Lemon "Brownies"

I have been back on Pinterest - that's how bored I am!  What a time-sucker it is.  But it's irresistible at the same time.  I have posted a few recipes I've found there on here, but then they marked this blog as spam and I was pissy about it, sent an email, which was never responded to, and then I promptly left the site for over a year and a half.  Now I am back...and once more addicted.

There is so much food on Pinterest it's ridiculous.  I found this recipe for Lemon Brownies the other day and was immediately intrigued.  I love a good lemon square, but this was a different kind of bar, so I wanted to try it.  There is a bit of risk with Pinterest recipes; some of them don't turn out and you never really know if they're as tried and true as they claim to be.  But this worked out wonderfully, despite the fact that there is no leavening agent in it.  I was worried about that small detail; I thought perhaps the cake part of the brownie would turn out like a chunk of cement.  I needn't have worried.  Though I slightly over baked it, the cakey part was just great.

I took them to a dinner for dessert and they were a big hit!  I will definitely make these again!

The recipe is here.

Enjoy!

Lemon Scented Pull-apart Coffee Cake

Hot on the heels of my pumpkin/cinnamon pull-apart loaf from the other day, I had another pull-apart bread experience, this week in Seattle, that was just as exceptional. My friend Jodi, whom I am visiting, made this lemon pull-apart loaf Thursday. She had some issues with the dough - it needed a lot of flour added to it because it was too sticky - but the results were just great nonetheless.

Here is the original recipe.

Jodi made a marscapone glaze for this loaf instead of the glaze in the rec

ipe. It was very good. She didn't think it was that great, or that it went with the bread that well, but I certainly enjoyed it.

Here are some photos. Enjoy!

Lemon Trifle

Happy Easter to all my readers who celebrate it!

We had our Easter dinner last night due to scheduling issues, and after my lemon pound cake disaster last Tuesday, I offered to bring a dessert so I could get rid of that ugly beast pronto to make room in my freezer for more successful endeavours. Lemon-flavoured desserts in the spring are just the best, I think. Well, they're the best at any time of year, but it seemed particularly appropriate yesterday because it was a beautiful sunny day for once and lemons remind me of sunny things. This is a super simple trifle that was an enormous hit.

So:

- one lemon pound cake, cut into cubes
- 1 jar lemon curd (I used Robertson's because it was the least expensive at LOGS)
- 500mL whipping cream, whipped to a decent firmness, just not butter
- 1 large package (the one that makes 6 servings) vanilla pudding, prepared

Layer in the cake with the lemon curd dabbed over the top of the cake cubes, then pour over the pudding, then some whipping cream, and repeat till everything is used up, topping the trifle with whipping cream. I topped mine with some almond flower decorations.

It took about 15 minutes to make and was absolutely heavenly and delicious!

Have a great day everyone, and for those of you who are Canucks, enjoy the long weekend!

The Loaf Failure

Something must be in the air in this God-forsaken place! Spring is soooooooo slow in arriving, I'm cranky as hell, and today I had a very frustrating kitchen failure that didn't do anything to help my mood.

I was inspired to make lemon loaf today after seeing my friend Pierce's success with this recipe this morning. I have a thing to go to tomorrow afternoon, and I thought I'd pack a dessert with me, and since lemons were on sale this week at LOGS, I thought a lemon loaf would be perfect. Plus, it's spring-like! And God knows, I need more springlike things in my life right now!

Tina had great success with her loaf. But mine was a disaster. Granted, I didn't use the food processor as directed in the original recipe, but I don't think that's the explanation for this loaf that A) overflowed from the side of the pan during baking (luckily, I baked it on a baking sheet), B) had a texture that was a bizarre mixture of coarse sponginess with a bit of rubber thrown in, C) didn't rise, and D) it seemed like all the butter sunk to the bottom of the loaf during baking because the bottom was full of grease, and E) it wasn't very lemony. Perhaps my lemons were lemons.

