Chocolate Orange Christmas Bundt

Image is of a chocolate bundt cake on top of a red and green quilt. My mom made that quilt, isn’t it lovely?

When my dad and brothers eat out at a restaurant, they always order the “Death by Chocolate” dessert, so when I bake a cake for the family at Christmas, I always try to make something very chocolatey. If I don’t, I’ll get comments like, “This cake is good… but there isn’t enough chocolate.” Last year I made this Deep Dark Chocolate Cake, which was a chocolate layer cake made with black cocoa filled with raspberry jam and topped with both a whipped and poured chocolate ganache.

Chocolate and orange together have always seemed rather Christmassy to me, probably in part due to the seasonal nature of citrus during the winter, and also because my family has sometimes bought those chocolates that are infused with orange that you smack on the table and come away with individual slices of chocolate. This year, I planned a chocolate orange bundt with a poured chocolate ganache on top. (I’m finally ready to face bundt pans again after doing Micah and Casey’s many-bundt wedding cake in September.)

I’ve seen this Cook’s Illustrated chocolate cake recipe talked about all over the internet for ages, and it always seemed like a pain to me. Really? Cocoa and bittersweet chocolate? Boiling water for a cake? But here’s the great thing about using the boiling water – it means that you don’t have to melt down the chocolate in a double boiler, so you don’t have to wash that extra pan, but you still get the lovely richness from the chopped chocolate.

I’ve adapted the recipe to add orange extract and orange zest to add flavor without disrupting the dry/liquid balance of this tried and true recipe. It really came out wonderfully, a cake that wasn’t too sweet and was perfectly complimented by the poured ganache. It looked beautiful on our holiday table and was wonderful with a dollop of fresh whipped cream. If you don’t celebrate Christmas, it would be wonderful for the new year!

Ingredients

3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa (2 1/4 ounces)
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup water (boiling)
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), room temperature
2 cups light brown sugar (I used a scant two cups rather than packed two cups to cut back on the sugar a bit)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 teaspoons orange extract
zest of 1 orange
5 large eggs, room temperature

1 batch of poured ganache

Directions

Grease and lightly dust a 12-cup Bundt pan with cocoa powder. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine cocoa, chocolate in medium heatproof bowl; pour boiling water over and whisk until smooth. Cool to room temperature, then whisk in sour cream. Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda in second bowl to combine.

In stand mixer fitted with flat beater, beat butter, sugar, vanilla, and orange extract on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and add eggs one at a time, mixing about 30 seconds after each addition and scraping down bowl with rubber spatula after first 2 additions.

Reduce to medium-low speed; add about one third of flour mixture and half of chocolate/sour cream mixture and mix until just incorporated, about 20 seconds. Scrape bowl and repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining chocolate mixture; add remaining flour mixture and beat until just incorporated, about 10 seconds. Scrape bowl and mix on medium-low until batter is thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds. Add orange zest and stir. Pour batter into prepared Bundt pan, being careful not to pour batter on sides of pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F until wooden skewer inserted into center comes out with few crumbs attached, 50 minutes to an hour. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then invert cake onto parchment-lined wire rack.

Prepare the ganache (Recipe is in a separate post here) and pour it over the cake. Let the ganache set (this could take a few hours). Keep refrigerated until a few minutes before serving. Serve with fresh whipped cream.

Aunt Sassy Cake (Pistachio Cake with Honey Vanilla Frosting)

This week was my birthday, and so of course we had some lovely cake. I’ve been wanting to make Aunt Sassy Cake from the Baked Explorations book for ages, but since it’s a pistachio cake, it didn’t seem like the kind of thing that would be great to show up to a potluck with, ya know, nut allergies and all.

It’s been SUPER hot here this week, so my baking plans got modified several times. I ended up making an ice cream cake instead of one of the baked cakes I had planned, but that was also delicious and wonderful and well-received.

As for Aunt Sassy Cake? Fabulous. The texture of the cake was wonderful and fluffy. The pistachio was lovely. I added a bit of cardamom to the cake batter, and the frosting I made up as I went along since we ended up being in a time crunch, but I finished it with a bit of orange zest and it was just beautiful.

We had a great day filled with delicious food. Whole Wheat Macaroni Salad with veggies from the garden, a new batch of Refrigerator Half-Sour Pickles, homemade salsa with tomatillos from the garden, and of course, Charlie sweating over the grill for us. Wonderful birthday times, as usual.

