Marmalade puddings with Bushmills custard sauce

Ingredients

Puddings

1 1/2 cuporange marmalade, thick cut, (but, any kind will do)

1tbsp orange marmalade,

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups superfine (ultrafine) sugar

6 eggs, beaten

Grated zest of 2 oranges

3 cups self-rising flour

1 tbsp ground allspice

 

Custard sauce

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

5 egg yolks

1/2 cup superfine sugar

3 tbsp Bushmills, or other Irish whiskey

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

 

Orange segments and mint sprigs for garnish

 

Equipment

24, 4-ounce ramekins

Baking pans, large enough to hold the ramekins, with space around them

Procedure

Puddings

Preheat oven to 325°

Generously grease six 4-ounce ramekins with butter.  This will take approximately 1/2 stick.

Put 2 tbsp of marmalade in the bottom of each.

 

In an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar.  Beat for 3-4 minutes, or until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, orange zest and the remaining 1 tbsp of marmalade.  Gradually beat in the flour and allspice.

 

Spoon into the prepared ramekins.  Fill only halfway (learned this the hard way).  Put the ramekins into a large baking pan and add hot water until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins.  Cover the pan with foil.  Prick the foil in 6-8 places.

 

Bake for 25 minutes, until the puddings are set and are lightly browned.  Remove from oven and remove foil and waxed paper.

 

Custard sauce

In a heavy saucepan, combine the cream and milk, and bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Set aside.

 

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together.  Grandually whisk the hot cream mixture into the yolks, beginning with just a small amount.  This is called "tempering" and is used to bring the cooler mixture up to the temperature of the warmer mixture, without cooking the eggs.  Return the mixture to the pan and stir constantly, over medium heat, for 6-8 minutes, or until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.  This will probably take longer than 8 minutes, but don't raise the heat or your eggs will curdle, "scramble" and the custard will break.  Transfer to a bowl and whisk in the whiskey and vanilla.  Set aside.

 

To serve

Run a knife around the side of the ramekins and turn the puddings out onto serving plates.  Spoon custard around the pudding and top with orange segments and mint sprigs.

 

Notes

I left out the whiskey and used 2 tsp of vanilla extract.  The recipe suggests using an Irish whiskey marmalade for added taste.  I used Smuckers and it was just fine.

When filling the ramekins, it is better to throw out the extra batter than over-fill the containers.  Doing so causes a huge mess when the batter overflows into the water bath. 

I also supremed the orange slices (cutting them out so that they did not have any of the segment membranes or pith.

When I make these again, I would double the custard sauce.  It was really delicious and everyone wanted lots of it.

Because I took these to one of our breakfasts, I used disposable foil ramekins.  I left them in the ramekins and spooned the custard sauce over the puddings and intended to put a couple of orange segments on top of that, but I left them at home.  Didn't have mint, but we didn't seem to miss it.

As is this didn't already have enough fat in it, I think that some lightly whipped double cream would be a nice, cool finish for the top of the warm pudding and custard.   These are really, really good, and worth the effort to make them.

 

Serving Information

• Serves: 24
• Fat: g
• Calories: