Lemon curd

Reading food blogs and cookbooks is wonderful. But it can also be devastating for a curious person like me. I won’t rest until I make/try something new... And lemon curd was absolutely new to me.

Lemon curd is not part of our food habits here in Brazil and I had not known about it until I started blogging. Being the citrus freak that I am, it immediately caught my attention. No lemon curd in grocery stores around here?? No problem – off to the kitchen to make some.

I had some egg yolks left from the Zuger Kirschtorte and, with Rose Levy’s book on one hand and some beautiful lemons on the other, I was determined to taste what my fellow foodies loved so much.

It was... Sublime. I would never have thought that something so delicious would come up from mixing only eggs, butter and lemons. I want to use it as a cake filling, too.

It says on the recipe that the curd can be refrigerated for up to 3 weeks, but I think that after the first week the flavor was a little off, kind of eggy.

Lemon curd
from The Cake Bible

4 large egg yolks
½ cup + 2 tablespoons (125g) sugar
3 fl oz (93ml or about 2 ½ large lemons) lemon juice, freshly squeezed
4 tablespoons (56g) unsalted butter, softened
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

In a heavy noncorrodible saucepan beat the yolks and sugar until well blended. Stir in the remaining ingredients except the lemon zest. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and resembling a thin hollandaise sauce, which thickly coats a wooden spoon but is still liquid enough to pour. The mixture will change from translucent to opaque and being to take on a yellow color on the back of wooden spoon. It must not be allowed to boil or it will curdle. Whenever steam appears, remove briefly from heat, stirring constantly to keep from boiling. When the curd has thickened, pour at once into a strainer. Press with the back of a spoon until only coarse residue remains; discard the residue. Stir in the lemon zest and cool – more sugar can be added to taste while the curd is still warm, but I did not think it was necessary.
Pour into an airtight container. The curd will continue to thicken while resting and chilling.

Makes 1 full cup

Cheese Stuffed Crusty Rolls

Choosing something doesn’t always have to be a difficult task – and that coming from the one who can take forever to decide which recipe to prepare is quite an improvement. Sometimes, we just know where to find it.

If you have a twisted, weird, crazy-looking role, you get Gary Oldman. Very simple. And if you want beautiful, delicious, out of this world desserts, you just go to Helen’s blog. But she can bake some seriously good savory recipes as well – yeah, I know, there’s nothing to be surprised here. :)

The cheese stuffed crusty rolls she posted in May were fantastic and the idea of using herbes de Provence in their filling sounded brilliant.

I have a challenge for you: make these and DO NOT eat them all the minute they are out of the oven. :)

Cheese Stuffed Crusty Rolls

Starter:
1 ¼ cups (175g) bread flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon instant yeast
½ cup (120ml) cool water

Dough:
all of the starter
1 cup (240ml) + 2 tablespoons to 1 ¼ cups (300ml) lukewarm water – I used 300ml
½ teaspoon salt
3 ½ cups (490g) all purpose flour
½ teaspoon instant yeast

Filling:
1 ½ cups (280g/10oz) grated Monterey Jack cheese – I used the yellow mozzarella we have here, that seems to be really similar to Monterey Jack
1 cup grated parmesan
2 tablespoons herbes de Provence

To make the starter: mix the 1 ¼ cups flour, salt, yeast, and ½ cup water in a medium-sized bowl. Mix till well combined. Cover with plastic and let rest overnight at room temperature.

Make the filling: mix well all the ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.

To make the dough: combine the risen starter with the water, salt, flour, and yeast. Knead by hand or with a stand mixer for a few minutes (I went with 5 minutes by hand, like Helen did). Place it in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and let it rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours, until it’s nearly doubled in size. Gently deflate the dough, and pat and stretch it into a ¾ inch-thick rectangle, about 9x12in (23x30cm). Spritz with water, and sprinkle with the grated cheese and the herbs. Starting with a long side, roll it into a log, pinching the seam to seal. Place the log, seam-side down, on a lightly floured or lightly oiled surface. Cover it and let it rise for 1 to 1 ½ hours, till it’s puffy though not doubled in size. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 220ºC/425ºF. Gently cut the log into four crosswise slices, for mini-breads; or simply cut the dough in half, for two normal-sized loaves. Place them on one (for two loaves) or two (for four mini-loaves) lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheets, cut side up. Spread them open a bit, if necessary, to more fully expose the cheese and close the other end. Spritz with warm water, and immediately place them in the preheated oven. Bake for 20 minutes (for the mini-loaves), or 35 minutes (for the full-sized loaves), or until the cheese is melted and the loaves are a very deep golden brown. Remove them from the oven, and cool on a rack.