While you’re here, don’t forget to enter to win a gift certificate to my new etsy shop!

Ingredients – Cake:

1 cup shelled pistachios
2 1/2 cups cake flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
3 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Ingredients – Frosting:*

*Note: The recipe in the Baked Explorations book calls for a cooked frosting, which we did not have the time/inclination to do yesterday, so we made a standard buttercream, which I am including the recipe for here. If you’d like to make the Baked version, check out their book.

1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup shortening
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
3 cups confectioners sugar (or to taste)
2 tablespoons milk (or to desired consistency)
zest of one orange

handful of pistachios, reserved for decorating

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and butter the parchment. Dust the parchment with flour and knock out the excess flour.

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the pistachios until they are coarsely chopped. Transfer about 2 tablespoons’ worth of the coarse pistachios to a large bowl. Continue to process the rest of the pistachios until they are almost powdery—but not a superfine dust. Stir the pistachio powder into the reserved coarse pistachios. Sift the flours, cardamom, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together over the large bowl containing the pistachio mix. Stir to combine.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and shortening on medium speed until creamy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl, add the whole egg, and beat until just combined. Turn the mixer to low.

In a measuring cup, make 1 ½ cups ice water. Add the flour mixture to the mixer in three parts, alternating with the ice water, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. For each addition, turn the mixer to low to add ingredients, then up to medium speed for a few seconds until incorporated. Scrape down the bowl, then mix on low speed for a few more seconds.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form (You can do this by hand. Don’t be intimidated, it should only take 2 to 3 minutes). Do not overbeat. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

Divide the batter among the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pans to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes. Turn the cakes out onto the rack and let cool completely. Remove the parchment paper.

Next, make the icing. In large bowl, cream shortening and butter in a stand mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use.

Place one cake layer on a serving platter. Trim the top to create a flat surface, and evenly spread about 1 ¼ cups frosting on top. Add the next layer, trim and frost it, then add the third layer. Spread a very thin layer of frosting over the sides and top of the cake and put it in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to firm up. (This is known as crumb coating and will help to keep loose cake crumbs under control when you frost the outside of the cake.) Spread the sides and top of the cake with the remaining frosting. Garnish the cake with crushed pistachios and refrigerate it for 15 minutes to it firm up before serving.

Candles are in after the cake was cut so someone could have a to-go slice before heading to work!

Tea Tasting: Whisky Cake

Thanks to Traczie for the great photos of the tea party!

I have several books from this really cute series of Favourite Recipes that cost about $2 each on Amazon, and they feature recipes from various parts of the UK. The recipe that I’m using today is from the Scottish Teatime Recipes book.

I made this for the Tea Tasting we had last month. Instead of one big cake, I made it in mini muffin tins, which were a great size, but the brown sugar in the recipe really caramalized onto even my awesome nonstick pan, making them a little hard to get out. I also made a couple of mini rounds, which would probably be a perfect personal cake size.

I made a few changes, and you can play with the ratio of the icing until it suits you, but these were quite popular and I’ll likely make a variation of them again.

Ingredients: Cake

3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup soft brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup whisky (I used Jameson)
zest of 1 orange

Ingredients: Icing

2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 cup honey
juice of 1 orange
toasted sliced almonds to decorate (optional)
1 tablespoon whisky (I used Jameson)
orange extract to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 375*F. Grease mini muffin tins (or two 7″ sandwich tins).

Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl. Add the orange zest. Beat in the eggs one at a time and whisk until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Sift in about half the flour and add the whisky. Fold into the mixture. Sift in the remaining flour and fold in.

Distribute the mixture into the tins. Bake for 12-15 minutes for mini muffin tins, 20-25 minutes for sandwich tins, until light golden. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

To make the icing, put the butter into a mixing bowl. Add the honey, whisky, orange extract, and the orange juice. Sift in the icing sugar slowly and work the mixture gradually until the ingredients are combined. When it reaches the desired consistency, spread over the cakes.

Lemon Blueberry Chiffon Cake with Lavender Glaze

Oh, my, I’m so behind on posting recipes. The good news is, I have been doing some good cooking, though, and my arthritis and fibromyalgia have been not tooo terrible, so I’ve been having a pretty active life, as well (leaving me less time to hang out in front of the computer!).

