Florida {Lemon + Coconut} Pie

Being a Florida girl (you can read a post of my memories of Miami as a child here), Florida pie is Key lime pie. I am a true Key lime snob (I won't bore you with another Key lime rant). I'm fresh out of limes (our little tree wasn't very productive this year) but I did have a ton of Meyer lemons, so I used the last of them on this pie, which is a cross between coconut cream and lime (or lemon in my case).

I haven't been a huge fan of the other combination pies in Baking from My Home to Yours, so I was hoping this one would be different. The coconut cream (a combination of heavy cream and shredded coconut that is boiled until it reduces by half) looked and smelled heavenly.

The finished pie is good, though because I used lemon (and low acidity lemons at that), it wasn't quite tart enough for my taste. I liked the coconut layer, but I would chop the coconut next time rather than using it out of the bag. I think it would make it less stringy to eat that way. The recipe calls for a meringue topping, but I skipped it. I thought the pie would appeal to my tasters (and us) without it, and it did.

And speaking of tasters, I had every intention taking this one to work, but it kept getting whittled away until it was obvious it wasn't going anywhere. Since it's stored in the freezer, it's an excellent keeper. If you'd like to give it a try, you can find the recipe here.

Perfection Pound Cake and Lemon Curd

Whenever I hear a claim of perfection in a recipe, I get concerned. That means it's been tested and loved by many, and the off chance that someone can screw it up looms over me. My kitchen takes on a dingy hue, no, wait, the kitchen lights are on the dimmer. Scratch that. But it makes me leery of A. failure and B. disappointment.

I wouldn't say this pound cake was a failure, but I was a teensy bit disappointed. I've been to the oven with a pound cake or two, tried probably a dozen recipes, and the one I return to is Rose Levy Beranbaum's from The Cake Bible. That pound cake is moist with the finest crumb. Maybe this was operator error.

In fairness, Dorie says for best texture, wrap the cake up and put it away for a day. I didn't do that, and it may have made a difference. I also didn't add the eggs one at a time and beat well before adding the next egg. I had broken two of the yolks when cracking the eggs and three eggs fell into the bowl at the same time. See what I mean about operator error?

I used cake flour, hoping for a nice crumb but I'm not sure it made any difference. The outside was crisp, and the inside soft, but it was just a plain cake. That's why I made lemon curd to go with it. And brown sugar caramel, but I'll make that for you another time.

I was thrilled to win the latest Cook's Illustrated cookbook in a giveaway on Tracey's Culinary Adventures (thanks, Tracey!). It's a huge book, and it's been sitting on my counter asking to be used since it arrived. I cracked it open and found the lemon curd, perfect because I had a bag of Meyer lemons from my friend's huge tree. If you'd like the recipe for it, you can find it here on the Cook's Illustrated website (you'll have to sign up for a 15 day free trial, but the lemon curd is worth the trouble!)

If you're still test driving pound cake recipes, this is a good one to try (you can find the recipe here). I have a limited attention span with things that are plain, perfect or not, so it's a tough sell for me. Nonetheless, I did mark off another recipe in my quest to bake all the recipes in Baking From My Home to Yours. Score!

Programming note: If you check back around February 1st, I'm going to have a cake that will amaze you and is a lot of fun to make. In a very tortured way that leads to a lot of dishes.

Lemon Cheesecake Bars

My recent windfall of Meyer lemons paid another dividend when I decided to adapt a recipe I originally saw on Tracey's Culinary Adventures. Tracey made hers with caramel but they were screaming to me to be the destination for my leftover lemon curd.

The recipe is from Alice Medrich's book Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy, which I own, but as with so many of my cookbooks I needed Tracey to point me to the right recipe. This is one of my favorite crust recipes, more like a thick batter that you spread in the pan rather than struggling with crumbly pastry. I use a piece of plastic wrap to tease it into place.

For me, cheesecake and lemon are a natural together as so many classic cheesecake recipes call for lemon zest. These bars, with their easy crust and no nonsense filling, are super simple. With the lemon curd swirled in they were delicious. The lemon was a lovely surprise in the creamy filling, with the crisp, buttery crust coming together in the perfect bite.

Lemon Cheesecake Bars - adapted from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy, thanks to Tracey
Printer-friendly recipe

Crust
14 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and still warm
1/2 cup (3.5 oz) sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups (9 oz) all-purpose flour

Filling
1 cup lemon curd (homemade or jarred)
1 1/2 lbs cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup (1.75 oz) sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon Fiore di Sicilia (optional)
2 large eggs, at room temperature

To make the crust: Preheat oven to 350 F with a rack in the lower third of the oven. Line a 13x9 baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang so you can lift the bars out after they've baked. If using foil, spray it with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine the melted butter, sugar, vanilla and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the flour until just incorporated - the mixture will be soft, that's fine. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking pan and press into an even layer on the bottom of the pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. Let cool completely. Turn the oven down to 325 F.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese on medium speed until smooth, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl then add the sugar and vanilla, beating until smooth and creamy, about 1-2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating just until incorporated and scraping down the sides of the bowl in between. Pour the cheesecake batter over the cooled crust and spread evenly.

Dollop the lemon curd over the filling. Use a knife to gently swirl the lemon curd into the cheesecake mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges are puffed and the center is just barely set.

Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let come to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably 24. Use the sling to lift the bars out of the pan and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into squares with a long sharp knife. The bars can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days. Mine weren't in an airtight container and they cracked but were still delicious.

Lemon Curd Ice Cream

I've been doing a lot of lemon desserts since a friend at work gave me a bunch of her ginormous end-of-crop Meyer lemons. They sat in my fridge for a couple of weeks before I decided what I wanted to make with them, but I've been making up for lost time ever since.