Note: You can also roll the log and cut 12 slices from it and set them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and proceed with the recipe as written.

Orange syrup cake

Remember Jim Profit?? He was a bad, bad guy. I think he and Patty Hewes could go hand in hand with their cruelty. Come to think of it... Who am I kidding? No one could ever match Patty Hewes. :)

I had been meaning to make this recipe for months – the magazine I got it from (DH #35) is from November/2007!

The original calls for blood oranges but since I have never seen them in Brazil, I used regular oranges instead. I remember trying blood orange juice when I was in Berlin last year, it was so refreshing and good! Too bad I can’t find it here.

I don’t know if regular oranges would match blood oranges in this cake – if someone tries it, I’d love to hear it!

Gently cook the oranges in the syrup and try not to stir them too much, so they will look nice and pretty on the cake.

Orange syrup cake
from Donna Hay magazine

- metric and imperial measurements found in the magazine; I used my scale

4 eggs
1 cup (220g/7 ¾oz) caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (150g/5 ¼oz) self-raising flour
150g (5 ¼oz) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup (110g/3¾ oz) almond meal
1 tablespoon lemon zest

Sticky orange topping:
1 cup (220g/7 ¾ oz) caster sugar
½ cup (125ml/4 fl oz) water
2 large oranges, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/320ºF. To make the sticky orange topping, place the sugar and water in a large non-stick frying pan (I used a regular stainless steel pan) over medium heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add the oranges and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the oranges are soft. Remove from heat and set aside.
Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk for 8-10 minutes or until thick, pale and tripled in volume. Sift the flour over the egg mixture and fold through. Add the butter, almond meal and lemon zest and fold through.
Grease and double line the base and sides of a 20cm (8in) round cake pan with non-stick baking paper – make sure you use a deep pan and leave about 1inch (2.5cm) paper hanging out of it to hold the cake batter once it starts rising. Arrange the orange slices on the base and around the sides, reserving the syrup. Pour over the cake batter and bake for 50-60 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Turn the cake onto a wire rack and spoon over some of the reserved syrup. Allow to cool before serving and serve the remaining syrup in a separate bowl.

Serves 8

Marbled lemon-blueberry butter cake

I’m afraid of certain things. Robert de Niro and his long nails, Dakota Fanning – they scare the bejeesus out of me. And I almost had a heart attack the night I dreamed that Amy Winehouse was my doctor.

Making jam?? That is pretty scary. I think I could mix the ingredients together and check the jam for doneness, but I couldn’t sterilize jars correctly if my life depended on it.
That’s why this recipe seemed perfect – I love lemon and love berries. I would never be able to resist combining both in a jam to become the filling for a luscious butter cake, no sterilizing involved. Of course, a picture of the cake in the book was pretty convincing as well. :)

Don’t be put off by the different stages of this recipe – the result is worth every minute of the making. I halved the recipe and used two 15cm (6in) pans - don't do it like me and use larger pans.

Marbled lemon-blueberry butter cake
from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes

Lemon-blueberry preserves:
3 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen*
¾ cup (150g) sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

Cake:
8 ounces (224g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups (400g) sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 ½ teaspoons lemon extract – I used lemon juice
7 egg whites
3 cups (420g) cake flour**
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups (300ml) milk

Lemon buttercream frosting:
1 cup (200g) sugar
¼ cup (60ml) water
2 eggs
12 ounces (336g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Fresh blueberries, for decoration – I used crystallized violets

Make the preserves first, since you’ll swirl some of it into the cake batter: purée the blueberries, with any juices they have exuded, in a blender or food processor. Pass the puré e through a coarse strainer or the medium disk of a food mill to remove the skins.

In a heavy medium nonreactive saucepan, combine the blueberry purée with the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and ginger. Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Continue cooking, stirring often, for 20 minutes, until the preserves have thickened and are reduced to 1 cup. To check for proper thickness, place 1 to 2 teaspoons on a small china or glass plate and put it in the freezer until cold. Drag your finger through the thickened purée: a clear path should remain. If it's not ready, cook 5 minutes longer and repeat the test. Let the preserves cool, then cover and refrigerate for up to 5 days.

Prepare the cake: preheat the oven to 350ºF (175ºC). Butter the bottom and sides of three 8-inch (20cm) round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment or waxed paper and butter the paper.

