In the realm of Bellini/ thermal cooker recipes, the following recipe could be considered a cousin of the 30 second orange cake (as the whole lemon is used, skin and all). It’s another David Lebowitz recipe and easily converts to the thermal cooker. The silky lemon topping is divine and its bitterness contrasts beautifully with the rich brittle crust. The original recipe is here. I have made minor changes to the method, which is suitable for making in the Bellini or any other thermal cooker (e.g. Thermomix, ThermoChef, HotMixPro, ThermoBlend etc).

Ingredients

CRUST

• 140g plain flour
• 50g white sugar
• pinch of salt
• 115g butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

LEMON TOPPING

• 1 lemon (approx 180g)
• 200g white sugar
• 3 tablespoons (45g) lemon juice
• 3 large eggs
• 4 teaspoons corn flour
• pinch of salt
• 45g butter

Blade/s: Chopping

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Line a lamington tin (23cm square) with baking paper.

CRUST

3. Add 115g butter to the jug. Cook at 100C, Sp2 for 1min 30 sec.

4. Add all other crust ingredients to the jug. Mix on Sp1 for 20 sec.

5. Dollop the crust mixture into the lined lamington tin. Use your fingers to push it flat, making sure it goes all the way to the edges. It’s very thin and seems to barely cover the tin, but this is correct.

6. Put the pan in the oven and bake for about 25mins or until golden brown. While it is baking, make the lemon topping.

LEMON TOPPING

7. Add the 45g of butter to the jug. Cook on Sp2, 100C for 2 min.

8. Cut off the thicker skin on the top and bottom of the lemon. Cut the lemon into quarters. Remove any visible seeds. Add to the jug (n.b. in the picture below, there’s no butter in this jug because I forgot to melt it before doing the lemons. So just pretend it’s there).

9. Chop the lemons on Sp8 for 8 sec. Scrape down.

10. Add eggs and mix at Sp1, 37C for 1 min (this will warm your eggs to room temp. If you are organised and actually had them at room temp, then you can skip this step and add them with all the other ingredients in Step 10).

11. Add all the other lemon topping ingredients. Blitz on Sp7 for 15 sec then Sp9 for 15 sec. The mixture should be almost smooth.

12. When the crust is cooked, remove it from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 150C. Pour the lemon topping onto the hot crust and place it back in the oven for 25 min (n.b. mine was ready at 18 min but I may have a hot oven as others reported that it took longer). Check if it is cooked by very gently shaking the pan: if the filling doesn’t jiggle, then it’s set.

13. Leave it to cool completely in the pan. Gently lift the baking paper and slide the slice onto a chopping board. Cut into squares and dust with icing sugar.