This post really deserves to get online, though, as it’s from all the way back in July, and I know that a lot of people really enjoyed it. This was the second cake that I made for my own birthday! I usually have a yellow cake with chocolate frosting (this year, it was a lightly flavored Cardamom Lime Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting) for my birthday, but I also love, love, love the combination of lemon and lavender together. In fact, my favorite cupcake in probably the entire world is a seasonal cupcake from Sweet Avenue Bake Shop that has lemon filling and lavender icing. Don’t tell, but I’ve got one hoarded away in my freezer now that the season for them has past.

Anyway, lemon and lavender go together in an absolutely gorgeous way. Many people at my party were kind of like, “Huh? Lavender? You can eat that?” and yes, friends, you most certainly can. Bo wanted to put the lavender glaze in his coffee, and Kira wanted to have it made into an ice cream (this is something I am definitely considering). So, the glaze was no problem for me to come up with, but a chiffon cake… that I’d never really worked on before.

I based my recipe for the chiffon cake mostly off of a Betty Crocker recipe, only I (who can guess?) reduced the sugar and bumped up the lemon flavor. Chiffon cake is very light and airy, though, so I didn’t want to reduce the sugar too much for fear of losing the texture, and luckily, it came out just fine. Oh… and feel free to throw some cream of tartar in those egg whites like Betty does – I didn’t have any in the house.

I used little umbrellas to decorate this cake… it seems to have been a day for ridiculous decorations. I bought these at the party store where I also bought an amazingly awesome shark piñata. Mmmhmmm.

Ingredients Cake

2 cups cake flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon zest
juice of 1 lemon
7 egg yolks
8 egg whites
1/3 cup blueberries

Lavender Glaze
1/4 cup dried lavender
3/4 cup milk
drop or two of red food coloring (if desired)
confectioners sugar to desired consistency

Directions

Move oven rack to lowest position. Heat oven to 325°F. In large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat in cold water, oil, vanilla, lemon zest and egg yolks until smooth.

In large bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. (I cannot believe how awesome this works out with my stand mixer!) Gradually pour egg yolk mixture over beaten egg whites, folding with rubber spatula just until blended. Pour into ungreased 10-inch angel food (tube) cake pan (I used a silicone bundt pan). Roll blueberries in flour and drop them into the batter.

Bake about 1 hour 15 minutes or until top springs back when touched lightly. Immediately turn pan upside down onto heatproof funnel or bottle. Let hang until completely cool, about 2 hours. Loosen side of cake with knife or long, metal spatula; remove from pan.

In a small saucepan, simmer milk and lavender until the lavender is infused in the milk. The milk should turn a purple or pink color and be very fragrant. Strain the lavender from the milk. In a small mixing bowl, add confectioners sugar a bit at a time until the glaze thickens to desired consistency. I left the glaze thin so that the lavender really came out and so that it could soak into the cake.

Cardamom Lime Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Yes, I admit it. I bake my own birthday cakes. (I should probably mention that I turned 26 this year, not 6, right?)

For some reason everyone always has a problem with this right up until they lift their forks up to their mouths, and then… well, then they sigh a little, and admit, “You’re right, you’re a baker, no one else here could have made this,” or some similar praise that puts me up on a pedestal.

I’m not a huge cake eater. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that I prefer ice cream above all other sweets, but I’d take a good cookie over cake. But, birthdays are birthdays, and for birthdays, there is cake. (If you’re wondering about my ridiculous decorations… I felt weird telling myself “Happy Birthday!” so instead I declared, “I Was Born!”)

My favorite cake is usually the classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting. When I go to a cupcake shop, like Billy’s Bakery on 9th Ave, that’s what I’ll get, perfectly topped with just a few adorable sprinkles. I wanted to make something nostalgic, but also something a bit more refined, something that showcased how I’d grown in the way that I use flavors. I started thinking about cardamom, with just a bit of lime zest… and finally a chocolate cream cheese frosting to match the tang of the lime.

I don’t bake regular old cakes very frequently, and I still don’t have a go-to recipe for yellow cake. I’ve tried Wilton’s, I’ve tried Betty Crocker’s, I’ve tried some random chick from the internet’s. This time, I tried the “Fluffy Yellow Cake” from America’s Test Kitchen. It was decent, but still not exactly what I was looking for, and it would have been far too sweet had I not (as always) reduced the sugar.