In a mixer bowl, cream the butter, sugar, lemon zest, and lemon extract until light and fluffy. Gradually add the egg whites, 2 or 3 at a time, beating well between additions and stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; whisk gently to blend. In 2 or 3 alternating additions, beat the dry ingredients and milk into the butter mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl several times. Beat on medium-high speed for about 1 minute to smooth out any lumps and aerate the batter.

Scoop 1 cup of the batter into a small bowl. Divide the remainder equally among the 3 prepared cake pans, smoothing the tops with a rubber spatula. This gives you a "clean canvas" to work with. Add 2 1/2 tablespoons of the Lemon-Blueberry Preserves to the reserved batter and blend well. Drizzle heaping teaspoons of this blueberry mixture over the batter in the pans. Using a skewer or paring knife, swirl the blueberry mixture in short strokes to drag it down through the lemon batter without mixing it in.
Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a cake tester or wooden toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean and the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Let the layers cool in their pans for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire racks, carefully peel off the paper liners, and let cool completely, at least 1 hour.

Make the frosting: in a small nonreactive saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Continue to boil without stirring, occasionally washing down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush, until the syrup reaches the soft-ball stage, 238ºF (114ºC) on a candy thermometer. Immediately remove from the heat.

In a large mixer bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs briefly. Slowly add the hot syrup in a thin stream, pouring it down the sides of the bowl; be careful to avoid hitting the beaters, or the syrup may splatter. When all the syrup has been added, raise the speed to medium-high and beat until the mixture is very fluffy and cooled to body temperature. This can take 15 to 20 minutes.

Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and gradually add the softened butter, 2 to 3 tablespoons at a time, beating well between additions. As you're adding the last few tablespoons of butter, the frosting will appear to break, then suddenly come together like whipped butter. Beat in the lemon juice, and the frosting is ready for use.

To assemble the cake: place a cake layer, flat side up, on a cake stand or serving plate. Spread half of the Lemon-Blueberry Preserves over the top. Place a second layer on top of the first and spread the remaining preserves over it. Finally, place the third layer on top of the second and frost the sides and top of the cake with the lemon buttercream Frosting. Decorate with fresh blueberries.

* if using frozen berries, measure them while frozen, then thaw completely in a bowl, saving any juices, before proceeding with the recipe.

** there’s no cake flour here in Brazil, so I used a substitute I found on the web: 1 cup cake flour = 7/8 cup (123g) all purpose flour + 2 tablespoons corn starch

Serves 16-20

Jam sandwich cookies

Baking cookies is not something common here in Brazil, so the ones I had growing up were of the store-bought variety. As a kid, I was never a fan of sandwich cookies. My friends and cousins loved them, and they would even open up the cookie and eat the entire filling first. The cookies I liked were the simple, plain ones. Like digestive cookies and such. When I was 6-7 there were cookies shaped like the characters from “The Flintstones” – those were my absolute favorites.

But things change and now I like many types of cookies – pretty much all, I could say. The lovely Steph is holding a special event and she wants to know her readers’ favorite cookies. Mine are lemon cookies (surprise, surprise). :)
Go there and take part, too – there’s a prize involved!

Even though there’s no lemon in these, they are delicious, too – I made them for a friend who had a hard time a couple of weeks ago.

My only advice here is to avoid much too sweet jams – in my opinion, a tart filling would go better with these cookies.

Jam sandwich cookies
from here

Baking Mix:
3 cups (420g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
1 ½ cups (300g) sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ tablespoon salt

Cookies:
4 cups Baking Mix, spooned and leveled
1 cup (2 sticks/226g) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
½ cup (120ml) whole milk
1 cup seedless jam or jelly – I used blackberry jam, seeds and all

Start by making the mix: in a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 months. Whisk before using.
Makes about 4 ¼ cups – you’ll need 4 for the recipe

Now, the cookies: preheat oven to 175ºC/350ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a food processor, pulse baking mix and butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add milk; pulse until a dough forms – I used the Kitchen Aid with the paddle attachment.

Drop dough by heaping tablespoons* onto sheets, 3 inches (7.5cm) apart - you will fit about 9 cookies to a sheet; bake in two batches to make a total of 36 cookies. Bake until cookies begin to turn golden but center is still pale, 12 to 14 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Spread flat side of half the cookies with 2 teaspoons jam each; sandwich with remaining cookies.

Makes 18
* I did not want very large cookies, so I used leveled tablespoons of dough and got 25 sandwich cookies