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When you keep chickens for eggs, you need to have a lot of recipes that call for eggs.

These are “the girls” at the Barb’s Cottage in the spring of 2011–Dottie & Hattie, Prissy & Sissy.  Sadly, we lost Dottie, the hen on the far left, during the 2011 summer drought. But even three hens lay quite a few eggs (an average of two a day), so, in addition to giving eggs to friends and visitors here at the cottage, I make pudding fairly often.

I got one of my favorite pudding recipes when visiting my daughter Patti in England years ago. She whipped up a pudding that I fell in love with: Jamie Oliver’s King of Puddings.

I have been playing with Jamie’s recipe for years. For example, I use lemon curd for the jam. I also omit the bread crumbs and add cream cheese to the egg mixture, an idea I got from the Food Network show, “The Best Thing I Ever Ate.” My recipe is called Queen of Puddings.

Queen of Puddings from Barb’s Cottage

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and butter the bottom of a 2-quart baking dish. Avoid getting butter on the sides of the dish—you want the egg whites to stick there.

Put the Half & Half, ½ cup sugar, lemon rind, & salt into a heavy saucepan and heat to scalding. Stir until sugar is dissolved & remove from heat. Let cool slightly & strain to remove lemon rind. Put on a kettle of water to boil—you’ll need it later.

Beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add egg yolks, one at a time while beating. Scrape beaters & then whole eggs, one at a time.

While stirring the egg mixture, ladle in a scoop of the strained, cooled Half & Half mixture, tempering the eggs. Ladle in several more scoops before combining the two mixtures. Add vanilla and mix well.

Pour custard into the buttered baking dish, and place into a larger dish. Pour boiling water into the larger pan and carefully put into the oven. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour, or until set at the edges. Begin making the meringue right before the pudding is done.

In a heavy saucepan, heat ¼ cup water and ¼ cup sugar, stirring, until boiling. Lower heat and continue cooking, without stirring, as most of the water cooks away. Set the sugar syrup aside. Whisk the egg whites until beginning to stiffen with an electric mixer. Add cream of tartar, and continue beating. Very slowly add the sugar syrup. Beat until stiff peaks form. Set aside while you spread the lemon curd (directions below).

Remove custard from the oven and raise the temperature to 425.

Gently warm the lemon curd (or other jam) in the microwave with the 2 tablespoons of water, and drizzle onto top of the pudding. Pile the meringue over the jam, spreading to seal the edges. Bake another 5-6 minutes in the hot oven, until the meringue is lightly browned.

Barb & Hattie “Ymmmm… Enjoy!