Another thing to note about me is that I almost never bake cakes that require separating eggs. It usually ends up being wasteful around here, but since I had plans for a Lemon Blueberry Chiffon Cake with a Lavender Glaze, my eggs actually worked out!

Cardamom Lime Cake – Ingredients

2 1/2 cups cake flour, plus extra for dusting pans
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup sugar
10 tablespoons unsalted butter , melted and cooled slightly
1 cup milk, room temperature
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cardamom
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon lime zest
6 large egg yolks, room temperature
3 large egg whites, room temperature

Cardamom Lime Cake – Directions

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a giant round cake pan if you’re going to make the ridiculous thing that I did, otherwise, this will make two 9″ pans. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar together in large bowl. In medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, milk, oil, vanilla, and yolks.

In clean bowl of stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat egg whites at medium-high speed until foamy, about 30 seconds. Continue to beat until stiff peaks just form, 30 to 60 seconds (whites should hold peak but mixture should appear moist). Transfer to bowl and set aside.

Add flour mixture to now-empty mixing bowl fitted with whisk attachment. With mixer running at low speed, gradually pour in butter mixture and mix until almost incorporated (a few streaks of dry flour will remain), about 15 seconds. Stop mixer and scrape whisk and sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium-low speed and beat until smooth and fully incorporated, 10 to 15 seconds.

Using rubber spatula, stir 1/3 of whites into batter to lighten, then add remaining whites and gently fold into batter until no white streaks remain. Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans. Lightly tap pans against counter 2 or 3 times to dislodge any large air bubbles.

Bake until cake layers begin to pull away from sides of pans and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen cakes from sides of pans with small knife, then invert onto greased wire rack. Invert cakes again and cool completely on rack, about 1 1/2 hours.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting – Ingredients

Well, Bo woke up before I did on the day of the party, so he got started on the frosting. I can’t be sure exactly what ratios were used, only that it was based off of my Maple Cream Cheese Frosting recipe that he found on here, haha, and that when I did wake up, I kept saying, “I want a darker chocolate.”

So, I’m guessing that it was something like…

1 stick unsalted butter
8 oz cream cheese
1/2-3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 cup confectioners sugar

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting – Directions

Make someone else get up earlier than you on the day of your party. Have them dump all the ingredients in the stand mixer and have at it until smooth. If desired, add more confectioners sugar or more cocoa powder. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before frosting.

Mini Chocolate Chip Ricotta Cakes

Yesterday, I finally got a chance to search through my Moosewood Cookbook that I’ve had for ages. I tried not to get too distracted on the desserts, since we were looking for easy entrees that we would both enjoy. We found lots, and we were inspired to make calzones last night. I also wrote down the names of a bunch of other recipes that we want to make so the next time we are contemplating what to make for dinner, we can go to that list, instead of searching the Internet.

Since we were making calzones, however, I couldn’t help but want to make the ricotta cake, since we were going to have a big tub of ricotta anyway. This recipe is based loosely on the Moosewood Cookbook recipe, however, I’ve made a handful of changes, like adding a graham cracker crust, for example.

Do yourself a favor. Use a springform pan if you’re making a cheesecake. If you’re not using the graham cracker crust that I recommend, use an aluminum pan that you can just eat out of, or, I suppose you could try cupcake liners. Putting them in a regular pan…. just will not be successful!

Ingredients

2 cups ricotta
2 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
5 tablespoons flour
1.5 teaspoons vanilla
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1.5 teaspoons lemon zest
1.5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
6 fresh mint leaves, put through a food processor or minced extremely finely (I used my SlapChop)
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (more if you like)
12 mini graham cracker crusts (I bought them pre-made)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

I used my stand mixer, but you can use a food processor or a bowl and a hand mixer.

Add ricotta, sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, almond extract, vanilla, lemon zest, lemon juice, and minced mint to the bowl and stir completely. Scrape the sides of the bowl and stir again.

Fold in mini chocolate chips.

Scoop about 1/4 cup of the ricotta mixture into the premade graham cracker crusts. Place crusts on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until solid in the center.

Cool completely, then chill until cold.

Blue Ribbon Blueberry Crumb Pie

This pie was by far my favorite out of any at the pie-eating contest, and I’m definitely going to try to squeeze in another one before all the blueberries disappear from the supermarket shelves (or the prices rise dramatically as they are shipped in from lands far far away). People were clamoring to get a piece of this pie, be it because they were biased because the winner of the pie-eating contest had blueberry, or because of the rave reviews that traveled fast throughout the backyard.

