Lemon Pudding Cake

So this is a great family recipe. It is a little old-fashioned, but don't let its less than glamorous looks deter you.  Mom says her grandmother always made it when someone was sick. So I firmly believe it is not only delicious but also medicinal.  In the interest of preserving our family heritage, I am going to first provide the original recipe, then add my gluten and dairy free modifications.

   

You can see the two pans it cooks in here. 

Lemon Pudding Cake

1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
1 tsp lemon peel
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 egg whites

Melt butter then mix in sugar. Add flour, lemon peel and lemon juice.  Mix.  Beat egg whites until soft peaks, Fold everything together.  Bake in a casserole pan  in a water bath. (I use my pyrex casserole nested in my 9 X 13 pan) at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

My Modifications - While this is a great recipe, I think it is a little too sweet and does not have quite enough lemon flavor.  Also when dairy and gluten free, you may find you get a gummy layer at the bottom and/or a very runny pudding part.  I believe I have addressed these issues.  

To address the too sweet, not enough lemon I would suggest decreasing the sugar to 3/4 or 1 cup and adding the juice of 3 good sized lemons (that can pretty much double the lemon juice). Don't worry about the extra liquid, I never do!

When making this diary free/gluten free I use rice milk and a gluten free flour in the same quantities listed above. Please note, you cannot use almond milk in this recipe, it will curdle. I think rice milk provides the best results.  I have found I can eliminate the gummy bottom layer by doing one of two things. 1) decrease the flour to 1/8 cup or 2) soak the 1/4 cup of flour in the milk (12 - 24 hours with a squeeze of lemon juice or all of it). Obviously the first option is much quicker. The results are good too, but if you want a less runny pudding section and increase your digestion of the grain choose option 2.   

I had some extra egg whites in my fridge once when making this and threw them in. It worked great.  So for real lemon lovers, if you have extra egg whites from making lemon curd, you can use them in this recipe!

One last modification, in my oven I find 1 hour to be sufficient cooking time, otherwise the top gets too dark.