Q: I really love the gingerbread pudding with lemon sauce at JCT Kitchen. Would the chef part with the recipe? — Kathryn Whitbourne
A: Whitbourne is not alone in her appreciation of this rich, spicy dessert. "They've loved that thing from the very beginning, " said JCT executive chef Ford Fry. "That one strikes more comments than anything else." The custard-soaked cake and buttery lemon sauce are so popular, in fact, that Fry joked that he and his staff are stuck with it, come what may. "If it were up to us, we'd probably take it off just because we're tired of looking at it, " he deadpanned. "But everyone has loved it so, there's just no way we could ever mess with it."
Gingerbread Pudding With Meyer Lemon Curd
You might want to run a mile or two before you sit down with a serving of this comforting dessert. We had to tweak the cake recipe a couple of times before we got it right. Be sure to whip the batter well to give it a sturdy foundation and plenty of air bubbles. When making the soak, the key to success, advises JCT pastry chef Meghan Stack, is “to not let the liquid get hot enough to boil — you don’t want the custard to thicken until it is baking with the gingerbread.”
For the gingerbread:
1 egg
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons orange juice
1 cup molasses
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/8 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
For the bread pudding soak:
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups half-and-half
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 vanilla bean
6 egg yolks
To prepare the gingerbread: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9-by-13-inch cake pan. In a mixing bowl, preferably with a whisk attachment, whip the egg and sugar until light and fluffy. Add sour cream, water and orange juice. Whisk together the molasses and melted butter and beat into the mixture. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg and pepper. Add to the liquid mixture and combine on low speed, then increase speed and beat on high until well incorporated and a little lighter in color. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake until the cake springs back when very lightly touched and is just beginning to pull from the sides of the pan, about 25 minutes. Cool on a rack until the cake is cool enough to handle, then cut into 2-inch squares. Reduce the oven heat to 300 degrees.
To prepare the bread pudding soak: Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, combine the heavy cream, half-and-half and sugar. Split open the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the pot. Add the bean. Heat, stirring occasionally, until steaming. Do not boil. Meanwhile, whisk the yolks together in a small boil. When the cream is hot, remove the pot from the heat. Whisk a little of the hot cream mixture into the yolks until warmed, and then whisk the yolk mixture back into the cream. Pour through a strainer into a large glass measuring cup or a mixing bowl (rinse and dry vanilla bean and reserve for another use).
Bring a kettle of water to boil. Spray a 9-inch baking pan with cooking spray, or line with parchment paper. Stack the gingerbread squares in a double layer, cutting pieces as necessary to fit them all in the pan. Pour the warm bread pudding soak over the gingerbread, allowing it to seep into the edges and cracks.
Place the pan inside a larger pan, and pour hot water into the larger pan until it comes about three-fourths up the side of the bread pudding pan. Bake the pudding in the water bath until firmly set, abut 3 1/2 hours. Serve with Meyer Lemon Curd (recipe below). Serves: 12
Per serving (including lemon curd): 850 calories (percent of calories from fat, 62), 8 grams protein, 74 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram fiber, 60 grams fat (36 grams saturated), 326 milligrams cholesterol, 289 milligrams sodium.
Meyer Lemon Curd
If you can’t find Meyer lemons, don’t worry. The recipe works equally well with regular lemons.
1 cup granulated sugar
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1 egg plus 1 yolk
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
In the top of a double boiler over 1 inch of water, whisk together the sugar, zest, lemon juice, egg and yolk. Cook, stirring regularly, until thickened. Remove from heat and strain into a medium bowl. Slowly whisk in the butter, a few tablespoons at a time, until well incorporated. Serves: 12
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