Most blueberry pie recipes require you to cook the blueberries on the stove before you put it into the pie crust. Frankly, I thought this was crap, as I didn’t see why I needed to boil it down into gush, add more sugar than I ever do, and add more steps and more dishes to do when I was already making approximately two dozen pies. I searched and searched, and I finally found a recipe that didn’t pre-cook the blueberries. The magic ingredient was cornstarch, which would thicken the berries as they baked in the oven. I think our pie turned out way better than pre-cooked glop.

Though this pie hasn’t won any contests (yet!), we’re calling it blue ribbon since it was the blueberry pie that Joseph had when he won All Over Your Face 2009.

To make the exact pie that won the competition, just remove the crumb topping and instead of the lattice, make a double crust like in Mommy™’s Peach Pie.

Ingredients

1 pastry for double-crust pie (I used Charlie’s Consistent Win Pie Crust

1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup white sugar (taste your berries to see how sweet they are – you may need a little more or less)
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon lemon zest (I was down to the wire with guests coming when I made this, so I used about 2 teaspoons of lemon juice – next time I’ll probably do 1 tsp juice, 1 tsp zest)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
I might have put a dash of nutmeg in, too? I can’t remember.
3 cups fresh blueberries

Crumb Topping:
2/3 cup crushed cinnamon graham crackers
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter

Directions

In a medium sized bowl, stir the lemon juice and zest into the blueberries. Next, add the vanilla, cinnamon, sugar, and water. Sprinkle the cornstarch around the top, then mix it into the bowl.

Next, in a separate bowl, prepare the crumb topping. Mix graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar and flour. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or a fork until crumbly. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Roll out half the dough and place it into the pie pan. Give the blueberries another good stir, then dump the mixture into the pie crust, mounding them in the middle if possible.

Wash your hands, since we usually do this next part with our hands. Carefully pour the crumb topping into the center of the pie crust, leaving about an inch of blueberry showing around the edge in between the crust and the topping. Pack the crumb fairly tightly, again, creating a mound in the center of the pie.

Next, roll out the rest of your pie crust, making strips to form a lattice top crust. If you need detailed directions on how to make the lattice crust, they’re also in Charlie’s Consistent Win Pie Crust recipe.

Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes or until the crust is browning and the blueberry filling is bubbling. Depending on how much filling you have or how picky you are about having a clean oven, you may want to set your pie tin on some aluminum foil or on top of a baking sheet covered in parchment to catch any drips of sticky fruit.

Lime Bar Pie

It’s been two weeks since the pie-eating contest, so any remnants that you may have smuggled home are long gone, unless you were smart enough to pop a slice into your freezer for a delicious treat in the future. For most people, though, the pie coma has worn off, the nausea from inhaling the equivalent of several slices of pie at once has passed, and, well… you’re kinda craving some pie again.

Thankfully, friends, we’ve been renovating at my place of work, so my normal workload has been reduced significantly. Hell, I couldn’t even hear the phone ringing over the jackhammers at one point yesterday, so, while I had to be in the building, I certainly had a bit of time to get these pie recipes all sussed out, and they should appear in dribs and drabs in the next few days.

First, let’s get down to the Lime Bar Pie. Our recent guest baker, Jack, “does not eat of the cooked fruit,” so we had to come up with some kind of alternative for the competition. Charlie and I had agreed that all of the pies had to be double-crusted to ensure fairness, so something like a meringue was out. We copied my lemon bar recipe, except with lime, except into a pie crust, with a few alterations. In our haste of frantic pie-baking, we neglected to take some glamour shots of a few of the pies, but I thought these pictures of the aftermath of the contest would work just as well. Today’s photo is by one of our guests, Jordan Cooper.

I made one big lime pie just for eating, and it didn’t have a double crust. You can make yours double or single, or even just make the lime filling to top the crust from the London Ladies Lemon Bars recipe.

You may want to double this recipe. One of our guests, Lawrence, rang me a day or two after the contest. I’d sent home a piece of lime pie with him, and he left me a voicemail saying, “I was wondering if there was any of that lime pie left because I gave my piece to [his friend] Nick… and it was [pause] so good.”

