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Dessert

Lemon Custard Pastry Cups

A pastry cup filled with lemon custard, baked and broiled, then chilled and dusted with icing sugar.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Lemon Custard Pastry Cups

12 pastries
Oven425°F
Time10 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the shells

  1. Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C).

  2. Roll half the dough out to a 14×10-inch rectangle. Use a 4½-inch round cookie cutter to cut circles.

  3. Press the dough circles into 12 muffin cups. Line each with foil, then fill with pie weights. Freeze about 15 minutes.

  4. Bake pastry shells in the bottom third of the oven for 10 minutes. Remove foil and weights; let cool for 10 minutes.

Make the custard

  1. Meanwhile, in a microwaveable bowl, whisk together cream, flour, egg yolks, sugar, and lemon zest. Microwave at medium for about 8 minutes, or until it reaches the consistency of pudding, whisking every minute or so.

  2. Strain pudding into a bowl; let cool for 5 minutes.

Fill and serve

  1. Pour pudding into shells. Broil 6 inches from the heat source for 3 minutes. Let cool on rack for 15 minutes.

  2. Remove pastries from pan, and refrigerate for about 4 hours.

  3. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

645Calories
20 gProtein
12 gFat
112 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Pastrynot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Bakes into flaky, crisp layers that hold the custard in each cup.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream mixture into a set, smooth custard as they cook.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the custard a silky texture.
All-purpose flour
Stabilises the custard so it thickens further and holds its shape when chilled.
White granulated sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps it set smoothly.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard in the microwave. Egg yolks can curdle if overheated. Cooking at medium power and whisking often keeps the custard smooth, and straining removes any lumps that form.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, flour, egg, sugar):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, flour, egg, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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