Lemon Cup Custard (TWD)

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) recipe was chosen by Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles: Lemon Cup Custard. It consists of some very basic ingredients: milk, eggs, sugar, and some lemon zest.


There was a lot of chatter about this week's recipe. Apparently, many complained that it tasted too "eggy," or that it didn't have a strong enough lemon flavor. According to Dorie herself, "Eggy is really what this custard is about. It’s meant to be jiggly, not Jello-y and it is, as some of you said, like flan."


I wanted to make sure that you could really taste the lemon in this custard so I changed two things with this recipe. First, I let the lemon zest steep in the hot milk for a full hour (twice as long). Second, I rubbed some lemon zest with the sugar until it was moist and aromatic. This seemed to do the trick because the custard had a very nice lemon flavor in it. Not overwhelmingly lemon, but enough to notice the flavor.


This is a very simple dessert, that reminds me a bit of creme brulee, but is much more similar to flan. I halved the recipe and was able to get one tea cup full of custard, and the rest fit in a creme brulee dish. While I had the custard in the tea cup by itself, I decided to go ahead and torch the other one. It was already in a creme brulee dish anyway! :) I have to say that there is just something about that crunchy, caramelized sugar layer that I just love.


Thanks Bridget, for choosing this recipe. I really like flan and I love creme brulee, but I'm still on the fence about this in between texture. I may or may not be making it again, but I am glad I tried something new. If you would like the recipe, you can find it here. Make sure you visit the TWD Blog Roll to see what everyone else thought about this lemony, custard treat.

* Recipes notes:
- For extra lemon flavor, steep the milk and the zest of one lemon for 1 full hour instead of 30 minutes. Then take the zest of another lemon and rub it into the sugar until it is moist and aromatic.
- A lot of people said their custard set before the recommended time - mine took exactly 40 minutes, as directed.
- For more tips, click here.