I started by making lemon curd using my favorite recipe (you can find it here). I made a double recipe, so I had plenty of luscious lemon curd to play with. First up were lemon curd scones and now this ice cream.

Some people confine ice cream to the warmer months (I lean in this direction myself), but others enjoy it year round. That's great news since lemons are a winter fruit and it would be a shame to miss out on this ice cream because the seasons don't cooperate with the fruit.

This ice cream starts with a basic custard, to which you add lemon curd. Yowza, how great does that sound? I doubled the amount of lemon curd since what is lemon curd but a custard with lemon in it, and what is vanilla ice cream but a custard? The mad scientist in me thought of dumping the entire bowl of lemon curd in the ice cream maker but I resisted. Maybe next time.

I heard about this ice cream from some of my Twitter buddies. Kayte was almost in a state of rapture (she L-O-V-E-S lemon). I read Tracey's post about it, and she loved it, then Margaret raved about it. Three for three, so I simply had to make it, even though fall weather had definitely arrived.

When I made it, I didn't read the recipe before I made it and thought it was a typo that the cream wasn't added with the milk, so I tossed it in too. So I missed the part of the recipe where you're supposed to whip the cream and add it to the chilled custard. And it was so fabulous that I'll do it exactly the same way next time I make it. I can't imagine it being any lighter or creamier.

The true test of how good this was is that we have chocolate gelatto in the freezer, and this lemon ice cream is the one we go for every time. Yes, it's that good.

Lemon Curd Ice Cream (adapted from Murphy's Ice Cream Book of Sweet Things by way of Tracey's Culinary Adventures)

Printer-friendly recipe

2/3 cup/130 g sugar
5 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup lemon curd
zest of one lemon

Bring the milk and cream to a low simmer in a saucepan. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale yellow. Temper the eggs by pouring in the milk in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly.

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and place over low heat. Stir continuously until the custard thickens slightly and just coats the back of a spoon (about 170 F). Immediately remove pan from the heat.

Add the lemon curd and lemon zest to the warm custard, stirring to incorporate fully. Cover the custard with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Remove the custard from the refrigerator and strain it to remove the lemon zest (unless you like it in there). Churn mixture in ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. The ice cream will still be fairly soft after churning so transfer it to a freezer-proof container and freeze until solid.

Lemon Curd Scones

The old saying that necessity is the mother of invention was definitely at work for these scones. Inspired by my favorite DISCONTINUED scone at Peet's Coffee, they make use of that extra lemon curd lurking in your fridge. What, you don't have a problem with leftover lemon curd taking up valuable space? Me neither, which is why I made my go-to recipe (you can find it here) the night before I made these, but a good quality jarred lemon curd would be just fine.

My favorite Peet's lemon scone had a lemon icing, which I made, but I served some with a dollop of lemon curd instead. They were yummy and lemony without being too sweet. For me, the secret of a good drizzle is to cut out as much sugar as possible. I hate it when the taste of the sugar overtakes the flavor of the lemon.

Things you should know if you make these:

• Flour your board (or counter) liberally as the dough is VERY wet and sticky.
• I use Ina Garten's mixer method to mix my scones, but you could use a pastry blender, two forks or your fingers if you prefer.
• Don't mix the dough until it's combined, stop when it still looks a little clumpy and floury. 
• Use a bowl scraper to transfer the dough to your WELL FLOURED work surface. Then flour the bowl scraper and use it to press the dough into a circle that's about 1 1/2 inches thick.
• I like to cut my scones with a 2" biscuit cutter (flour it before each cut) but you can cut your dough into wedges if you like triangular scones (I find the triangular ones too large).
• Brush the scones with a little cream before baking for a nicer finish, but that's unnecessary if you glaze them.

Lemon Curd Scones
Printer-friendly recipe

1 egg
1/3 cup cream

1/2 cup lemon curd
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small cubes

Extra cream for brushing (optional)

Lemon glaze (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, a silicon baking mat, or butter it lightly. Set aside.

In large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together and set aside.

In a small mixing bowl or 2 cup measure, beat together the egg, cream and lemon curd and set aside.

Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, drop the butter into the flour mixture and mix on low speed until the mixture resembles a combination of oat flakes and pea-sized pieces of butter. Still on low speed, pour in the liquid mixture and mix until flour is mostly worked in. Turn off mixer, and with a few swipes of a spatula, mix in any flour remaining on the bottom of the bowl. Dough will be very wet!

Flour a counter liberally and coax your dough onto the floured surface (a plastic bowl scraper is ideal for this). Flour your hands and/or the bowl scraper, and gently pat the mound into a somewhat cohesive disk about 1 1/2" high. Flour a 2" biscuit cutter and cut out scones, flouring your biscuit cutter before each cut. Place each on the prepared baking sheet. Brush with cream if desired.

Bake the scones for about 20 minutes (check after 18 minutes if your oven runs hot), until they are nicely browned. When cool, spoon on the glaze and serve immediately.

Lemon Glaze

Juice of 1 lemon

Approximately 2 cups of powdered sugar

Combine lemon juice and 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar in a bowl, stirring and mashing any lumps until the glaze is smooth. Add additional powdered sugar to get the desired consistency. Set aside until scones have cooled, then spoon on to scones.

Lemony Cornmeal Shortbread

One thing I've learned as a member of Tuesdays with Dorie is to expect the unexpected. Even if I think I know how a recipe will taste, this isn't always the case. Take this week's pick, cornmeal shortbread cookies, picked by Valerie of Une Gamine dans la Cuisine. My last experience with cornmeal in cookies was with these biscotti, which I made when I first joined the group. I was still pretty clueless, I just didn't know it.