BY NO MEANS AM I DISSING TINA'S RECIPE OR TINA! Tina's looks lovely and according to her, tasted great, too. I obviously messed up big time somewhere along the line, I just don't where. Sometimes things just don't work out. Like I said, there is something in the air up here... I will freeze the loaf and use it for trifle down the line somewhere. I certainly am not letting it go to waste.

Magazine Monday #70: Lemon Loaves!

OK, I got a great deal on lemons from the States recently (yes, you can bring certain types of fresh produce across the border, but stop off at Canada Customs on the way down to find out what you can & cannot bring home; tropical fruits are OK) - something like 2lbs for $3.50. This is an unreal deal since lemons are ridiculously expensive up here and if I'm lucky, I might be able to find a 2/99¢ sale, but I guarantee you the lemons will be crappy.

So, I brought all these lemons home and proceeded to not really know what to do with them. I'm a single person who lives alone; I was tempted to make a lemon pie, this one or a meringue, but seriously, I didn't want to eat it all myself. So, I made stuff I could freeze and pull out if I have company (which doesn't happen often).

The first thing I made was this lemon poppy seed loaf from Canadian Living. The original recipe has them as mini bundt cakes, but there is a variation in the recipe saying you can make it into a loaf, too. What issue is a mystery to me; the date was clipped off when I took the recipe from the magazine and the web site doesn't mention the date, either. Delicious! But a warning: there is too much batter for the specified loaf pan. I wound up getting a really ugly-looking, flat-topped loaf because the batter came right up to the rim of the loaf pan. But the texture and richness was lovely.

On a lemon roll, a couple of days later, I decided to make another Canadian Living recipe, this time the Lemon Yogurt Loaf from the September 2010 issue of the magazine. I had a bit of a disaster, though: my oven element began sparking away most alarmingly, and caught some piece of debris on fire. The loaves were almost done, but not quite, so I had to stick them in the toaster oven to finish baking. Disaster averted, but now I'm ovenless until the element can be replaced, and since the whole appliance is a total dinosaur, I'm worried they don't make the part anymore. (Check out The Dino here.) Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of these loaves before I wrapped them up tightly and put them in the freezer!

Oh, I also made a roast chicken with lemon, but that is a post for another time!

Magazine Monday #62: Roasted Lemon Cake

I rarely go to the liquor store, but other people I know go regularly, and one of those someones brought back a recent copy of Taste Magazine, which is put out by the BC Liquor Stores. This is the first time I've made a recipe from the magazine, and the occasion was Father's Day. Lemons, as it happened, were on sale at the time! The original recipe involved a lavender syrup, but as I didn't have any access to lavender, I skipped it altogether.

Roasted Lemon Cake, adapted Taste Magazine Spring 2010, page 129

4 large lemons, washed well & dried
6 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup ground almonds
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 375C. Grease sides of a 9" round cake pan and line the bottom with parchment.

2. Slice lemons thinly & remove seeds. Place them in a layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper & sprinkle with the 6tbsp of sugar. Roast for about 15 minutes or until lightly caramelized on the edges. Let cool.

3. Arrange 3/4 of the lemon slices on the bottom of the cake pan. Chop the remaining lemons & set aside. Sift flour & baking powder into a bowl & stir in almonds. In a separate bowl, beat butter & sugar together until light & fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well mixed. Fold in flour mixture, and add chopped lemons & accumulated juices. Spread batter over roasted lemons. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until done in the centre. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes at least before turning out of the pan. Serve with whipped cream.


This was a hit with my family. The cake was so moist it was pretty much pudding-like. The lemony flavour was over the top. Unfortunately, the cake was so moist that it was hard to serve nicely because it kept breaking up. Also, the lemons I got were particularly thick-skinned, which was kind of annoying: more skin than fruit really, and it got pretty chewy at times. Still, a really worthwhile and adaptable recipe that I can see going well with other citrus fruits like oranges or even grapefruit.

