I was introduced to this tart-type-thing at a charity bake sale at work this week, where we had to bake things making use of leftovers (because that's just how we roll). It's a glorious name for a pudding, or indeed for anything. If I ever marry a Mr Pudding, I'm absolutely calling our daughter Winifred. The recipe was apparently thought up by Thomas Allinson, (he of flour and bread fame, which shows admirable pragmatism in relation to one's wares) a-hundred-and-change years ago. No idea who Winifred was, though.
It's rather like treacle tart, only lemony instead of golden syrup-y. I've pretty much used this recipe (though, in fact, all available recipes seem suspiciously similar, and all appear to be illustrated by the exact same photograph), with a few additions/alterations.
'The' recipe calls for 'a slice' of bread to be made into breadcrumbs, which is rather unhelpful - whose slice, and from what loaf? So, I've gone with 75g. I shamelessly used white bread, because that's what I had in the house; though I'm sure Thomas Allinson is spinning in his wholegrain grave.
Warm up 5tbsp of whole milk. (Actually, I only had skimmed in the house, so I used four of milk and one of some clotted cream that needed using up, just to even up the balance).
Take it off the heat, and stir in the breadcrumbs. Set on one side to cool.
Butter and flour a 20cm pie plate (use the shallow, plate-y sort, not one with steep sides), and cut out a circle of puff pastry to fit. I'm being lazy and using ready-made, ready-rolled pastry, which makes this utterly undemanding.
Press it down into the pie plate, making sure the edges of the pastry are arranged in such a way as to be able to puff up.
In a wholly unorthodox touch of my own (stemming partly from a suspicion about putting liquid pie-filling straight onto puff pastry - it has nowhere to puff, surely it'll just go squishy? - and partly from having a jar in the cupboard that needed to be put to some use or another) I smeared the pastry hollow with a few teaspoons of lemon curd.
Cream together (i.e. mush with the back of a wooden spoon) 85g butter and 85g caster sugar. (These seem like oddly specific quantities until you remember it's a Victorian recipe, and that's three ounces.)
Beat in two eggs, one at a time.
Then beat in the breadcrumb mixture.
Add the zest and juice of a lemon...
...and a teaspoon of lemon essence. Beat everything together.
Pour the mixture into the pastry-lined plate, and put it into a preheated oven (180C) for half an hour.
Hoik it out, and sprinkle with a tablespoon of sugar (caster if it's all you have, but since the idea is to give it some crunch I've gone with demerara). Then shove it back in for another 5-10 minutes. Once it's cooked, serve it warm with cream (or whatever).
The verdict
I'm still not 100% convinced that it's a good idea to use puff pastry for a tart base, but I'm on the road to conversion. The edges off the pastry puff up in a very satisfying way, and as long as you're careful to cook it hot enough, and for long enough, the base cooks through. And the insides of this are very comforting in a nursery food sort of way - soft and sweet and with a little bit of crunch.
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