The crunchiness of the cornmeal in the biscotti was texturally challenging for me, and this time I wanted to overcome that issue. So I made the dough two days ago and let it rest - and hydrate - in the fridge. I rolled it a little too thin, and baked the cookies a little too long, but they were delicious. The lemon zest lent a lovely floral back note. The cornmeal added a pleasant crunch without being distractingly hard, a real win-win.

If you'd like to make these unusual cookies, Valerie has the recipe (and cookies look the way Dorie intended!) for you here. And you can see what the other TWD bakers thought by checking them out here.

Wheat Berry Salad

When you're as big a fan of chocolate and cookies as I am, you need to eat a healthy meal that reverses the effects of too many brownies. I can always count on recipes from Ellie Krieger to be delicious in a way that "healthy" becomes an afterthought. That's what I had in mind this week when I made this because this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe was chosen by me!

I love wheat berries and yet I'd never prepared them at home. The preparation is easy - cover with water and boil for about an hour.

I changed up the recipe a bit, substituting toasted pine nuts for the walnuts, cilantro instead of parsley (which I hate), and I added some chopped red bell pepper for color. This one needed a lot of tinkering, which may be a result of using 1 3/4 cups of wheat berries because that's how much I bought.

Here are a few suggestions:

• When making this recipe, you can do as I did and cook the wheat berries one day and assemble the salad the next.
• I salted the water the wheat berries cooked in. One thing I've learned from making Ellie's recipes is that they always need salt -  and I'm not a food salter.
• My dried cherries weren't old but they weren't as soft as I wanted. You could substitute chopped dried apricots, quartered grapes or diced mango for a completely different twist.
• If you have walnut oil, it would be a great substitution for the olive oil if you're using walnuts.
• Speaking of the walnuts, toast them in the oven or in a skillet. It will intensify the flavor.
• The completed salad needed a lot of seasoning. And more lemon juice. An maybe a tiny clove of garlic smashed into a paste and combined with the oil and lemon juice before adding to the salad. Or 1/2 teaspoon of curry powder or smoked Spanish paprika. 

Can you tell I found this a little lacking in flavor? Sad but true, this one was a little boring for me. I'll probably play around with it before I serve it for dinner tonight, just because it needs something else to keep from being blah. If you'd like to see what my fellow Ellie cooks thought, you can find them here.

Wheat Berry Salad - serves 6
1 1/2 cups hard wheat berries
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (I used pine nuts)
2 stalks celery, finely chopped

1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup tart dried cherries, chopped
1 scallion, white and green parts, chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley leaves (I used cilantro)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice, more to taste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a large pot combine the wheat berries and enough water to come 2 inches over the wheat berries. Bring to a boil and cook uncovered for 1 hour, or until tender. Drain and let cool. Toast the walnuts in a medium dry skillet over medium-high heat until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine the wheat berries, walnuts, celery, dried cherries, scallions, parsley, olive oil and lemon juice. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Per Serving:
Calories 360; Total Fat 17 g; (Sat Fat 2 g, Mono Fat 6 g, Poly Fat 8 g) ; Protein 9 g; Carb 46 g; Fiber 8 g; Cholesterol 0 mg; Sodium 15 mg

Excellent source of: Fiber, Vitamin K, Manganese

Citrus Currant Sunshine Muffins

What, no chocolate?

It happens. I've been making Meyer lemon bars and corn muffins and this savory bread, but nary a decadent chocolate recipe. Fear not. I haven't forsaken chocolate. But in the spring (or after an entire week of chocolate), my thoughts turn to fruits and vegetables and I really want it to be spring. So this week I'm willing it to be spring with this aptly named, sunny muffin.

The sunshine in this muffin refers to the generous amount of orange juice, supplemented with a touch of lemon to make it extra perky. I was prepared to be meh about these, but they were actually quite nice. One secret I can share with you is using butter to grease the muffin tins. This made the outsides crunchy, which was a perfect counterpoint to the orangy middles. I know using paper liners is easier, but the crunchy crust stole the show for me. The currants were nice, but don't make a special trip to Whole Foods as I did. Dried cranberries or chopped dried cherries would be lovely as well. I also toyed with chopped crystalized ginger, but that would take these in an entirely different direction.

Lauryn of Bella Baker chose this recipe for the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers to make this week. It's from the epic book Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. Lauryn will have the recipe for you (I just realized I overbaked mine when I saw her lovely muffins), and you can find the other TWD bakers here. Thanks, Lauryn, for choosing a recipe so evocative of the warmer weather we're all hoping for.

Meyer Lemon Bars

I wish I had a better photo of these for you but they disappeared faster than I could snap the photo.

This week, Mary at The Food Librarian declared this lemon week, which I discovered when I checked in with my Twitter buddies. I made these earlier in the week but it was a hectic week at work and I couldn't get this post written.

My very favorite lemon bar recipe is from Cook's Illustrated, which I usually make with Meyer lemons from a friend's tree. Meyer lemons, with their floral fragrance and sweet/tart flavor, make great lemon bars. Lemon bars are not that hard to make, but the crust is critical. It needs to be firm enough to support the lemon curd and hold together when you take a bite but tender enough to eat without breaking a tooth. These lemon bars will make you realize that the ones you buy at your local coffee shop are not the real deal.

