Intensely Lemon

This post has been sitting in my files, waiting until I'm feeling better (have had a nasty cold since about Feb. 10), but I think it is getting stale, while I'm still coughing, so posting it anyway! I would probably be completely back to normal but I have kept doing scholarship group work and have even gone out for a couple of meals, so not everything has been on hold. True, I've read a lot of books and spent time in bed...never a terrible thing, right? The lemon bread is long gone, but I will make it again...it was really good!

I've always loved the flavor of fresh lemon. Lemonade is still one of my favorite beverages and lemon sugar cookies were my favorite as a child, even more than chocolate chip. Our local dairy made a lemon custard ice cream to die for. There is something fresh and bold about lemon that wakes things up.

Recently a friend gave me some Meyer lemons from her home garden. It took me longer than I would have liked to get to this next recipe, but life has been super busy, so what can you do?

Although I've made lemon quick breads before, this time I tried a new recipe from Rosemary of An Italian In My Kitchen. I was intrigued that you cut soft butter into the dry ingredients as you do for pie crust, then add the egg-milk mixture. I really wanted to see how that turned out! It also meant that I could do everything by hand and in just two bowls...one for the egg-milk mixture one one for the batter. Of course I used soy milk and cut in soft non-dairy margarine, but I'll bet it would be even better with unsalted butter and whole milk. Keep an eye on it toward the end of baking time. There is enough sugar in the batter that it burns easily. Check it with a toothpick earlier than the suggested time, just to be sure.

This is a delicious, intensely lemon flavored loaf, with the texture of a pound cake. I doubled the amount of lemon zest called for and doubled the amount of syrup for brushing on after the loaf is finished, while still warm. I also poked some thin holes all over the top before adding the syrup, so that it could penetrate into the loaf. All of that added to the lemon effect and to making each bite moist and delicious. With a cup of hot tea it's pure heaven!

If you only have one lemon, I'm sure that you could follow the recipe and it would still be a yummy lemon loaf. This would make a wonderful gift, too, and it is dense enough that it would probably ship well. Extra lemons? Make one to give and one to keep!

Fresh Lemon Bread
adapted from Rosemary at An Italian In My Kitchen

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (zest from one lemon) (I used zest from 2 lemons)
4 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice (22 ml) (I used about twice this amount, juice from two lemons)
2 1/4 cups flour (270 grams)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (7 1/2 grams)
3/4 teaspoon salt (4 grams)
1 1/4 cups + 2 tablespoons sugar, divided (276 grams)(I added another tablespoon for the pan)
3/4 cup butter softened (170 grams) (I used non-dairy margarine)
3 eggs, large
3/4 cup milk (177 ml) (I used soy milk)

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C), grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. (I sprinkled a tablespoon extra of sugar over the part I greased, but it would be fine without and might not burn so easily).

In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and 1 1/4 cups sugar, add the softened butter and, with a pastry blender, blend until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the lemon peel.

In a small bowl, put the eggs and beat lightly with a fork, add milk, and mix until combined, then pour this mixture into the flour mixture and stir just until flour is moistened.

In the prepared loaf pan add the batter. Bake for 1 - 1 1/4 hours (or until toothpick comes out clean). Cool, then move to a wire rack.

In a small pot add 4 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Stir to combine. Over medium heat, stirring constantly, bring to a boil until thickened. With a pastry brush, brush syrup over the top of the bread. (I poked holes with a wooden skewer while bread was warm and then brushed on the syrup over the warm bread until it was all absorbed. I let it sit in the pan until cool, then turned it out onto a serving board.)

Tightly wrap any leftovers and store in the refrigerator.

Summertime Cake

The Cake Slice Bakers had some great choices this month. The Black and White Layer Cake sounded great and so did the Sour Cream Coffee Cake and Blueberry Surprise, but the one that grabbed my attention was the Zucchini Loaf from Seattle. It's baked in a large loaf pan, is moist from the shredded zucchini and uses veggie oil instead of butter.

