Easy Peasy Lemon Squeasy!

Today is Tuesday, and if you are a regular visitor to my blog, you must know what that means! All together now . . . Welcome to Tuesdays With Dorie! Yes, that wonderful baking group that bakes together in unison once a week, the same delicious recipe from that scrumdiddlyumptious baking book, Baking, from my home to yours, written by the equally as scrumdiddlyumptious baker, Ms Dorie Greenspan! (Whew, that was a mouthful . . . no pun intended!) By the way, Dorie's re-vamped her page. Make sure you check it out. It's lovely!



This week's recipe was Lemon Cup Custard on page 387 as chosen by Bridget of The Way The Cookie Crumbles. Great choice Bridget!! If there is one thing that my husband loves more than anything on earth, well exceptin for me that is . . . it's custard! He loves custard in any way shape or form. He loves runny custard, or creme anglaise poured over his pies and cakes. He loves baked custard all wiggly and cold and jiggling on his spoon. He adores custard tarts with their crisp shells and yummy custardy innards, all covered with nutmeg. He just plain loves custard full stop!



Actually this was a recipe I had made eons ago when I first got this book. Way before I even had heard of the Dorie Baking Group, and I suspect long before the group even got started. In fact it was the first recipe I ever cooked from this book right after I had first purchased it, so I already knew that it was a winner!



I wanted to do something different this time though, to stretch my culinary abilities and, as Dorie calls it . . . to play around! She had suggested lemon and cloves, orange and star anise, espresso and cinnamon and even vanilla . . . I wanted to take it one step further and after much thought, I decided on a distinctly Thai twist and so I combined the flavours of Lime, Red Chili and Coconut!



WOW!! This was fabulous! Very cosmopolitan, and distinctly delicious to say the least! I truly was amazed at how well it turned out.

To begin with I used 2% milk and added a 50g sachet of dried creamed coconut to make it a bit creamier. I also added the grated zest of two limes and a whole Kaffir Lime Leaf, broken into pieces. Then, to kick it up a notch, I added 1 whole dried chili pod. I heated these together to the boil and then let them sit for the full 30 minutes to infuse. Oh my, but it did smell good.




What more can I say about it. This was a really simple custard to make. You beat the eggs together with the sugar. Strain in a little of the hot milk mixture to temper the eggs, and then whisk in the rest of the hot milk. Once you have it poured into the custard cups and have placed them in the water bath, the oven does the rest.



Easy peasy lemon squeasy.

Well, I think mine got a bit overdone though, but nevermind, they were still delicious! Quite deliciously so. I highly recommend this variation, especially if you want to impress some dinner guests with something that has a decidedly delicious flavour. You'll have them guessing as to what it is. This amount of lime zest was not overpowering, and the lime leaf added a delightful fragrance. There was just the slightest sweetness from the coconut and then a wonderfully intriguing heat, that was most pleasant. All in all a winner.



If you would like the recipe please pop by to Bridget's page to check it out, where she will be posting it at some point today. Please do also check out the Dorie Blog Roll to see what the other ladies did with this wonderful recipe.

Next week's recipe will be the French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze on pages 224-225, as chosen by Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction. I can't wait!!! I love, Love, LOVE Yogurt Cakes and I love, Love, LOVE Marmalade. This is going to be great!!