Enjoy!

Magazine Monday #59: Lemon Buttermilk Pudding Cake

Oh, where has the Coyote been?

Busy!

I spent about a week painting my new place, and the fruits of my labours can be viewed here.

I have been cooking, but not so much into blogging about it. But last week, oysters were on sale at LOGS, so I decided to make oyster burgers for dinner. In order to do this, I needed buttermilk, because I soak the oysters in this before breading them. I had a whole bunch of buttermilk left over, and happened across a recipe for Lemon Buttermilk Pudding Cake in the November 2009 issue of...wait for it...you'll never guess...Canadian Living!

Here is the recipe.

This was really easy to make and so incredibly luscious...It was tart and tasted quite a lot like a lemon meringue pie without the crust. It puffed up like a souffle in the oven, and was light and fluffy when served. I didn't bother with the water bath, as specified in the recipe, and it worked out just fine. Definitely a keeper recipe!

Heaven on a Plate

Yeah, baby! This dish rocked my world - and I totally whipped it out of my ass after being inspired by this dish made my MonicaJane of Yes, We Cook, and sort of by Nigella's so-so pasta dish I made a while back. This was so easy to make it wasn't funny, and it made a ton of left-overs so I didn't have to cook for a few nights. And it was spectacular - SPECTACULAR, I tell you!

Penne with Chicken, Mushrooms, Thyme, Lemon, and Goat's Cheese

500g penne (1lb package)
140g package goat's cheese (not feta; soft, unripened goat's cheese)
1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
4 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tsp dried thyme
zest of 1 lemon + juice of 1/2 lemon
3 cloves garlic, crushed or grated
salt & pepper

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. While the pasta cooks, saute the chicken until cooked through. Remove from pan, leaving any accumulated juices. Add mushrooms & thyme & saute until mushrooms have cooked down. Return chicken to pan, add garlic, and stir. Keep warm until pasta is cooked.

3. Drain pasta & return to pot. Add chicken & mushrooms, lemon zest & juice, and add the package of goats cheese. Stir together; the cheese will get all melty and create a "sauce". Season with salt & pepper to taste.I can't tell you how good this was! I am really enjoying cooking with chicken thighs, too; I didn't think I would, but I am rethinking my opinion of them. They certainly are WAY more affordable than breasts, I can tell you that. I would like to have used more exotic mushrooms (MonicaJane's recipe uses shiitake, which would have been great) but I only had a choice between regular white mushrooms, brown mushrooms, and portobellos, but the portobellos were way too expensive for my budget. So, I used white mushrooms (the browns weren't very fresh-looking).

A great meal! Thanks for the inspiration, MonicaJane!

Magazine Monday #48 & 101 Uses for a Roast Chicken #18: Lemon Basil Chicken

At the beginning of the summer, my good friend Pierce of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor fame sent me & Juno some goodies and part of the packing material was the Feb/March 2009 issue of Taste of Home. My grandmother actually used to send me a subsciption to this magazine way back in the day, and I see it's improved considerably since then. There are quite a few recipes from this issue I intend on trying out.

This Monday, however, I present you with Lemon Basil Chicken. As you all know, I do love roasting chickens, which is why this post also qualifies as part of my 101 Uses for a Roast Chicken series in addition to being my weekly Magazine Monday contribution. Since I have some jaundiced basil languishing in my garden, I thought this was the perfect time to put some of it out of its misery (and mine - basil does not like me or my garden for some weird reason).

Lemon Basil Chicken

1 lemon

2 garlic cloves, divided (OK, I used way more than this)

1/4 cup minced fresh basil, divided

1 broiler/fryer chicken

2 tbsp butter, melted

salt & pepper

1. Zest whole lemon. Cut lemon in half and juice one half. Set aside the other half.

2. Slice one garlic clove. Place sliced garlic, 2 tbsp basil, and remaining lemon half in the chicken cavity.

3. Place chicken, breast side up, in roasting pan. Rub with reserved lemon juice. Mince remaining garlic & combine with butter & reserved lemon peel. Brush mixture over chicken. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, & remaining basil.