Meyer Lemon Bars - adapted from Cook's Illustrated by way of Leite's Culinaria

Printer friendly recipe
For the crust:
2 1/2 cups/350 grams all-purpose flour
1 cup/120 grams powdered sugar
1 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces

For the lemon filling:
14 large egg yolks, plus 4 large eggs
2 cups plus 4 tablespoons/425 grams granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups lemon juice from 8-9 Meyer lemons, plus 1/2 cup finely grated zest
Pinch of salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
6 tablespoons/95 grams heavy cream

Powdered sugar, optional

Make the crust:
Spray a 9x13" baking pan with cooking spray. Create a sling with parchment paper  or foil and fit in pan. Spray the sheets with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

Put the flour, powdered sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times. Add the butter and pulse 8 to 10 times, then process until the mixture is pale yellow and resembles coarse meal, about three 1-second pulses. Dump the mixture into the prepared pan and press firmly with your fingers into an even layer in the pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350°F. Bake the crust until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the filling:

Fit a strainer into a nonreactive mixing bowl or 4 cup measuring cup and set aside.

In a medium non-reactive bowl, whisk together the yolks and whole eggs until combined. Rub the lemon zest into the sugar, which brings out more lemon flavor, then add to the eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the lemon juice and salt; whisk until combined. Transfer the mixture to a medium non-reactive saucepan, add the butter pieces, and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula until the curd thickens slightly and registers 170°F on an instant-read thermometer, about 5 minutes. Immediately pour the curd through the strainer into the measuring cup or bowl. Stir in the heavy cream; pour the curd into the warm crust immediately.

Bake until the filling is shiny and opaque and the center 3 inches jiggle slightly when shaken, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Remove the bars from the pan using the sling and transfer to a cutting board. Cut into squares and dust with powdered sugar, if desired.

TWD - Swedish Visiting Cake

I predict that unprecedented numbers of Tuesdays with Dorie bakers will make this one. Why?

1. It's easy
2. It uses ingredients you already have in your pantry
3. It was selected by Nancy at The Dogs Eat the Crumbs

I know I'm not the only blogger who finds Nancy's recipe insights (her n.o.e.'s notes) as valuable as the recipe itself. Nancy has saved me from making mistakes, given me ideas for flavor combinations and inspired me to make substitutions I wouldn't have dared to make. She encouraged me to join the Slow & Steady Subgroup of the Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge and thereby opened the door to my embracing and exploring yeast breads. She urged me to cook from my copy of Ad Hoc at Home, rather than keeping it on a shelf, by telling me how many recipes she's made and that Keller himself encouraged cooks to take the book into the kitchen and get it dirty.

So if Nancy had chosen a recipe that got every bowl, pan, whisk, spatula, and food processor attachment dirty and took three days to complete, I would have made it. But she chose a simple but flavorful cake that was a snap to prepare and had no leavening, enabling our bakers who observe Passover to make this and serve it at their Seders. That is so like Nancy, to always think about others and find ways to include them.

As I said, this recipe came together easily and fit nicely into my 9" cast iron skillet, which I buttered as though my life depended on it. I used a huge lemon off of my tree, and it fragranced the cake beautifully. This was a huge hit at work, though too small for all the 60+ people in the office to have a piece.

I will definitely make this one again, and although this recipe lends itself to many flavor combinations (like grapefruit, orange, lime, mocha, chai), my next version will substitute the scrapings from a vanilla bean and vanilla sugar. See, Nancy was the one who gave me the idea to make vanilla sugar. It seems fitting, doesn't it?

If you'd like to see what the other TWD bakers thought of this one, you'll find them all here. And if you want to give this easy, delicious cake a spin, Nancy will have the recipe here.

Barefoot Bloggers - Individual Meat Loaves and CEiMB - Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo

My blogging/tweeting friend and all-around favorite Indianan Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table chose this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe, Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo. That Kayte chose this recipe didn't surprise me at all since I bet she's made it more than Ellie Krieger herself. She's tweeted many times that she's made it again, and her gang of guys has again demolished it in record time. Many of my Twitter friends have been turned on to this soup based on Kayte's recommendation. So when I saw this was her pick, I couldn't wait to make it.

Things have been rather busy of late, so I oven roasted the chicken breasts the day before I made the soup, and threw together the soup one morning before leaving for work. It's that easy to put this one together, and if you didn't have time to cook your own chicken, you'd get great results from using a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. I had everything I needed to make this one in my pantry (broadly defined to include the refrigerator and freezer), except for the orzo. Since it was Kayte (one of my favorite people), I made a special trip to the store for orzo. But this would be just as good if you used shells or orecchiette, or ditalini, or broken angel hair. I also used homemade chicken stock from the freezer, which would prove to be an aesthetic faux pas.

Ellie's recipe calls for four whole eggs in this soup, and I initially thought it would have chunks of cooked egg floating in the broth, which was a textural turn off for me, and why I never made this soup after Kayte raved about it. But no, you whisk the four beaten eggs with some heated chicken broth, and add this mixture to the soup. It made a creamy soup without the addition of cream. It's these little tricks that make me love Ellie's food.

Even though the recipe didn't call for it, I added the zest of the lemon before juicing it, because more lemon is always better. My only disappointment was my soup ended up looking like a bowl of mud since my homemade stock gave it a brownish tint. But it was the most delicious bowl of mud I've ever had and I'll definitely be making this one again. Thanks, Kayte, for turning me on to this soup!

If you'd like the recipe, you can find it in The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger, or Kayte has it here. And if you're not already visiting her regularly, you need to. She posts delicious recipes and updates on what's going on with her guys. Her son's swim team just won the Indiana State swimming and diving championship. 

*******

Now, this week's Barefoot Bloggers pick.

Meatloaf.

The name doesn't exactly scream "delicious" to me. I would have skipped it but I skipped the second recipe last month (Shrimp Scampi) because I'm allergic to shellfish. So I resolved to make the meatloaf, even if meatloaf is something I don't enjoy. Maybe it's that it's made with beef, and my love of beef ends with the cheeseburger.

