Meyer Lemon Curd + Cream Scones

A couple of months ago, Kim from Rustic Garden Bistro offered to send me some meyer lemons, freshly picked from her backyard tree. Having never tasted the revered fruit, I quickly accepted her gracious offer.

The lemons were so lovely, smooth skinned and highly fragrant, much more of a perfume-y scent than normal lemons. They’re also a touch less acidic. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with them, so I squeezed all the juice into a measuring cup and froze it.



Then life got in the way and I starting baking other things and promptly forgot about the juice sitting the back of my freezer. Oops!

So two months later, I’m finally getting around to making something with those tasty lemons (which is why the light in these photos is drastically different, it was bright and sunny the day I got the lemons, and it’s cloudy today).



I wanted to utilize the juice fully, to get the most flavor from the lemons themselves. The best way I could think of to do that was curd, spread on warm scones. Let me tell you, the combination of the tangy curd on the fresh from the oven scone was something akin to heaven.



If you’ve never made or tasted curd before, I urge you to try it out. It’s velvety smooth, and both tart & sweet. It’s also deceptively simple. I was scared of making it for a while, but when I did, I was surprised at how easy it was. It’s just a lot of whisking. The recipe below gives instructions for making the curd with meyer lemons or regular lemons!


Lemon Curd
From David Lebovitz
(I doubled this recipe)

Makes 1 cup (240 g)

1/2 cup (125 ml) freshly-squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup (65 g) sugar (or 1/2 cup, 100 g, if using regular lemons)
2 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
pinch of salt
6 tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter, cubed


1. Place a mesh strainer over a bowl, and set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the lemon juice, sugar, egg yolks, eggs, and salt.
3. Add the butter cubes and set the pan over low heat, whisking constantly until the butter is melted.
4. Increase the heat and cook over moderate heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and just begins to become jelly-like. It’s done when you lift the whisk and the mixture holds its shape when it falls back into the saucepan from the whisk.
5. Immediately press the curd through the strainer. Once strained, store the lemon curd in the refrigerator. It will keep for up to one week.

Cream Scones

from America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook via smitten kitchen

(this recipe has the brilliant suggestion of pressing the dough into a cake pan to form a perfect circle for cutting. I had one of those “why didn’t I think of this before” moments when I read that. It works perfectly.)

2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour, preferably a low-protein brand such as Gold Medal or Pillsbury

1 tablespoon baking powder

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons chilled, unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

1 cup heavy cream

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 425°F.
2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in large bowl or work bowl of food processor fitted with steel blade. Whisk together or pulse six times.
3. If making by hand, use two knives, a pastry blender or your fingertips and quickly cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few slightly larger butter lumps. Stir in currants. If using food processor, remove cover and distribute butter evenly over dry ingredients. Cover and pulse 12 times, each pulse lasting 1 second. (it definietly took me more than 12 pulses to get the rid sized butter bits!) Transfer dough to large bowl.
4. Stir in heavy cream with a rubber spatula or fork until dough begins to form, about 30 seconds.
5. Transfer dough and all dry, floury bits to countertop and knead dough by hand just until it comes together into a rough, sticky ball, 5 to 10 seconds. Form scones by pressing the dough into an 8-inch cake pan, then turning the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, cutting the dough into 8 wedges with either a knife or bench scraper.
6. Place rounds or wedges on ungreased baking sheet and bake until scone tops are light brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Thank you, Kim, for the lemons!

For Japan with Love

The situation in Japan has been absolutely breaking my heart. Each day I see new photos showing the devastation there, and I just want to sit down and cry, it makes you feel so helpless and small. I wanted to help, but I wasn’t sure how.

Then I came upon For Japan with Love, which was started by the bloggers of Ever Ours and Utterly Engaged.

Donations go to Shelter Box, which is a great organization that provides basic lifesaving supplies like a tent, blankets, water storage, and a stove to those who need it.

Just a small donation can help. Spread the word!

Coconut Bars

Last Christmas, I was given the Gourmet Cookie Book as a gift, but I hadn’t made anything out of it until now.

This book is awesome, filled with recipes from 1941 up to when the magazine shut down in 2009. The recipes are accompanied by info about the cookie, or the history & time period surrounding it.

