COTTAGE GROVE HOUSE

Here is a wonderful citrusy pudding cake for you to try.  This lemony pudding cake shares flavor characteristics of a lemon meringue, however, setting it apart is the wonderfully textured little bits of corn polenta.  Perhaps I should have used a fine grain polenta but  didn’t have any on hand.  The recipe didn’t specify, so I used what we had and enjoyed the tiny crunchy bits!

I was visiting my favorite second hand store a few weeks ago and stumbled upon and purchased a gorgeous hand thrown mug and a copy of My French Kitchen, written by Joanne Harris & Fran Warde.  After skimming through the cookbook I have eighteen page flagged recipes.  A delightful cookbook for only two dollars!  This pudding cake is the third recipe I have prepared from the book and all have turned out beautifully.  I have fifteen more to go and I’ll certainly be sharing the recipes here.

I n g r e d i e n t s

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (2-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for the dish
• 1 -1/4 cups sugar, preferably superfine
• 3 lemons
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup polenta
• 1/4 cups ground almonds (use a food processor)
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• Heavy creams, to serve

Heat the oven to 350°F.  Lightly butter an 8 inch pie plate.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth.  Finely grate the lemon zest from 2-1/2 lemons and then juice the lemons.  Add the zest and juice to the creamed butter and mix.  Thinly slice the remaining 1/2 lemon and set aside.  Beat in the eggs – the mixture will curdle, but do not worry, this is normal.  Then beat in the the polenta and ground almonds.  Finally, fold in the flour with a large spoon.

Transfer the batter to the pie plate, arrange the lemon slices on top and bake for 25-30 minutes.  Serve warm with a pitcher of cream for pouring.