Lemon Souffle in Lemons

I was browsing a friend's Pinterest that is devoted to food, delicious looking food. I now have a summer project--to cook things from that enticing board. First thing I chose was Martha Stewart's Little Lemon Souffles: http://www.marthastewart.com/315439/little-lemon-souffles.

I adjusted the recipe to use 6 lemons instead of 8. I'm pretty sure they weren't Meyer lemons, but they were large and they still worked.

6 large lemons, preferably Meyer
2 large eggs, separated
a little less than 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

First, I cut the tip off of the lemons so they could sit on a baking sheet. To make the designs on the lemons, I used a zester. For a couple of the lemons I started at my cut site and slowly worked my way around the lemon in a spiral until I reached the other side. (I ended up with a really long string of lemon zest that could be used for a garnish.) For some of the others, I worked from the bottom to the top in longitudinal lines. I started by making 2 lines, one across from the other. Then I rotated the lemon and repeated so that I had four equally spaced lines. I continued by making new lines between two previous lines until I ran out of space. I also experimented with combining longitudinal and latitudinal lines but that did not look nearly as nice as all longitudinal or a spiral.

After zesting the lemon, I cut the top off to expose the flesh. Then I cut the pulp out by cutting in a circle at an angle. The top will be wider than the bottom. It may take a few more cuts, but the pulp should come out in a cone shape. Next I used a butter curler to scrape the rest of the pulp out into a strainer.

 

 

 

Butter Curler (left) and zester (right)

I placed the hollowed out lemons on a baking sheet covered with a sheet of foil (parchment paper works as well). I squeezed the pulp into a strainer and bowl. This recipe calls for 1/4 cup of the lemon juice to be used and the rest (in my case, a lot) to be kept for something else.

In a heatproof bowl, I combined the egg yolks, ~1/4 cup sugar, flour, and 1/4 cup lemon juice. Using a handheld mixer, I beat the mixture until it was a pale yellow. Then I placed the bowl in a pot of boiling water and continued beating the mixture by hand with a whisk until it was thick. (My water was past the simmering stage which caused the lemon mixture to thicken up quickly--a couple of minutes instead of 8. I recommend against using rapidly boiling water.) After the lemon mixture was thick, I took it off the water and on to a heatproof surface (an oven mitt) and beat it with the handheld mixer until it was cool.

In another bowl, combine the egg whites and the rest of the sugar. Place the bowl in a pot of simmering water. This is really important. The water must be barely simmering or simmering - if the heat is too high, you'll end up with cooked eggs whites and sugar. Slowly heat the mixture until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and beat with the whisk attachment of a handheld mixer until you are a little past soft peaks. An easy way to tell what stage your egg whites are in is to stick the whisk in the egg whites (with the handheld mixer off) and then turn it upside down. If the egg whites are able to hold a peak on the whisk, then they are ready.

I used a 1/3 of the egg whites and whisked it (with the mixer) with the lemon mixture. I folded the rest of the egg whites, by hand with a spatula, into the the lemon mixture. Be careful not to mix too much otherwise you will deflate the egg whites.

Spoon the souffle mixture into the lemons. I filled my lemons and still had some leftover so I placed them in mini ramekins that were greased with butter and dusted with granulated sugar.

Everything was baked in a 350 degree preheated oven until the souffles rose and were golden brown on top. Since I filled my lemons completely, they rose quite a bit above the lemons and tipped over.

Serve these right away. Since I had made 6, plus the 2 ramekins, I had leftovers and decided to try refrigerate them. The souffle deflated when in the refrigerator but still had a nice texture and still tasted great.