Ooey-gooey molten Meyer lemon lava goodness...oh, yeah, babe. Here is Emeril's true genius at work. These babies are in the kitchen screaming warm ooey-gooey we've got you reduced to baby talk goodness. I will make this recipe again. I like lemons, I like lemon pudding...then they put it in cake, and bake it in a water bath. Now I see how they make chocolate lava cakes.
There was a challenge-there is always a challenge. Where in the world am I going to find Meyer Lemons? Not lemons, not any old lemon, not a farmer's market lemon, when all the farmer's markets are closed when I come home, but a Meyer lemon, one the Chinese crossed with a mandarin orange and got a better flavor and less acid. Where? I checked the health food store, I checked Meijer. I checked Witbeck's. I wondered and I pondered. Then I checked Meijer produce again, near the grapefruit, I needed ruby red for another recipe coming up. And in the single grapefruits and organic citrus, I found bags of 6 Meyer Lemons, and they did not entirely break my budget. 3 Cheers for reasonably affordable Meyer lemons!
So, tonight I creamed butter and sugar and zested six small Meyer Lemons that should have been zested six days ago, or left in the fridge until I really was going to make them;-). Then I laboriously separated the eggs one at a time and added the yolks to creamed mix. Then I added flour and most of the rest of what I needed to add.
Note for egg whites: Wash and dry bowl thoroughly and carefully before use, do not touch inside of bowl with hand. I only touched the edge. Keep all shells and yolks out of the egg whites, use clean and dry spoon or fork to remove egg shells. If any other debris gets in, especially yolk or oil, set aside for egg white omelet and start over. Eggs are very picky about forming stiff peaks. So I washed and dried my beaters, and took a deep breath after fishing out the egg shell with a spoon, and hoped I wasn't too interrupted. Then I proceeded to drop the beaters in set my mixer to 1. I got cloudy egg whites, then wondered at it for half a second, then proceeded to foamy, and wondered at it, keeping beaters in. This was my first time, that I recall. (I may have tried this before but with not much luck, so I gave in and used beaten egg whites.) I pulled the beaters up for a 1/4 of a second and put them back in when I didn't see any attempt at peaking. Then I started getting really foamy, then something cloudy and fluffy again. And when I thought I might be there, I gingerly pulled up the beaters and had peaks standing with points at attention! YES! I got lucky, damned lucky! I was so happy not to have to separate more eggs and do this again.
To my best friend, Andrea, I thank you for calling me Sunday to ask me about this, so that I figured out what I needed to in order to do this right.
Then I took the egg whites with stiff peaks and folded them into the egg yolk creamy mixture. As soon as I checked the recipe, I realized I forgot the buttermilk. I added the buttermilk and almost grabbed the mixer. Then I re-read, Do not overmix. i stuck to the spatula and mixed the buttermilk in carefully but as fully as possible.
Then I poured the batter into six cute little ramekins, and gave them a 1/2 way up the side water bath. I looked at the oven I was supposed to put them in, and realized the oven was not preheated. Oops. That's a quick fix. Turned oven on to bake, came back in five minutes and said warm enough. Then I baked them for 35-40 minutes. And dug the spoon in before I pulled any ramekins out to cool.
I will definitely make this recipe again, probably this weekend. I think I have a new favorite crave-worthy food. And drat, damn Emeril, there goes the diet, again!
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