4. Roast until done. Let stand for 15 minutes before carving.

OK. Butter on top of a chicken? Um, this doesn't work for me - even though I was willing to give it a sporting chance. All it did was drip off into the drippings. It added nothing to the taste or texture or look of the chicken. So, I won't do that again. Otherwise, this was a nice easy dish and I love lemon, basil, and garlic together. This would have been just as nice without the butter part. So, a bit of a disappointing recipe, but a good learning experience.

Joining me this week with their magazine experiments:

Tia of Buttercream Barbie made this luscious Cinnamon Chocolate Twist bread from Canadian Living.

Kylie of Thin Crust, Deep Dish made Peanut Sesame Noodles and a Cucumber Salad from a couple of Gourmet back issues.

Pierce of Life in the Slow Lane at Squirrel Head Manor made yummy chicken marsala from an issue of Family Circle.

Lunch at The Hume Hotel

Another week, another trip to Nelson to take advantage of Save-On Foods' weekly specials. Which also means a lunch out with my most constant dining partner nowadays, my dad.

This week, I suggested the Hume Hotel, which has a salad bar I was interested in. My appetite being what it is these days, I needed the flexibility the salad bar had to offer. That, and I really wanted some soup. The salad bar comes with soup of the day, which that day happened to be white bean & chorizo. Not my bag, so I subbed in the French Onion Soup.

Now, if you read this post, you'll see that the Hume has a history, and part of that history for me, involves a spectacular French Onion Soup I had there when I was a kid that had beer in it. To this day, it is the yard stick against which I measure all other French Onion Soups! In fact, my dad is the same - he still rhapsodizes about that soup. I knew, however, from our last lunch there that the recipe had changed and the beery soup was no longer on offer, but the current soup is supposedly made with sherry, as specified in the menu's description.

After having a sampler from the salad bar, my soup finally came. And...
...Well, it was good, but not that good. A bit weak, and not tasting too much of the sherry. It also didn't have very many onions in it. Also - they hadn't taken the bay leaves out and had used small bay leaves, so twice I took a spoonful and chomped down on bay leaves. I was a little annoyed.

My dad had ordered the lasagne, which came with garlic toast and a surprise Caesar salad. The salad was a surprise because the night shift had just come on and they put salad with their dinner entrees, so Dad got lucky.He said the lasagne was really good and enjoyed it very much.

The shift change might explain the slowness of the service. Because it was S-L-O-W.

Dad was full, but I wanted dessert, and I knew that the Hume has a great dessert list. I opted for the lemon meringue pie and was not disappointed at all - except, once again, it took forever to come out. But it was delicious and I realized I hadn't had lemon meringue pie in ages. Yum!
So, while the food was good, the service was iffy. Perhaps they were having an off day. It happens.

Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins

Another installment of my work products, this time lemon poppy seed muffins - commercial style. This recipe makes 36 commercial-sized muffins. I was skeptical about the lemon pie filling, but in the end the muffins were super moist and cakey and delish! I'm not sure what you'd use in the home kitchen, however; the pie filling we use comes from our supplier in a big bucket that we keep in the fridge. I might have to experiment with some pie fillings at home one of these days.

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

12 cups flour
6 tbsp baking powder
3 tsp salt
12 eggs
5 cups lemon pie filling
1 1/2 cups poppy seeds
4 cups packed brown sugar
2 cups vegetable oil
6 tsp vanilla

Combine dry ingredients, excluding the sugar, in a big bowl. Combine wet ingredients and sugar in mixer, or whisk together by hand. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the wet. Combine well. Scoop & bake @ 350F.