I'm a summer gardener. I love planting flowers like morning glory and zinnia and veggies like cucumbers and beans. My two favorites are tomatoes and zucchini. Some years the snails decimate the veggie starts and so we only get one or two zucchini a week. Other years, like this one, we are harvesting a decent sized zucchini from at least four plants every day. Now we love zucchini and eat it just about every day, plus we give lots away, but that's a lot of zucchini. This recipe used up one and a half zucchini. Maybe I should make multiple recipes to freeze as Christmas gifts?

Anyway I decided to make the zucchini loaf, but since I discovered chocolate zucchini bread a few years ago I can't go back to plain, spiced loaves. It was easy to convert this recipe to chocolate, so that's what I did. I actually like this recipe better than my old one, so thank you Maida!

Be sure to check out what the other Cake Slice Bakers have baked this month. It's always fun to see which recipe had their name on it!

Zucchini Loaf From Seattle - Amended
from Maida Heatter's Cakes

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
scant 1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used Bensdorp Dutch-processed cocoa from King Arthur Flour)
2 cups shredded zucchini, packed, about 1 pound zucchini
2 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or grease a 10 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan (10-cup capacity) or two loaf pans with combined 10-cup capacity. (I used a 9.5 x 5 x 2 1/2-inch pan and a tiny loaf pan for the remaining batter.) Dust the pan or pans with fine, dry bread crumbs and tap to shake out excess crumbs.

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, espresso powder and cocoa powder. Set aside.

Clean the zucchini well and cut off the ends, then shred into large slivers. Don't drain. Pack into a 2-cup measure and set aside.

Beat together the eggs, sugar and oil, then add the vanilla and beat to combine. Add the sifted dry ingredients and beat to mix. Mixture will be thick. Add the zucchini, along with any moisture that has collected and mix thoroughly. The zucchini shreds thin the batter a little. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Scoop dough into the prepared pan(s), smooth the top(s), and bake. A large pan will take about 1 hour and 35-50 minutes. A cake tester gently inserted into the middle comes out clean and dry (except, maybe, for melted chocolate chips). Batter will rise up as it bakes and form a crack on top. That's O.K. 

Smaller pans will take less time. Check after 40 minutes. My tiny one was done in 30 minutes.

Cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Cover with a rack, turn over and remove the pan, turn over again. Cake will be right side up.

This cake is delicious when still slightly warm.

An InLinkz Link-up

Sweet Bananas and Persimmons

The rains came last week (about 8 inches in 5 days) and knocked most of the leaves off the trees. That made some trees look pretty bleak, but not our persimmon tree.

One of the harbingers of winter around here are the bright orange persimmons hanging like early Christmas ornaments on the bare branches of their trees. Our tree is a Hayachi, the kind that need to be soft, almost squishy, in order to be edible. I brought an unripe, hard one in to be part of the Thanksgiving table decorations and it is finally soft enough to use.

Today there were also a few very ripe bananas on the plate with the new greenish ones that Sweetie likes. I decided to combine the two fruits in one sweet quick bread. With the addition of some molasses and spices it is the perfect seasonal treat. This one is very moist. You get a hint of the persimmon flavor and a bit more of the banana. Fortunately they complement each other. Sweetie was a big fan of this combo and of the moistness, plus he has always liked thing with molasses flavors.

The butter needs to be soft, the eggs at room temperature and the fruit very ripe. It only makes one loaf, but it just might become your favorite tea bread when persimmons are ripe. Now you know what I'm going to be baking when the persimmons now on the tree are ripe in a few weeks. Hope you'll try it, too.

Persimmon Banana Spice Bread

1 fully ripe persimmon (about 1/3 pound)
2-3 ripe bananas
1 ½ plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon dried orange peel, ground
2 large eggs
¼ cup molasses
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1. Adjust oven rack to the lower third position and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter an 8 ½ by 4 ½ by 2 ¾ inch loaf pan; set aside.

2. Pull the stems off the persimmon and cut lengthwise in half. With a teaspoon or grapefruit spoon, scoop the pulp out into a bowl. Use a pastry blender or potato masher to chop or mash the pulp into small pieces; you should still have some pieces of persimmon mixed with the pureed pulp. Set aside. Peel and mash the bananas, also leaving some small pieces mixed with the very mashed pulp. Set aside.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, spices and orange peel together; set aside.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter until light. Add the brown sugar and beat until light. Add the molasses and beat to combine thoroughly.