The recipe I chose was coconut bars (since I’m on such a coconut kick lately), a recipe from the October 1953 issue. The book states that despite that months sophisticated offerings (poached bone marrow, neck of lamb Grecque, goose liver pies), readers responded to readers Miss Hope Austin's request for a cookie recipe “made with coconut and sprinkled with powdered sugar, that have a cake like bottoms and chewy tops”, much like a blondie.



I wasn’t so sure about the recipe when I started out, the base is described as “cake-like”, but it’s quite dry and more like a cookie. I was pleasantly surprised when I tried the finished product though, It’s absolutely delicious. The crisp bottom works perfectly with the gooey top.

I would definitely recommend this cookbook, if not for the recipes then for the history and beautiful photography. It’s great for those of us who still mourn the loss of the great Gourmet magazine!

Coconut Bars
From The Gourmet Cookie Book

(This is how the recipe is written in the book, much different from the style of today. The recipe calls for walnuts, but I substituted pecans because I’m allergic to walnuts. Either would be great!)

Cream 1/2 cup of butter. Add gradually 1/2 cup brown sugar and beat until smooth. Stir in 1 cup sifted flour and spread batter in the bottom of a 8 inch square cake pan. Bake in a moderate oven (375) for 20 minutes.

Beat 2 eggs and 1 cup light brown sugar until smooth. Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 cup chopped walnuts, and 1/2 cup shredded coconut tossed with 2 tablespoons of flour and a pinch of salt. Spread this batter over the baked crust and continue to bake for 20 minutes longer. Cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into squares or bars.

Browned Butter Cake with Cinnamon Chocolate Frosting

I still remember the first time I smelled brown butter. It was 2 years ago, when I made these brown butter toffee blondies. I just couldn’t believe butter could smell like that. So nutty, so different from butter in its normal state. I’ve been smitten with it since.



So when I was trying to find a cake to go with my favorite frosting ever, brown butter was the first thing I thought of. Brown butter cake with cinnamon chocolate frosting? Sounded perfect to me.



And oh, it is. I’m in love with this cake. I want to bake it every day. I’m not the biggest frosting fan in the world, but I can’t help licking this off the spatula. There’s just something about chocolate and cinnamon together that makes me want to do a happy dance.

Both of these recipes are from one of my favorite blogs, the little red house. Sheena is adorable and lovely and takes beautiful pictures. Be sure to hop over there and say hi.



Brown Butter Cake with Cinnamon Chocolate Frosting
From the little red house

(the cake recipe is for cupcakes, but if you’d like to make cake, just pour the batter into two cake pans and bake them for about 30 minutes)

Cake
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
3/4 cup browned butter*
1 tsp vanilla
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/4 tsp baking powder


*To brown butter:
Heat pan on medium heat.
Cut butter in to pieces and melt in pan.
Stir continuously. Butter will foam up.
After foam subsides, small brown flecks will start to appear in bottom of pan.
Continue stirring, until butter has reached a nice brown color, and nutty aroma.
When you want to lick the spoon, you know it's ready.
Turn the heat all the way down.



Preheat oven to 350°
Prepare cupcake pans with liners.
Beat sugar and eggs together until slightly thickened, about a minute.
Add milk, browned butter, and vanilla, stirring just until combined.
Add flour and baking powder, beating until well mixed--about a minute. Don't over mix.

Bake in preheated oven for 18-22 minutes, until tops are springy to the touch or a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean.
Remove from cupcake pan and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting
(I doubled this for my cake, and I also went about it a bit differently because I didn’t want super thick icing). After beating the butter, I added the cocoa, cinnamon and vanilla, and mixed it in. Then I added the cooled chocolate, and then about a cup of powdered sugar.)

5oz good quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
8 TBS butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
2TBS baking cocoa
1 tsp mexican vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4-8 TBS milk

Melt chocolate in a double boiler and allow to cool to room temperature.
Beat in butter until creamy. Add in melted chocolate.
Add powdered sugar, baking cocoa, cinnamon and vanilla.
Slowly beat in milk 1TBS at a time until you reach desired consistency.

enjoy!