So I made my individual meat loaves with ground turkey, and I halved the recipe, because a 10-11 ounce portion per person seemed a little excessive to me. I intended to make them in a muffin tin, but I found a mini loaf pan in my drawer that I'd never used. Perfect!

The most complicated part of this recipe was chopping the onions, which is to say it was super easy. I put it together and baked the little guys off before I went to work. Be careful to combine your ingredients very gently or your meatloaf will be dense. I didn't even pat them into shape, instead, I spooned the ingredients into the tins and smoothed the top a little before putting on the ketchup. Next time I'll try them with barbeque sauce or even May Ploy sauce (sweet chili sauce). I get mine at Safeway, but you can order online. Here's one link.

They reached 160 degrees in 25 minutes in my oven but yours may vary. After they cooled, I popped each in its own Ziploc bag and stuck them in the freezer. We're going to have some nice tasty dinners thanks to this easy, delicious recipe.

Many thanks to Tonya of What's On My Plate for hosting this week. She picked a real winner! If you'd like Ina's recipe, you can find it here. Here is my variation:

Individual Meat Loaves - adapted from Ina Garten

Printable Recipe

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced or put through a garlic press
3/4 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon kosher salt
ground pepper to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons tomato paste
1 1/4 pounds lean (not extra lean!) ground turkey
1/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 - 1/2 cup ketchup, barbecue sauce or May Ploy, to taste

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions, thyme, salt and pepper and saute for 2 minutes. Add garlic and saute until the onions are soft and lightly browned, about 8 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and add Worcestershire, chicken broth and tomato paste. Mix to combine and set aside to cool.

Place ground turkey in a medium bowl and break into chunks with a spoon. Add cooled onion mixture, bread crumbs and egg and mix gently. Don't try to completely mix in the ingredients, you want this to be very loose and soft. Transfer to jumbo muffin tins or mini loaf pans. Depending on the size of your pans, you should get 6-8 mini meat loaves.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until an instant read thermometer inserted in the middle of a meatloaf registers 160 degrees. Serve immediately, or cool slightly before wrapping and refrigerating or freezing.

SMS - Strawberry Lemonade

What could be more evocative of spring than strawberries and suggestive of summer than lemonade? Although we don't get snow here in San Jose, I'm still more than ready to be done with the cold and the rain. And raining and gray it was on the day I made this refreshing drink, this week's Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe, selected for us by Jessica of My Baking Heart.

This was very easy to make. I made my simple syrup in the microwave and didn't bother with straining the solids out of the strawberry puree. It was a tart and sweet treat for a rainy day.

If you'd like the recipe, Jessica has it here. And thanks to Jessica for picking such a great recipe for all of us who are weary of winter.

Sweet Melissa Sundays - Lemon Walnut Sour Cream Pound Cake

Since I was already so far behind in all areas of my life, I decided it was time for another baking group. See, when the Sweet Melissa Sundays group was formed last year, I had no idea who this Melissa person was or what made her so darned special that my favorite bakers/bloggers wanted to make her recipes each week. Then I started seeing what they were making, and much like The Bread Baker's Apprentice event, I regretted not joining once I realized they were close to new members.

Until recently, that is. When I checked again the other day, lo and behold, they were taking new members! I emailed my request to join and ordered the cookbook, and when I found I was in, I got to work making this week's recipe, Lemon Walnut Sour Cream Pound Cake. I've had plain, chocolate, lemon, poppy seed and brown sugar versions of this quintessentially American cake, but never one with nuts. I made it early this morning to take to a gathering, and I made three mini loaves so it would bake more quickly. The recipe was chosen by Raeann of Basically, Baby Boots. I had to read it as a preview on Amazon but it came together quickly. To completely infuse the flavor, I rubbed the lemon zest into the sugar a la Dorie Greenspan. Although Melissa calls for butter and shortening, I only use butter so I used all butter and cut back 1 tablespoon on the sour cream. My mini loaves baked for 35 minutes. After waiting 20 minutes, I brushed on the lemon syrup and hurried out the door.

This pound cake was a huge hit at our gathering. The cake was absolutely delicious, so light and fluffy, and the walnuts gave it a nice crunch to compete with the tart and sweet lemon glaze. I'll make this one again and again, including suggestions I saw on the P&Q--clementines and pecans (Spike Bakes), orange and pecan, and maybe a few other variations. Check out what the other SMS bakers did with this one...you'll find them all here. If you'd like the recipe, Raeann has it here.

To all the Sweet Melissa Sundays bakers who have been working through this wonderful cookbook from the beginning, thank you for letting me join you! I can't wait to delve into this wonderful book...as soon as my copy arrives!

Lemon Rosemary Flatbread

This flatbread is a snap to prepare and is beyond versatile. I found this on Tracey's Culinary Adventures, and made it while tweeting with my Twitter buddy, Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table. Kayte made it with thyme, as did Tracey, but I went with rosemary as that's what I have in the garden. I also used lemon olive oil from my adopted tree, and sprinkled it with fleur de sel.

After combining flour, rosemary, salt and baking powder, you add water and olive oil to form a dough. After dividing the dough in three pieces, you roll out each piece of dough on a piece of parchment, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs and salt. Bake until browned and enjoy!

If you'd like the recipe, you can find it here or here or even here. Once you make it, you'll start thinking of all the ways you can change it up. Go ahead, give it a try!

CEiMB - Half Baked Lemon Bars

I'll admit, I've been a baaad Ellie-ista. It's been weeks since I've participated in Craving Ellie in My Belly, and judging by how my jeans are fitting, that's not a good thing.