5. Add the eggs to the butter mixture and beat to combine. Mixture may look curdled. That is OK. Stir in the persimmon pulp and banana pulp with a rubber spatula. Add the flour mixture and stir only until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and smooth the top(s). (Note: I stirred in the fruit and then the flour mixture using a stand mixer and was careful to not overmix…it worked fine.)

6. Bake for about 1 hour and 5 minutes, until the bread is well browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The bread will be quite dark, especially on the edges, but if loaf/loaves start to brown too much before being done, lay a piece of aluminum foil, shiny side up, loosely on top during the last 30 minutes or so of baking.

7. Cool in the pan(s) on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Run a small sharp knife around the side(s) to release the bread, and carefully unmold. Set right side up on a rack to cool completely. Wrap airtight. The bread can be frozen for up to 2 months.

Heartwarming Sweets and a Giveaway

One of the benefits of writing a food blog is that occasionally you are offered the opportunity to review cookbooks or try out new products and give your opinion. I don't accept every offer I receive but now and then I find one to be a good fit. I imagine they do the same thing before offering...take a look at the blog and see if they go well together.

Recently I received an e-mail from a publicist at Thomas Nelson, long time publisher of a variety of books. After checking out a few of the titles online I became enthused about trying out some recipes in their books.

The first book I've tried is Bless Your Heart, Saving the World Once Covered Dish at a Time with Recipes by Patsy Caldwell and Stories by Amy Lyles Wilson. It organizes recipes around gatherings like church suppers, tail gate parties, and bookclubs.

There is a pure Southern sensibility, particularly in the stories at the beginning of each chapter. These recipes are often created to be given as gifts of the heart so, although there are some recipes that are super healthy, many are comfort foods where no one is counting calories.

I belong to a women's scholarship group and we have luncheons twice a month. Many of the casseroles like Scalloped Potatoes with Country Ham and salads like Norma's Pretzel Salad with strawberry gelatin look very familiar even though we are far from the South. Quite a few recipes in Bless Your Heart are American classics like deviled eggs and peanut butter cookies and others are classics with a twist. There are lots of great photos of the recipe results, too (although all these photos are mine).


The first one I tried is a tea or quick bread familiar in that it is leavened with baking powder and baking soda and perked up with spices and nuts. The twist is that you grate pears to add to the batter and they add flavor, moisture and a subtle perfume. I used two firm but ripe red pears and followed the recipe with only two changes: I used half granulated sugar and half brown sugar instead of all white sugar and I used 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup water instead of 3/4 cup oil. I'm a fan of brown sugar and have found in the past that I prefer a bread with less oil, particularly if there is fruit in it to keep it moist.

This sweet bread was really lovely. I like the moist but firm crumb, the understated spiciness and that it isn't too sweet. Sweetie isn't a big fan of pears but he really liked this bread. Some tea breads need embellishments like a glaze or powdered sugar but this one is perfect as is.

I made it on Tuesday and it was still delicious today at tea time so it seems like a good keeper, too. It's nice because it gets stirred up with a spoon in one bowl so the cleanup is quick, too. The next time I make it I'm going to double the recipe so that I can bake three large loaves because I bet it will freeze well, too. It's always nice to have something like Bebe's Pear Bread in the oven to serve to unexpected guest.

The next recipe I tried was old-fashioned peanut butter cookies. These couldn't be simpler and are always a hit with peanut lovers. The only change I made was to include 1/2 cup chopped peanuts since I like crunchy peanut butter and think that some crunch is great in cookies, too. For about half the batter I also added some dark chocolate chips. Peanut butter and chocolate are also a classic combo, so why not? I'm sure they are delightful without either mix-in, too.

A note on quantities: Since I didn't follow the recipes exactly that probably explains the differences, but I found that the Pear Bread only made one large and one tiny loaves, not two large ones. I also found that the Peanut Butter Cookies made closer to 4 dozen than 2 dozen. Since I was eyeballing the amount of dough instead of using a measure and because I added a full cup of additional mix-ins it's not too surprising...and extra cookies are a good thing, right?