Edit: I almost forgot that I meant to give special thanks to Bo Randall, who zested and juiced alllllll of the limes for this pie. When we were making our Epic Brunch the other day and he was grating sweet potatoes, he grumbled playfully, “I feel like I’m zesting limes all over again!” <3

Ingredients

1 pastry for single-crust pie (I used Charlie’s Consistent Win Pie Crust) or 1/4 the crust from London Ladies Lemon Bars
2 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour, maybe another tablespoon or two
3/4 cup limes juice, with pulp
Zest of 3 or so limes
confectioners sugar for dusting

Directions

Preheat oven to 375.

Roll out pie dough for bottom crust and place in pie pan. Trim edges.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, white sugar, flour, limes, and zest. Taste mixture to ensure that it is not too tart. If needed, add more sugar.

Pour lime mixture into pie pan. Put aluminum foil around the edges of the pie crust so that it doesn’t burn. Remove the foil a few minutes before taking it out of the oven.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the pie crust is golden brown and the lime filling has set.

Let cool, and dust with confectioner’s sugar immediately before serving.

Fluffy Lemon Cookies (with Blueberries or Coconut)

Not the best photo, taken on my slightly working iPhone in our hotel room. We went away for the weekend (to Philadelphia, as I previously mentioned) and I personally took it upon myself to feed everyone I encountered along the way. Once the zucchini bread was in the oven, I started on making a huge batch of lemon cookies. Of course, you can reduce it if you’re feeding a smaller crowd.

Ingredients

1 cup butter
1/4 cups and 1 tablespoon shortening
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 egg
5 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons honey
3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 cup plain yogurt
2-3 tablespoons zest
Juice of 2-3 lemons (3 stubborn lemons, 2 juicy lemons)

1/2 cup coconut (optional)
1/2 cup blueberries (optional)
sugar crystals (optional)

Directions

In a small mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Combine honey, yogurt, lemon zest and lemon juice. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture alternately with honey mixture.

Portion onto wax paper to press into rolls of cookie dough for slicing later. Place some of the dough onto the center of a sheet of wax paper. Pull half the sheet over so the ends meet. Use the edge of a baking tray to force the dough into the desired roll shape. Tuck the ends in to close.

Refrigerate (or freeze if you’re in a hurry) until firm (about 4 hours).

Remove from fridge and unroll wax paper. Cut into 1/4 inch thick slices. Press blueberries into dough, dunk in sugar crystals, or sprinkle coconut on top, if desired.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks.

London Ladies Lemon Bars

My friend Mary and I went to college together, then studied abroad together in London one semester. We graduated a year ago, and haven’t seen much of each other since, what with her being out on Staten Island and me being out in Rockland County. It’s a multi-step public transportation adventure.

She came to visit me today for an impromptu baking party. You see, a week or so ago, the car that my partner and I share broke down a mere one block from my job, and two of the guys that work in the building next door helped me push it to the side of the road. Naturally, I feel that a reward of some sweets is in order, and Mary helped me bake all day. We made a zucchini bread test run that’s a thank you for someone else, dozens of chocolate chippers, and, our proudest accomplishment, these lemon bars.

If you’ve ever read even one of my recipes, you’ll know that I don’t like super sweet things. If you’ve ever tasted a lemon bar, you’ll know that it’s easy for them to get sickening quite quickly. We aimed for a much more tart lemon filling, and we think they came out wonderfully.

The recipe that we started with is here, but we made drastic changes, including some that other reviewers suggested, and plenty that we came up with on our own.

(The following is directions for a doubled yield of two 9×13 pans. You can cut it in half if you want to for one pan only.)

Ingredients

Dough:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups confectioners sugar
1 cups butter
1/2 cup shortening

Filling:
6 eggs
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, maybe another tablespoon or two
1 1/2 cup lemon juice, with pulp
Zest of 5 or so lemons, (about 3-4 tablespoons of zest)
confectioners sugar for dusting

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 9×13 baking pans with parchment paper or grease well (parchment is strongly preferred).

Cream 3 cups flour, 1 1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar, butter, and shortening. Pat dough into prepared pan.

Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until slightly golden. While the crust is baking, whisk together eggs, white sugar, remaining flour, and lemon juice until frothy. Pour this lemon mixture over the hot crust.

Return to the preheated oven for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, or until light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Dust the top with confectioners’ sugar. Cut into squares.

I packaged them nicely in reused materials… Plastic strawberry and tomato bins, decorated with an ad cut out of a magazine. I put strips of wax paper in between so that they didn’t get stuck together. Pretty cute!