Lemon-Cake Pudding

We were having friends over on Sunday so I made two round yellow things -- a frittata for the main course and this uber delicious Lemon-Cake Pudding for dessert from a c. 1940s recipe. Not only was it delicious, but it was magic -- though I put just one batter in the oven, during baking it turned into two: a light delicate cake atop a lemony custard pudding.

There are a few steps involved, but none are that difficult. And when the payoff is lemon magic, then it's well worth the effort.

Start by juicing some lemons.

Then, set out all of your ingredients. Put the dry ingredients (plus some butter) in one bowl, separate the eggs, and measure out the milk and lemon juice.

After you mix all these up, you'll have three bowls -- all of which are combined in the end. The egg-milk mixture is added to the main batter.

The final step is carefully folding in the egg whites. I always add a bit of cream of tartar when I beat the whites, so as not to dry them out.

After blending, pour into the ungreased pan.  Mine could have been blended a bit better; note the swirls of white.

Bake for about 45 to 50 minutes. Next time, I'd bake this a bit longer than the 50 minutes I did.

It's a bit messy to get the first slice out, but rather easy after that.

Production notes: I followed the recipe almost exactly, and have written it out below the vintage card.

Lemon-Cake Pudding

Preheat oven to 350F
Place a large baking dish in the oven and fill water until it is 1/3 of the way up the sides. This will be your water bath. Make sure your 8- or 9-inch square or round ungreased cake pan will fit comfortably in it. (Or cheat like I did and just put cake pan in the larger pan, place in the oven, and fill the baking pan with water.)

1 c. sugar
4 TBS flour
1/8 t salt
2 TBS butter, softened to room temperature
5 TBS fresh lemon juice
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1 1/2 c whole milk

Juice about two small lemons to get 5 tablespoons of juice.
Place sugar, flour, salt, softened butter in a bowl.  Mix thoroughly.
Add lemon juice and mix. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Set aside.

Beat the egg yolk, add the milk and combine well.

Add the egg-milk mixture to the flour mixture and combine well.
Carefully fold in the egg whites.

Pour into cake pan and place in the oven.

Bake about 45 to 50 minutes. The top should be golden brown.

Home-made Bread

Instead of complaining about the relentless rainy downpour in New York yesterday, I decided to use the weather to my advantage and bake bread. For while humidity will torpedo many a kitchen endeavor (meringues, most candy and nearly anything involving egg whites), low pressure days are perfect to use yeast, the theory being that it works better (i.e., rises more easily) without the competition of high pressure air pushing it down.

Bread baking is easy, requires time (but not much of the cook's time), fills the house with a marvelous aroma -- and then allows you and your guests to enjoy the freshest bread imaginable.

The vintage recipe I chose called for heating milk, sugar, salt and butter in a saucepan and letting it cool to lukewarm.

Meantime, pour one cup of warm water in a bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it. Stir to blend. (The water should be between 105 and 110 F.  If the water is too cold, the yeast won't bloom; if it's too hot, the yeast may die.) You can use a candy thermometer or just sprinkle some drops on your wrist -- it should feel warm, not hot. I also add a tiny bit of sugar to hasten the yeast's bloom.

After five or ten minutes, the mixture should look like this and you know the yeast is working. If it doesn't, check the date on your yeast package (might it have expired?) and try again with a fresher yeast, warm water and a bit of sugar.

Combine the yeast and the milk mixture in a large bowl. Mix in three cups of flour and stir until nearly smooth. Add in the rest of the flour and combine.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl, cover with a cloth and let it rise in a warm spot until double, about one hour.

Punch it down (as satisfying as it sounds) form into two loaves and place in greased pans. Cover again and let rise until doubled.

When the loaves look like this, brush the top with butter or shortening and place in a preheated 400 F oven. After ten minutes, reduce the heat to 300F and let bake for another 45 minutes.

Production notes: I thought I followed this recipe exactly (before I spilled orange extract from another baking project all over the recipe card), but later realized I had used only one package of yeast instead of two -- and it still came out fine, because of the low pressure and/or the power of yeast. The moral here is: You can't screw this up, or even if you do, it still works and is delicious. I also used butter instead of shortening.  Full recipe typed out below.

Home-made Bread (from Ethel Hayes, Sunbury)

1 cup milk
3 T sugar
2 1/2 t. salt
6 T shortening
1 cup warm water
2 pkg. active dry yeast
6 cup all-purpose flour

Mix milk, sugar, salt and shortening (butter) in a saucepan and scald. Set aside and cool to lukewarm.

Sprinkle two envelopes of yeast in one cup of warm (100 F) water and set aside.

Combine two mixtures and add three cups of flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until smooth.
Add three more cups of flour and stir until combined.
Turn out on a floured board and knead until smooth and elastic.

Place in greased bowl, cover with a cloth and let rise until doubled (approximately one hour).
Divide dough and place in two greased bread pans. Brush top with melted butter or shortening.

Bake for ten minutes in a 400 F oven.
Lower heat to 300 F and bake for 45 minutes.
Remove to rack, cool slightly and turn out bread. Cool completely.

Ann's Irish Soda Bread

This simple vintage recipe for Irish Soda Bread is simply the best I've ever made.  And I'm not a fan of Irish Soda Bread (where's the butter?), but hot from the oven, this is moist and delicious.  And addicting.  It's so good that I may make this for the DH to bring to work on Monday, instead of the modern-day Ina Garten recipe I'd planned to use.

I put it together this morning in about ten minutes.  Put the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them together.

Measure out the raisins.  I dusted lightly with flour to prevent them from sinking in the bread, but you can add them to the flour mixture and skip this step.

Put the buttermilk in a measuring cup, add the egg and mix together.

The dough is a bit sticky, and despite the recipe instruction, no kneading required.

Place in a greased eight-inch cake pan and press down.  I used gloved hands to do this; you can use the back of a large spoon.

About 35 minutes later, you'll have this.

Remove from the pan,

slice and enjoy.

Here's the original recipe card.  I made half the recipe, used butter instead of margarine and skipped the poppy seeds as I didn't have any.  Below the card is the method I used.

Ann's Irish Soda Bread

Preheat oven to 375F
Grease an 8-inch cake pan

2 c. all purpose flour
2 T. sugar
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 T baking powder
3 T unsalted butter
3/4 c buttermilk
1 egg
1 c raisins

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.  Blend.  Add softened butter and mix until incorporated.  Add raisins.
Mix buttermilk and egg together.  Add to bowl.  Blend until just incorporated -- do not overmix.
Spoon into pan and flatten.  Bake about 35 minutes.