So when Amy of Playing House selected Ellie's No-Bake Lemon Bars for this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly post, I resolved to make the recipe. I even intended to make it as written. Then something went terribly wrong. Trader Joe's didn't have plain graham crackers. And I was determined not to go to Safeway. So I bought a container of TJ's low-fat Ginger Cat Cookies. They're like crunchy gingersnaps. I thought they'd go well with the lemon.

I had the other supplies: Cream cheese (not light), sweetened condensed milk (ditto), eggs (not Egg Beaters) and (Meyer) lemons were all ready for the recipe. I had recently made this cheesecake in the food processor, and I liked how easy it was, so I used the FP for this recipe. I just wiped it out after crushing the cookies for the crust. Speaking of the crust, I baked it for 8 minutes and let it cool before pouring the filling in. I just think a pre-baked crust is so much tastier than one that isn't.

The resulting bars were more of a dessert you eat with a spoon than pick up with your hand (unless if you froze it for, say, 20 minutes before serving). But it was tart and creamy, and the ginger crust  was perfect with the tangy lemon cream. My only problem was with the crust. Since Ellie's recipe called for 7 sheets of graham crackers, it was hard for me to figure out how many cookies to use. I used WAY too many cookies, had to add extra butter, and ended up with a bit too much crust, some of which was a little crumbly. Not to worry. Those lovely crumbs pair well with the creamy lemon to make an easy dessert. Thanks, Amy, for a fabulous find from the new cookbook!

Here's my take on the original recipe:

Half Baked Lemon Bars - adapted from So Easy by Ellie Krieger
1 cup cookie crumbs (gingersnaps, Lorna Doones, etc.)
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 pan with cooking spray. Combine the crust ingredients in a bowl and stir until well combined. Pat into the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool on a rack while making the filling.

8 ounces of light cream cheese
14 ounce can fat free sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 cup lemon juice (I used 2 Meyer lemons)
2 teaspoons gelatin
3 tablespoons cold water

Place gelatin and 3 tablespoons cold water in a small bowl; stir until combined and set aside.

Place cream cheese in the bowl of a food processor and process for two minutes. Scrape down bowl and add condensed milk and egg. Process for another minute, then add the lemon zest, juice and gelatin. Process for 30 seconds. Pour mixture into prepared crust. Chill for 8 hours (or overnight) before serving.

NOTE: Ellie's recipe calls for using hot water to bloom the gelatin, but hot water always gives me lumps.

Barefoot Bloggers - Peach Berry Crumble

This recipe is the best part of a food fantasy. It seems healthy, but it's not.

It starts with a goodly volume of fruit, kissed with sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. It's topped with the simplest crumb mixture scented with cinnamon. I doubled the crumb topping, and increased the fruit (I used peaches, cherries, blueberries and blackberries) by about half. The crumb topping melts into the fruit somewhat, so your crumb topping ends up being thinner than you thought it would be. Don't let this worry you at all. The merging of the fruit with the topping, particularly around the edges, creates an unctuous buttery fruit experience... Excuse me. I need a moment to collect myself.

Where was I? Oh yes. I served this crumble as a breakfast treat, and it was a hit. It would have been far better served warm with vanilla ice cream, but ice cream for breakfast seemed a little over the top, especially when you're already eating buttery fruit.

I love Barefoot Bloggers. We make recipes from Ina Garten, and they are consistently some of the best things I cook and bake. They're almost always calorie laden, which is why I resisted her recipes for so long. But they're always good great. This week's recipe was selected by Aggie of Aggie's Kitchen. I love her blog and I encourage you to spend some time there. You can find the recipe here or here. And if you'd like to join us as we cook through Ina's truly delicious recipes, we'd love to have you! You can find out how to join us here.

TWD - The Perfect Lemon Party Cake

It's here! The Perfect Party Cake was finally chosen, by Carol of mix, mix...stir, stir. This is the cake that I looked at again and again in the book and thought "I could never pull off something that looked that good."

I was right.

I made the ugly duckling of Perfect Party Cakes.

Since I cut the recipe in half, I wanted to find a suitable pan to use so I could still make four layers. I knew I wanted this to be a lemon party cake, so I opted for Dorie's lemon cream instead of raspberry preserves. Checking out the volume of the 9" round cake pan, I found that an 8x8 pan has the same volume. This was good news since I could cut the cake in half before dividing the halves to get 4 layers. It would make a nice loaf cake size but without the sloped sides that my loaf pans have. I was confident, enthusiastic, eager to get to baking.

I read and reread the recipe and Dorie's post on Tuesdays with Dorie a few weeks ago. Dorie posted some tips to help us all have successful Perfect Party Cakes. I had all my ingredients at room temperature and was ready to go.

First, I made the lemon cream. It was mostly uneventful, except for the part where Dorie says to strain the curd into the jar of a blender. I must have an excellent strainer, because it didn't let anything, curd or lemon zest, get through, so in frustration I just dumped everything in there and hoped that several minutes of blending at high speed would eliminate any traces of zest.

Later the same day, I started on the genoise. I was so excited because all of my ingredients were measured and at room temperature, and I just knew it was going to be a great baking experience. The genoise came together easily and I tucked it into the prepared 8x8 pan, smoothed the top and popped it in the oven. Since the pan was a little different shape and I didn't want any surprises, I set the timer for 28 minutes (the recipe calls for baking it 30-35 minutes). When the timer went off, I turned on the oven light and saw it had pulled away from the sides of the pan.

Yikes! How could this thing be pulling away from the sides already?!? I yanked it out of the oven, noticing it hardly rose at all. Crushed, despondent and generally experiencing the classic stages of grief (NO! This didn't just happen! Why me? It can't be! This is so unfair!...), I resolved to push on and complete the blasted thing, thinking all the while "THIS is what I do to relax on a Sunday? I mean, really?" Great attitude, huh?