The batter is very, very thick and gets hard to mix, necessitating the use of hands (oh, how we would love one of those big commercial mixers! Alas, not in the budget...). They fluff up really nicely, though, and have a great texture.

Enjoy!

Lemon Juice Shortage: The Proof!

OK, so I've previously blogged about the lack of lemon juice in my local grocery stores (here and here) and the exorbitant cost of lemons that look like they've seen way better days. Last week, at a big box store, I gathered the courage to take photographs of the shortage (while I am comfortable photographing my food in a restaurant, it seems a little weirder to take pictures of stuff in grocery stores...).

Here is a picture of the abundance of lime juice available, and the empty spot on the right where the lemon juice should be.

Here is a picture taken in the produce section of this particular grocery store. As you can see (sort of) lemons go for 98 cents each, unless you buy them in twos, in which case you get them for 88 cents each. Call me crazy, but this is akin to highway robbery if you ask me! On the plus side, however, these lemons look to be in better shape than I've seen anywhere else. I still didn't buy any, though.

So there you have it.

Lemon Juice: The New Gold

Over the summer, I wrote about our lemon juice shortage, which, I am sad to report, is still ongoing. What fresh lemons I've seen are either exorbitantly expensive (one local, large chain store sold them for $1.19 the last time I was there - ouch!) or look really beaten up and crappy. Still no lemon juice anywhere either.

But, my SIL scored on the lemon juice front during a cross-border shopping spree last week to Spokane, WA. At Costco, she found these 1.4L/48oz bottles of lemon juice - with nifty flip top lid for easy pouring! - for around $2.50USD. I nearly keeled over when she told me this. First of all, there appears to be no shortage of lemons or juice in the States (I did see a 2lb bag of lemons for very little money during my last cross border shopping spree, but since we can't bring fresh produce over the border I didn't buy any) and second, even if we could get lemon juice up here right now, a bottle this size would probably be around $8, if not more! My SIL offered me a bottle and of course I accepted it - and will now be rationing closely it until the return of lemons and lemon juice. In fact, I'm almost not wanting to bake with it at all, and totally hoard it instead! Ridiculous, I know, but when something is hard to get or limited, you kinda want to use it very, very carefully...

So, in celebration of all things lemon but taking into account that even though I now possess nearly 1.5L of this new gold, I have reluctant to part with even a drop, I present you with a recipe reprise from the archives of this blog: Real Lemon Pie.

Real Lemon Pie (originally posted here)

Filling

4 thin-skinned lemons (I don't know how you tell a thin one from a thick one without cutting it first, but I just used what I had on hand)
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs

Shortcrust Pastry

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
150g (5oz) chilled unsalted butter, chopped
2 tbsp granulated sugar
3 - 4 tbsp cold water

1 egg, beaten, for glazing

1. Wash the lemons. Slice 2 unpeeled lemons very thinly and remove the seeds. Peel the other lemons, removing all pith and seeds, and slice the flesh thinly. Put all this in a bowl, not metallic, with the 2 cups of sugar and mix well, coating all the lemon with sugar. Cover and refrigerate over night.

2. Preheat oven to 350F. For the pastry, sift together the salt and the sugar. Sable in the butter. (Remember what sable means, from the previous post? No? Ok. Rub the butter in with your fingertips - quickly so it doesn't melt.)

3. When you have a cornmeal-like consistency, add the water, one tablespoon at a time and toss gently with a fork. Add just enough water so that the dough comes together and is rollable. Divide in half and roll out 2 10 inch circles.

4. Lightly grease a 9" pie plate. Line the pie plate with one disk of dough; cover and chill. Somehow chill the other disk of dough, too; I put it into a second pie plate for easy tranferring.

5. Beat the eggs well and add the lemon slices, mixing gently but thoroughly. Pour the filling into the shell and put on the "lid." Crimp the edges to seal them. Decorate the top with pastry scraps. Brush on the beaten egg you reserved for the glaze, and bake until golden brown - 55 minutes to an hour. But keep an eye on it. Let it cool completely before serving.

