g of the sugar and the zest of whichever fruit you have opted for. Leave on the side for ½ hour to allow the bread to swell and the flavours to combine.

After that time, melt the jam and pour half of it over the base of the dish and preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Separate the eggs: put the egg whites into a large, clean mixing bowl and the yolks into a cup. Beat the yolks briefly with a fork and add them to the breadcrumb mixture. Pour this over the jam and bake in the oven for around 25–30 minutes until softly set.

Meanwhile, whisk together the egg whites until they form soft peaks and then gradually whisk in the remaining 125g of sugar until stiff. When the pudding comes out of the oven, pour over the remaining warm jam, spreading it to cover all the breadcrumb mixture. Pile over the meringue and swirl it out with the back of a spoon to make a seal with the edge of the dish. Put the dish back in the oven for around 10 minutes or until the meringue is golden.