These little steamed lemon puddings are simple to mix up and reheat amazingly well. They’re a perfect do-ahead dinner party finale.
Steamed lemon puddings are such an underrated dessert, and if you own a steam oven they’re very easy to make. I hope you’ll try these sweet and comforting little puddings; they use pantry ingredients and take minimal effort to make.
I often pass over the gentle comfort of a pudding for trendier desserts, but it’s really my loss. The nostalgic enjoyment which comes from this most English of desserts is hard to beat. And even better if you drench them in cream or custard.
Cooking steamed lemon puddings in a steam oven
I think one of the reasons people don’t make steamed puddings, except maybe at Christmas, is all the mucking around that’s usually required to steam them. Usually, steaming a pudding needs upturned plates and pots of boiling water which need frequent topping up. Then there’s the string tied to a wooden spoon to lift the pudding out after cooking. It all seems a bit much effort!
It’s not hard, though, when you have a steam oven in your kitchen. All you need to do for these steamed lemon puddings is cover the vessel with pleated foil, set them on a tray and you’re ready.
If you’re wondering what vessels to use for steaming your puddings, I like these half-cup dariole molds. They’re light and easy to turn the puddings out of, and excellent for steamed and set custard desserts too. You could use little teacups or ramekins, in which case you can serve them in the dish they’re steamed in. Just beware if you use thick porcelain or ceramic you’ll need to add a few minutes to the cooking time. Oh, and don’t use your Gran’s best china unless you’re sure it’s heatproof!
Happy steam oven cooking, see you here again soon.
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Individual Steamed Lemon Puddings
Ingredients
- 6 oz unsalted butter softened
- 1/2 cup superfine sugar caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 2/3 cups all purpose flour plain flour 250
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 lemons zested and juiced
Instructions
- Lightly grease the inside of 6 x ½ cup molds and line the base of each with a little square of baking paper (if you’re cooking your puddings in ramekins or cups and don’t plan to turn them out for serving, skip the baking paper). Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well to mix after each addition.
- Mix the flour and baking powder together in a bowl, then fold in the butter/egg mixture until just combined. Add the lemon zest and juice and gently mix until smooth.
- Preheat oven to 100⁰C/212⁰F, steam setting (100% humidity).
- Divide the mixture evenly between the greased molds and smooth the tops. Cover each with a pleated piece of aluminium foil – press the foil around the molds but not too tightly as they need enough ‘give’ to rise a little.
- Put the molds onto a rack or perforated tray and steam for 25 minutes to cook through. Stand for 5 minutes before turning out and serving with cream, ice cream or custard.
Notes
- Makes 6 individual puddings, or a single large one.
- This is a dish you could make as one larger pudding but I’ve opted to turn it into pretty little single serve ones. They’re easy to make, keep well in the fridge or freezer and if you were an organised host, you could make some well ahead of time for a dinner party dessert almost no-one will turn down. If you’re making ahead and reheating, just put the covered puddings in the oven at 100⁰C/212⁰F for 10-15 minutes to warm through before serving.
- If you’d like to make this in a large single pudding basin, use a 1 qt/1L bowl and steam, covered, for 1 ½ hours to cook through.
- I like to serve this with pouring cream or ice cream, though my husband loves it with custard.
Nutrition
Over to you – if you try this recipe I’d love to know about it! Please share your pictures in the new Combi Steam Cooking group, or tag them #whatsinthesteamoven on Instagram.
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And if you’re after more delicious combi steam recipes, use the Recipe Index to find something to serve up before these puddings. I recommend the Steam Oven Salmon with Lemon, Asparagus and Potatoes, or Moroccan Couscous with Lamb Fillets for crowd-pleasing dinners.
8 Responses
Has anyone steamed these in an electric pressure cooker? If so, is the cooking time adjusted or decreased from 25 minutes?
I have done both, depending on whether I need the molds again before I’m going to serve them! They will reheat fine without them, but the shape is a little more neat if you leave them in the mold.
looking forward to trying this! If made in advance, do you storecthem in the mold or remove them from the mold after cooking?
I made this as a single larger pudding and added about 1/4 cup of currants that I soaked in the lemon juice . I added a little milk as the batter was a bit stiff. My husband said it was the best steamed pudding he had ever eaten. He was from a farm family and had 3 sisters, so he’s had a few puds. Light tangy and perfect with steamed custard done in the steam morning oven and a dollop of cream
These are so good. I have a family of lemon dessert lovers and this is easy. I usually do them in glass custard dishes.
Yes, you can definitely do this and then steam to reheat. I fully cook them prior to freezing, then reheat from frozen. From memory individual sized ones like this take around 25 mins from frozen to reheat.
How about freezing sponge puddings and steaming later on?
Really like this idea…mine came out pretty stodgy not nice and crumbly like yours look…I guess that means they didn’t steam enough.
I love your blog it’s a great assistance and inspiration.