A Shortage of Lemons

While cruising the aisles of my local overpriced grocery store the other day, I happened to notice that they were out of lemon juice. Plenty of lime juice, but no lemon. I didn't really think much of it at the time because, let's face it, grocery stores run out of stuff - it happens. I didn't need lemon juice, and usually, if I do need it, I buy a fresh lemon. But, at this particular grocery store, lemons are about 79 cents each, so I really have to want lemons if I'm going to spend that kind of money.

On the way out to the lake last weekend, my SIL was telling me that she and her mother, who run a catering business on top of their day jobs, were having a really hard time finding lemons and lemon juice. At Save-On Foods, they found a few lemons, but they were exorbitantly priced at 99 cents each. Lemon juice was also in short supply and they got the last bottle in the store.

Way back in the mists of time (which in this case was probably a couple of weeks ago), I do recall hearing about a citrus shortage of some kind, but had it in my mind that it had more to do with grapefruit, which I regularly buy on sale, but I have noted that there haven't been any on sale lately.

My roommate, J, works at the local overpriced grocery store part time, and I asked her what she knew of this lemon thing tonight as she baked huckleberry cornmeal muffins. She confirmed that there is a lemon shortage.

Lo and behold, the CBC has an article posted about this very issue.

But...I was in the States last week cross-border shopping. I cannot bring fresh produce over the border (nor, as it turns out, can I bring beef-flavoured cat food into Canada from the USA, but 5kg of beef for human consumption is just dandy) so I don't normally bother to look at the produce on offer. I did this time, though, and saw that lucky Americans can purchase a 2lb bag of lemons for $3.99 - and there were plenty of 2lb bags available! I am lime green with envy! (Limes, it appears, by the way, are not in short supply.)

The facts, as much as I can suss out:

• 25% decrease in global lemon supply causes widespread lemon juice shortage
• Freeze, wind and drought responsible for drastically reduced lemon yields
• Despite shortage, experts claim supply should return to normal in 2009

[source]

The CBC story quotes someone from the Canadian Grocery Council, saying that lemon juice stocks should be replenished by the end of this month, though it does specify "large grocery stores."

Hm. I hope I'm not SOL for long!

In the meantime, A) I wonder why oranges are still readily available to me, B) I guess I should pay more attention to the 100 mile thing, and C) I hope I don't get a lemon craving anytime soon!

Lemon Delicious

Lemon Delicious
Originally uploaded by wanderingcoyote.

Sorry for the unexciting photo...

If you haven't discovered by now that I'm a fan of using citrus in my desserts, I'm sure that'll come across quite clearly in little time. It's just something I'm drawn to because the flavours are so compelling for me. And the possibilities seem endless because citrus is so versatile.

I made this recipe last night. I was going to take the grapefruit sorbet to the dinner I was invited to, but I wanted something warm instead. My mom made a version of this but I don't have the recipe. After a brief search through my rather large cookbook collection, I found this recipe in Complete Cook by Le Cordon Bleu. If you have a bit of money to invest (I paid $45 for this a few years ago) this is actully a pretty good cookbook that covers the basics of French cooking and patisserie with very accessible recipes, ingredients, and methods. I used it as a reference in school quite a bit, since I wasn't fan of the texts we had.

This recipe can be served warm or cold. It has a light souffle-like layer on the top and a lemon sauce on the bottom. It serves four.

1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
zest of one lemon
2 large eggs, separated
2 tbsp all purpose flour
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup milk
icing sugar for dusting, if desired

- 350F oven, greased 8" square pan or small casserole

1. Beat the butter to soften it, using and electric mixer. Beat in the sugar until light and creamy, then add the zest and egg yolks until well blended. Gently fold in the flour, followed by the lemon juice.
2. In a small saucepan, heat the milk until tepid, then fold it into the lemon mixture. Make sure the milk is barely warm - if it's too hot the flour and yolks may cook and the mixture will be too heavy.
3. In a large, clean bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Gently fold this into the lemon mixture, careful to not lose any volume.
4. Bake in a water bath for 30 - 35 minutes, or until the top is pale golden and firm to the light touch.

