Chef Thomas
Apple Charlotte
Buttered bread baked to a deep mahogany around a filling of spiced Bramley apples, turned out at the table in a small moment of drama, cold cream poured from a jug alongside.
Culinary Explorer
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Lemon Syllabub
Created by Chef Thomas
A pale, billowy cloud of cream whipped with white wine and lemon, cold and boozy and old-fashioned, the kind of pudding you spoon slowly and wish you'd made twice as much of.
Desserts
British
Dinner Party
Special Occasion
15 min
Active Time
0 min cook•PT15M plus overnight infusing and chilling total
Yield6 small glasses
There's a point, after a long supper on a warm evening, when nothing heavy will do. You want something cold. Something that feels like a pause. Lemons and cream and a splash of wine, whipped into a pale, billowy cloud and spooned into little glasses. That's syllabub.
It's a Tudor pudding, which is to say people have been making it for five hundred years because it works. The lemon and the wine cut through the cream so it never feels heavy, just cold and soft and faintly boozy, like the taste of a summer afternoon you didn't want to end. There's almost nothing to it. You infuse the wine with lemon zest and sugar, pour in the cream, whisk until it holds, and that's dinner finished.
I make it most in July, when the evenings stretch out and a proper baked pudding feels like too much to ask of anyone. But it's the sort of thing you can pull together any time of year when you need something that feels deliberate without demanding much of you. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract. Spoon it into whatever small glasses you have. Put them on the table cold, straight from the fridge, with a plate of shortbread or a few raspberries if the market had them. We're only making dinner.
I wrote it down in the notebook years ago: lemon, wine, cream, summer. It didn't need more than that.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
unwaxed lemons
Quantity
2
zested and juiced
dry white wine
Quantity
75ml
brandy (optional)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
caster sugar
Quantity
60g
double cream
Quantity
300ml
cold from the fridge
lemon zest (optional)
Quantity
a little extra
to finish
shortbread (optional)
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| unwaxed lemonszested and juiced | 2 |
| dry white wine | 75ml |
| brandy (optional) | 2 tablespoons |
| caster sugar | 60g |
| double creamcold from the fridge | 300ml |
| lemon zest (optional)to finish | a little extra |
| shortbread (optional) | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Large mixing bowl
- •Fine grater or microplane
- •Balloon whisk or electric hand whisk
- •Fine sieve (optional)
- •6 small glasses or coupes
Instructions
- 1
Infuse the wine
Zest the lemons straight into a bowl, then squeeze in their juice. Pour in the wine and the brandy if you're using it, add the sugar, and stir until the sugar has mostly dissolved. Cover and leave somewhere cool for at least an hour, overnight if you can manage it. The wine takes on the perfume of the lemon and softens into something altogether more interesting than the sum of its parts.
Unwaxed lemons matter here. You're eating the zest, and there's nowhere for a waxy supermarket coating to hide in a pudding this pale and simple. - 2
Strain if you like
If you want a smooth syllabub, strain the infused wine through a fine sieve into a large mixing bowl and press the zest to get every drop. If you'd rather leave some of the zest in for a bit of texture and a sharper perfume, leave it. Your kitchen, your rules.
- 3
Whisk in the cream
Pour the cold cream into the bowl with the wine mixture. Whisk slowly at first so it doesn't splash, then build up. Keep going until the cream holds soft, lazy peaks and falls from the whisk in slow folds. This is the moment you have to pay attention. Syllabub goes from cloud to grainy and split in about ten seconds flat. Stop while it still moves.
Trust your eyes more than your arm. The moment the whisk starts to leave a proper trail behind it and the cream looks billowy rather than floppy, you're there. Walk away. - 4
Spoon into glasses
Spoon the syllabub into small glasses. Coupes, wine glasses, whatever you have. Small is the point. Rich and cold, a little goes a long way. Cover loosely and chill for at least an hour so it firms up and the flavours settle into each other.
- 5
Serve cold
Take the glasses straight from the fridge to the table. Grate a little more lemon zest over the top of each one, a pale yellow scattering against the cream. A piece of shortbread on the side if you have it, for something to dip in. Nothing else. This is a pudding that knows what it is.
Chef Tips
- •The wine matters. A decent dry white works beautifully, but if you want to lean into the old-fashioned sweetness of a proper syllabub, a small glass of Sauternes or a good dessert wine will take it somewhere lovely. Don't use anything you wouldn't drink.
- •Overwhipping is the one thing that ruins it. The moment the cream starts to look grainy or dull instead of glossy, you've gone too far. Stop while it's still soft and moving. You can always whisk a few more strokes. You can't unwhisk.
- •Small glasses. I mean it. This is a rich pudding and a big serving feels like a chore halfway through. Half a teacup's worth is plenty, and leaves people wanting a second spoonful, which is always better than leaving them defeated.
- •If you're serving it at a dinner party, make the infusion the night before. All you'll have left to do on the day is whip in the cream, and five minutes of work before pudding feels like no work at all.
Advance Preparation
- •Infuse the wine with the lemon and sugar the night before. It takes two minutes and the flavour is noticeably better for the wait.
- •Once whipped and spooned into glasses, syllabub keeps well in the fridge for up to a day. It may separate slightly at the base as it sits, which is traditional and nothing to worry about. Some old recipes count the clear, lemony liquid underneath as part of the pleasure.
- •Don't whip the cream more than a few hours ahead if you want the lightest texture. Morning for evening is fine.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 135g)
Calories
305 calories
Total Fat
25 g
Saturated Fat
15 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
9 g
Cholesterol
85 mg
Sodium
15 mg
Total Carbohydrates
13 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
12 g
Protein
1 g
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