Surprise!

Well, Delia Smith's Lemon Surprise actually. Strawberry Jam Anne has picked up on the challenge to provide me with the bestest, nicest, yummiest winter dessert to eat on a cold and/or dreary day in those dark days before snowdrops and daffodils. And I promised to make and taste all your efforts. Here goes:

Ingredients (all metric!):
50 grams butter
110 grams caster sugar
rind and juice of two large lemons
2 eggs, separated
50 grams selfraising flour, sifted
150 ml milk

850 ml deep baking dish, buttered
pre-heat oven at 180 Celsius

Preparing:

First beat butter, sugar and lemon rind together until well soft (it won't go light and fluffy because there's more sugar than butter). Then, beat in the egg yolks, a bit at a time. Next, fold in the flour, alternately with milk and lemon juice. Finally whisk the egg whites until nice and stiff and fold them in to the mixture. At this point the mixture will look a bit curdled, but that is normal. Pour the mixture into the baking dish and bake in the center of the oven for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve hot (although it also tastes quite nice cold).

The surprise is that after it's cooked, you will find a nice lemon pool underneath the spongy surface.

So, what did I think? Well, let's just say there is nothing left. It was really nice both hot and cold, although when it was hot, it was also very very gooey. The only thing I missed, was a bit of sauce. Not quite sure what sort of sauce should have gone with it, but that was missing. Other than that, it was great. Hot in the winter, nice and cold in the summer. Now just to find a nice sauce to go with it!

Delia Smith's Lemon Surprise: a good winter (and summer) dessert. Any more suggestions?

Update 08 February: Carolina suggested raspberry coulis/sauce to go with this dessert. And I think she may be right...