I added a couple more tablespoons of lemon juice because I didn't think it was lemony enough originally. Taste it before you bake it to make sure you think the flavour is right.

Real Lemon Pie

RealLemonPie
Originally uploaded by wanderingcoyote.

Now I am truly back in business. I dug out my camera software from the depths of my little closet and installed it on this staff computer. Now you'll be seeing more of my creations!

I'm sure you're reading the title and groaning because it is yet another lemon/citrus recipe. Well, tough! I served this for staff dinner last night and it was fantastic. Not only did it look wonderful, it was bursting with lemony flavour. This is a simple recipe with few ingredients. I hope you like it.

Real Lemon Pie

Filling

4 thin-skinned lemons (I don't know how you tell a thin one from a thick one without cutting it first, but I just used what I had on hand)
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs

Shortcrust Pastry

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
150g (5oz) chilled unsalted butter, chopped
2 tbsp granulated sugar
3 - 4 tbsp cold water

1 egg, beaten, for glazing

1. Wash the lemons. Slice 2 unpeeled lemons very thinly and remove the seeds. Peel the other lemons, removing all pith and seeds, and slice the flesh thinly. Put all this in a bowl, not metallic, with the 2 cups of sugar and mix well, coating all the lemon with sugar. Cover and refrigerate over night.

2. Preheat oven to 350F. For the pastry, sift together the salt and the sugar. Sable in the butter. (Remember what sable means, from the previous post? No? Ok. Rub the butter in with your fingertips - quickly so it doesn't melt.)

3. When you have a cornmeal-like consistency, add the water, one tablespoon at a time and toss gently with a fork. Add just enough water so that the dough comes together and is rollable. Divide in half and roll out 2 10 inch circles.

4. Lightly grease a 9" pie plate. Line the pie plate with one disk of dough; cover and chill. Somehow chill the other disk of dough, too; I put it into a second pie plate for easy tranferring.

5. Beat the eggs well and add the lemon slices, mixing gently but thoroughly. Pour the filling into the shell and put on the "lid." Crimp the edges to seal them. Decorate the top with pastry scraps. Brush on the beaten egg you reserved for the glaze, and bake until golden brown - 55 minutes to an hour. But keep an eye on it. Let it cool completely before serving.

Notes to the Readership

- this is a great shortcrust recipe that comes out crisp and cookie-like. It can be used for other pies and tarts as well. Be sure to add the water gradually as I described because it shouldn't be sticky or wet. Neither should it be too dry so it's difficult to roll out. Also, be sure not to work your flour too much or else you'll get a tougher pastry.
- letting the lemons sit in the sugar overnight draws out the liquid from the fruit. This, combined with the eggs, creates a custard-like filling, so don't skip this step.

Questions? Comments? You know the drill.

Lemon Scones

Miss me?

I sure have! Man, have I been busy this past month, and with limited computer access to boot.

For some bizarre reason, I have become famous for these scones. Of all the things I could be famous for, it had to scones. Well, what's a girl to do? Take what fame she can and run with it, baby!

Next week we are hosting a weekend for social workers, case workers, challenged families and others regarding food availability issues for underpriviledged people, and the organizer mentioned to my supervisor that she knew someone at the recent music camps who was raving over these scones, which I had served for Sunday brunch once. I'm sure I'm going to have a request made to me for these scones at a planning meeting tomorrow. So here is what all the hubbub is about.