Poor little genoise.

Guess I didn't smooth the batter in the pan so well after all. I set about making the buttercream, which was fairly easy, and a good upper body workout to boot. When it was finished, I looked into the bowl and wondered how on earth I would get that small amount of buttercream to fill and cover the entire cake. I retrieved the lemon cream from the fridge, whisked it like crazy to loosen it up, then sliced open my pathetic little cake.

I had plenty of the lemon cream, not so much of the buttercream, and the ridiculously tiny layers. All went well until I got to the very top layer. Dorie says to place the cut side down, and since my cake was very suntanned when I rescued it from the oven, I had a hard time covering the browning with the light buttercream. By this time, the buttercream was very soft, and every time I took a swipe at it with the offset spatula to fix one area that was showing, I took off a large swath of the frosting in that area. Argh! Finally, I surrendered to the coconut, figuring it's a great concealer.

Immediately, I photographed my homely Imperfect Party Cake and then sat down to enjoy a slice (was it for dinner? pre-dinner? snack?) I was blown away by the wonderful combination of lemon flavors with the different layers of textures. Personally, I thought the coconut detracted from my transcendent lemon experience, so I will leave that off next time.

I had considered making this a chocolate perfect party cake, because if you're talking about perfection and cakes, chocolate's a requirement in my house. But I resisted and I'm glad I did because the lemon was so light and refreshing.

(I must have taken 20 photos of this slice of cake. 18 had that worm-looking thing on the bottom. Why did I not notice this when I was taking the photos??)

I know you're wishing you could kill off a bunch of eggs and butter on a relaxing Sunday afternoon, so you should join us. We're accepting members again, and the best thing is that you get to cook along with some mighty great bakers, from Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home to Yours. Check out the website for more information on joining. We'd love to have you.

TWD - Blueberry (and Candied Apple, and Chocolate Chip) Crumb Cakes

Yes, you read that right. This was the day I lost my mind.

First of all, I promise this won't be a marathon TWD post like last week's Yogurt Cake. Because, truly, I'm exhausted from this week's assignment. Oh, it's an easy cake to put together and all that. But when you're crazy like I am, and the voices in your head refuse to be silenced, it can get a little out of control. Especially when you decide to make all three versions you've been considering. On the same morning. On a weekday. Before work. Let's just say that even if I round down, I was still half an hour late for work.

My three ideas were Dorie's original blueberry, a vanilla bean version with chocolate chips, and one that I'm calling candy apple. I did almost all the prep work the night before, including making a triple batch of the crumb topping. I left the apple prep and making 3 batches of the batter for the morning. My plan was to caramelize the apples in a saute pan with butter and sugar. I have used this technique for apple pies since I read about it in the New York Times several years ago, and I love how the deeply browned apples absorb the cinnamon that is stirred in at the end. Pink Stripes had the same idea and offered it up in the P&Q.





I did the blueberry version first, and it looked like Smurf cake when I put it in the oven. I used frozen berries since fresh really aren't in season yet, and they colored the batter a lot. Mentally, I figured it was good I was making two other cakes since purple isn't the most appetizing color for a crumb cake. Then I sliced and sauteed the apples with butter and sugar and set them aside to cool. For the chocolate chip version, I added the contents of 1/2 a vanilla bean to the batter. I tossed the crumb topping on there and put it in the oven. Lastly, I added the cooled caramelized apples to the batter and put that in a pan, throwing all the remaining crumb mixture on top, smoothing it some and putting it in the oven.



During all of this, the crumb topping mix was sitting out on the counter.

The first cake baked uneventfully for 65 minutes before it tested done. It puffed up uniformly and the crumb topping browned beautifully. Success! When I was fetching it from the oven, I noticed the other two had butter slicks of varying sizes. Uh oh.

It took FOREVER for the chocolate chip version (which had been the second cake to go in the oven) to test done, and by that time, it was overdone. This was distressing, not just because I was late for work, but because the knife kept coming out with wet goo on it when I tested it. I realized that the crumb topping had somehow separated and the butter slick made it seem like the cake wasn't done even though it was. It was the butter slick that wasn't testing done.

We discussed the pool of butter problem on the P&Q, and we're still in the dark about why it happened. I thought leaving the crumb mixture out on the counter meant it wasn't cold enough to set properly, but Barbara took hers out of the fridge and put it on her cake and into the oven immediately, and she had a small pool of butter. So it's a mystery for all you food scientists out there.

After all the drama (less than last week, but still not uneventful), all three cakes were a hit. The chocolate chip version was in the oven for about 85 minutes, so its bottom was a little too brown, but it still got raves (I couldn't really taste the vanilla, so maybe I need to add more). The blueberry was the first to disappear, and the purple color didn't show in the finished product (magic!). The apple was amazing, the caramelization adding both sweetness and bite to the meltingly tender apples. If you'd like to try this version, here's how you do the apples (they're also great on top of vanilla ice cream):

Caramelized apples (adapted from the New York Times)

5 Gala apples, cored, peeled, sliced lengthwise into 6 pieces, each piece sliced crosswise 1/4" thick
4 T butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Melt the butter in a large skillet (not non-stick) over medium heat, then add the apples. Overcrowding the apples will keep them from browning properly. Sprinkle with the sugar and stir to distribute. Cook, stirring only occasionally, until the apples have taken on a deep caramel color. As the apples brown more, they require more attention. If they get a little sticky or the pan seems unusually hot, add a pat of butter. Once the apples are well-browned and tender, remove pan from the heat. Stir in cinnamon. Set aside to cool before adding to the batter.

