lemons!

A few weeks ago on a rainy, yucky day, this showed up on my door step:

Fresh lemons. Straight from California and courtesy of my wonderful friend Sarah. They smelled so good. I got to work right away, starting with lemon pudding cakes and lemon crinkle cookies.

The lemon pudding cakes were amazing. Light and fluffy with a delicious lemon custard surprise in the bottom. And low in calories!


Lemon Pudding Cakes
(from Everyday Food Magazine)

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more, room temperature, for ramekins
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, plus 1/3 cup lemon juice (from 2 lemons)
• 1 1/4 cups whole milk
• Confectioners' sugar, for serving

 Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter eight 6-ounce ramekins or a 2-quart baking dish. Set in a shallow baking pan. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks with 1/2 cup granulated sugar until pale and smooth. Whisk in butter, lemon zest and juice, milk, and flour mixture.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat egg whites with 1/4 cup granulated sugar until stiff peaks form, 5 minutes; fold into batter. With a ladle, divide batter among ramekins, keeping sides clean. Pour enough hot water into baking pan to come halfway up sides of ramekins. Bake until cakes are puffed and slightly golden on top, 30 minutes*. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve immediately.

The lemon crinkle cookie recipe was floating around on Pinterest. It can be found here.

Oliver was a huge fan of the lemon pudding cakes.

Lemon Bars were a must.

Double Lemon Bars
(Bon Appetit, 1991)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon all purpose flour
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour and 1/2 cup powdered sugar in large bowl. Add butter and cut in until mixture resembles coarse meal. Press mixture into bottom of 9x13x2-inch baking dish. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven. Maintain oven temperature.

Beat eggs, 1 1/2 cups sugar, lemon juice, 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon flour and lemon peel in medium bowl to blend. Pour into crust. Bake until mixture is set, about 20 minutes. Cool.
Cut into 24 bars. Sift powdered sugar over top before serving.

I finally tried making my own lemon curd. And it was a cinch! I was so pleased with the results. And also pleased that I had the perfect use for these jars I found at the Crate & Barrel outlet. 

Lemon Curd
(from Stephmodo)

1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 6-8 large lemons)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon zest
1 cup sugar
6 large eggs
1 1/2 sticks unsalted cold butter (12 Tblsp), cut into chunks

Zest lemons and set aside. Halve lemons and juice. Whisk together juice, zest, sugar and eggs in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Cook over medium low heat for about one minute. Then slowly add bits of chilled butter, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of a whisk and the first bubble appears on the surface (about 5-6 minutes).

Press curd through a large sieve into a shallow casserole dish (a 9×13 Pyrex works well). Cover the surface with plastic wrap to keep a film from forming on the surface of the curd. Chill overnight or for 8 hours before serving. Makes two half pints.

This lemon yogurt cake was delicious and moist. And extra good with some lemon curd spread on top.

Lemon Yogurt Cake
(from Ina Garten)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt

1 1/3 cups sugar, divided

3 extra-large eggs

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the glaze:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 350*. Grease an 8 1/2 X 4 /14 X 2 1/2 inch loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into one bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool. For the glaze, combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

Makes 1 Loaf

We also used the lemon curd on crepes.

Sarah introduced me to the best ebelskiver recipe a few years ago. Lemon mascarpone ebelskivers. Another excellent use of the lemon curd. And if you don't have an ebelskiver pan, just mix lemon curd and mascarpone together and you'll have an amazing dip for fruit, or your fingers.

We had to sneak some nutella into a few ebelskivers too.

Thank you, Sarah, for making our week a little bit brighter and far more delicious!

Blueberries and Lemon

I'm sure the few people that actually look at this blog lost interest long ago. Spring came and I abandoned a lot of crafting and baking and blog updating for adventures outside. But here is an attempt at returning.

I made some desserts for a baby shower a few weeks ago that turned out really yummy.

I saw these cobblers baked in jars at Not Martha and thought they would be really fun to try. I pretty much followed her directions, but I couldn't find the wide mouth jars. Mine were the same size, just skinnier and taller and they seemed to work just fine. I made my own labels to fit in with a girl baby shower.

Here they are right out of the oven. They smelled so good:


There is something really cute and satisfying about individual little jars of desserts:



(They are extra good with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream dropped inside when you're ready to eat.)

The directions for making the cobbler in jars can be found here.

(Next up...I'm going to make cupcakes in a jar.)

I thought not everyone would like blueberries so I also made some lemon cupcakes. I was really happy with this recipe that I found through Stephmodo. The combination of the cupcake and the frosting was perfect. Definitely try this recipe if you like lemon. I didn't attempt the candied lemon peel, but maybe next time. A simple raspberry on top did the trick.