Lemon Scones

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup cold butter
2 eggs
1/3 cup 10% cream
2 tsp finely grated lemon rind (approximately the zest of 2 - 3 lemons)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Glaze:
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp icing sugar

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the first 4 ingredients. Sable (see notes) in the butter with your hands quickly, until the mixture resembles something slightly chunkier than cornmeal.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, lemon rind, lemon juice, and cream. Drizzle over the dry ingredients and toss gently until the mixture clumps into a very soft sticky dough.
3. Turn out onto a very well-floured surface. With floured hands, form into a ball, kneading about 8 times. The dough will be very wet, so use lots of flour. Place on a parchment paper-lined sheet or lightly floured rimless baking sheet. Pat into a 1.5 cm thick circle and cut into 8 wedges. Do not separate.
4. Bake in 350F oven unitl golden.
5. For the glaze, combine the juice and sugar. Apply the glaze with a pastry brush just after the scones come out of the oven while they're still piping hot.

Notes.

- To sable means to rub the dry ingredients and the butter together with your hands. I don't bother with the pastry cutter or two knives crap because my hands are much more efficient, especially when I quadruple this recipe for a larger batch.
- Don't make these in a mixer for God's sake: you'll overwork the flour. The key here is mixing as little as possible and kneading as lightly as possible to get a delicate product in the end.
- Please, please, please use real lemons! That stuff that comes in the yellow lemon-shaped bottle from the store is awful! You cannot beat the real McCoy here, or anywhere for that matter. Get yourself a cheap citrus juicer and a zester and away you go.
- I make several variations of this. For instance, the lemon zest and juice is directly interchangable with orange zest and juice, and I do that a lot. Also, I often add blueberries, but while still frozen because they're easier to mix in and they'll keep their shape. Frozen raspberries would also work, or just skip the citurs altogether and add raisins and a bit of cinnamon.


Well, let me know how they turn out.

I hope to be updated this blog more often now that I have more time and more reliable internet access. I miss this a lot.

Lemon Ice Cream

LemonIce
Originally uploaded by wanderingcoyote.

Anita found this recipe yesterday in one of Richard's cookbooks. I'd been looking for a lemon ice cream recipe, actually, and this was absolutely fantastic! Anita, upon tasting it, thought she'd died and gone to heaven. She, like me, is a lemon fanatic. Aside from being delicious and refreshing, this also is a great palate cleanser.

My ice cream maker is a Cuisinart and it has a drum with a freezing liquid in it, and so you just freeze the drum over night, then plug the machine in and attach the drum, add your mixture, turn it on, and about 20 minutes later, you have ice cream. You put the ice cream into the actual freezer for a bit just to firm it up.

Here is the lemon ice cream recipe.

zest of 2 lemons
juice of 3 lemons
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups whipping cream (35% only!)
1 cup whole milk

I whisked this all together in a clear glass measure and away I went. Like I said, it was great.

You don't have to worry about the lemon curdling the milk and cream because the citric acid won't curdle anything with a fat percentage above 35%, so make sure you use the full whipping cream. Don't cut corners or calories by using half and half because this just won't work.

I used the zest and juice of one lime because I was down a lemon, and it worked fine.

My basic ice cream recipe is the following.

2 cups whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar

To this you can add pretty much whatever your heart desires. I usually add about a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Also try cocoa powder to taste (sift it in), chocolate chips, mint & chocolate chips (about a tsp or two of mint extract but use your own judgement), or Grand Marnier or Bailey's Irish Cream to taste. But beware: adding alcohol will affect the freezing of your ice cream, so add it at the very end when the ice cream has already done it's freezing so you won't get a slushie!

Homemade ice cream is the best because you can use all natural ingredients and you know exactly what goes in it. Store bought contains all kinds of nasty chemicals and crap you really don't want in your body. My ice cream maker cost me about $80 Canadian, and I've gotten a lot of use out of it. A great investment, I must say.

Enjoy!

Lemon Squares

IMG_0473
Originally uploaded by wanderingcoyote.

The recipe is here.