To use these apples in Dorie's recipe, eliminate the extra 2 teaspoons of flour, the blueberries and the lemon zest. The cinnamon for the apples is in addition to what is called for in the cake.

We have Sihan of Fundamentally-Flawed to thank for this versatile and delicious recipe. Check out what the other TWD bakers did here. I can't wait to see how they interpreted Dorie's recipe!

TWD - French Yogurt Cake

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie pick is French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze. It was Liliana's turn (of My Cookbook Addiction) to pick, and she really hit it out of the park. I proved that is it impossible to mess up this cake, as did a few other bakers, judging by the comments on the P&Q.

I made this recipe twice. The first time, I doubled the recipe as I needed to be able to serve twenty ladies with it. It requires no butter, and mixes in one bowl!! It rose as it baked and looked pretty spectacular. I let it cool five minutes before running my thin knife around the edges and dumping it out of the loaf pan. It didn't want to come, didn't want to come then POP! it came out and landed on the rack. I say came out, but that's not the whole story. Most of it came out. The rest stayed in the pan. Why oh why did I spray not butter as Dorie recommended?

I may have said a bad word at this point. I mean, when will I learn not to start baking at 8:25 on a Sunday night? I oh so carefully extricated the second one with a thin, flexible silicone flipper and pondered my options. I would have to make another cake.

As I was measuring the almond meal, I realized that when I doubled the first recipe, I quadrupled the almond meal. So my first two loaves, even the one I eased out of the pan without incident, weren't going to be fit to eat. I forged on anyway, again doubling the recipe to make two cakes, baked and cooled them and went to bed (it was almost midnight, and the next day would be the first work day after the time change). I figured I would make lemon curd to serve with the cake and all would be well.

I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30 to make lemon curd for the yogurt cake. I had skipped the marmalade glaze as I couldn't find lemon marmalade and I'm not big on orange marmalade. I had exactly enough eggs for a double recipe of lemon curd (this is one of my insanities; I double everything I make for social gatherings). I figured I would use the egg whites to make meringues as a fallback, pick up whipping cream at Safeway on my way home from work, and let the meringues sit in the oven all day while I worked. This is another of my insanities. Time is very elastic in my mind. I have to be at work at 8, and I do have to shower, dress, and drive to the office. Any reasonably sane person knows you're not going to pipe out 25 meringues and bake them, make lemon curd and get in to the office before 10:00. But that was my plan. And it hinged on not goofing up on cracking any of the eggs and thereby polluting the pristine whites, which have to be completely free of fat to whip to their airy best. Miraculously, I didn't have any yolk breakage, and all went according to plan with the curd, except I didn't cook it long enough and it was slightly eggy. I have existential difficulties in serving a dessert that isn't perfect.  Eggy lemon curd? Not perfect.

This was when I went to plan C. I gave up on bringing a home baked dessert and went to Costco on my way home to buy a cheesecake and a chocolate cake. This I did even though I didn't yet know if the lemon curd was truly too eggy to serve. So I toddled on home, sliced a piece of the French Yogurt Cake, spooned the lemon curd over it, supplemented it with sliced organic strawberries, said a little prayer and took a bite.

It was amazing. The cake is perfect...it isn't exactly a pound cake, but it's not like a quick bread either. It has some lemon zest that hints at lemon without hitting you over the head. I made peace with the lemon curd. I washed and sliced the strawberries and relaxed. The world did not end.

But this, dear readers, is not the end of our story. The next day, I tasted the loaf with double the almond meal. It was wonderful, nay, almost better than the one I didn't screw up. I quickly threw together a batch of hot fudge and took it to work (with the leftover lemon curd). The Costco cakes I purchased but didn't need? They went to work, too. They were good, but not Dorie-good. As we know, that's a whole different level of flavor.

So this cake is not only good, it's easy, darn near impossible to mess up and it's beyond versatile. That's a real keeper in my book. I can't wait to make it again with cinnamon instead of lemon, or with maple syrup to replace some of the sugar. Or with chai spices. Or...

People ask me all the time "How are you not as big as a house with all the baking you do?" Even though I'm doing battle with an extra 20 pounds, I try to eat fairly healthy and one of the best tools for me has been recipes by Ellie Krieger. Maybe you've seen her on Food Network. I always thought she was a little smug, but once I tried her recipes, that girl can be as smug as she wants! Her food is delicious and healthy. She cuts out the unnecessary bad stuff and keeps the flavor, and most of her recipes are ridiculously simple.

Why am I telling you this? There's a group of us who make her recipes and blog about it. We call it Craving Ellie in My Belly. We take turns picking the recipe and we all blog about it on Thursdays. It's the perfect antidote to the poundage from Tuesdays with Dorie. If you'd like to join us, email Sara and Nick at cravingellieinmybelly@gmail.com. Ellie got me to eat, and even enjoy, brussels sprouts!

Yogurt, elevated

One of my biggest obstacles to losing the last 10 20 pounds is my love of all things dairy. I have friends with varying degrees of lactose intolerance, and I am sincerely sorry whenever I think about what they are missing.

When I crave something creamy and delicious, I often reach for yogurt in one form or another. I lean to fat free and low fat, and fat free Greek yogurt is frequently the one I go for. It's thick and creamy, and good with both sweet and savory adornment. This week, I got to indulge my love of lemon and my love of yogurt by utilizing some left over lemon curd. Yes, I made my own lemon yogurt. Here's how you do it:

Put desired amount of yogurt (I used low-fat Stonyfield Farms Organic Vanilla) in a bowl. Pour leftover lemon curd over yogurt to taste. Sprinkle with toasted nuts or granola. Eat. Repeat. Lick bowl (only if no one is looking). Feel virtuous for using up leftovers AND getting in a calcium serving.