In the spirit of full disclosure, I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I'm disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16CFR Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Now for the giveaway...Katherine R. at Thomas Nelson Publishers has generously offered to send copies of the book to up to three readers. All you have to do is comment on this post. I'll post the winners on March 29 from comments received up to noon PDST that day, after which time the winner will need to e-mail me their mailing address so that I can pass it on to the publisher. Winners outside of the U.S. can expect delivery to take up to six weeks.

You'll be glad you have this book the next time you need to bring a dish like Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pie or Cabbage Slaw with Red and Green Apples to a family reunion or pot luck. You will also find recipes for dishes your family will enjoy for weekday meals and special occasions like Fresh from the Garden Tomato Pie or Beef Tenderloin with Blue Cheese Topping.

You can order a copy for yourself at Amazon HERE or at your local bookstore, too. Here is the information on the book: Bless Your Heart, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nov. 2010, ISBN 978-1-4016-0052-5. (BTW - no kickback from Amazon, either, nor from local bookstores.)


BeBe's Pear Bread
Makes two medium loaves - Perfect for a bake sale or for tea

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar (I used 1 cup each granulated and brown sugar)
1 cup chopped pecans
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup canola oil (I used 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup water)
2 cups grated pears (2 large pears)
3 large eggs, slightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pans. Set aside. In a large bowl add the flour, sugars, pecans, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Stir to combine. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add the oil, water, pears, eggs and vanilla. Stir until just moistened. Pour into the prepared loaf pans. Bake for 50 - 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes 2 loaves or 24 servings.

Note: If you are making this recipe for yourself, it is wonderful served with cream cheese.


Peanut butter cookies are a childhood favorite, great in a bagged lunch or for an after school treat. This recipe is just right...tender, buttery, robustly peanutty and perfect with a glass of cold milk.



Classic Peanut Butter Cookies
makes at least 2 dozen medium cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped peanuts (optional)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a large cookie sheet and set aside.

In a large bowl cream teh butter, sugar, brown sugar, and peanut butter until smooth. Add the egg and mix well. In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt together and add to the creamed mixture. Add the vanilla and mix well. If you are using chopped peanuts add them and mix well. You can add the chocolate chips instead of or in addition to the peanuts and can add them now or mix in later as I did.

Scoop the cookie dough 1 tablespoon at a time and roll into a ball. Place each cookie on the prepared cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Flatten with a fork or the bottom of a glass. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool.

Now where's that glass of milk?

Sweet Bread Baking Babes Bake Portuguese

This month the Babes were given a sweet challenge by sweet Babe Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups…to bake Portuguese Sweet Bread. She usually goes with savory but created this bread to please a neighbor from the Azores and it is delightful!

You start with an overnight sponge, including potato water or whey, then make a rich milky sweet dough the next day,

shaping at the end by pressing down four times with a narrow rolling pin, dowel or broom handle (I used a piece of broom handle I found in the barn, first cleaning it well and wrapping it in plastic wrap) which gives a lovely shape with hills and valleys all around. Tanna has excellent illustrations on her site HERE.

An egg wash assures a glossy finish.


We loved this bread, first warm with butter, then toasted with butter and jam, then at room temperature with no adornments


and finally as the most delicious French toast you could imagine!

Sweetie loved it so much that I made it again, using whey instead of potato water, subbing some barley flour and whole wheat flour for a little of the bread flour and adding a little crystallized ginger and golden raisins the second time around for contrast. This is a slightly sticky dough, probably because of the brown sugar. For the second batch I used the full amount, but only 60 grams the first time.

It was a little sweeter and the crumb was softer, too. I like them both so well that it would be hard to choose which is best.


Many thanks for Tanna for choosing the perfect follow up to the Boot Camp bread! Once I read milliliters rather than liters for the liquid it was fairly easy to make, totally delicious and I will undoubtedly make it again often…both versions.


This is the perfect bread for being a Bread Baking Buddy! I can almost guarantee you will love it and anyone else who gets a slice or two will love YOU for making it! As long as you remember to start the sponge the day before, it is pretty easy to make and lovely to look at with the unique shaping. The recipe is below.

To find out how to be a Bread Baking Buddy and to get your Buddy badge:
1. * You have until the 29th to bake the bread and post about it on your blog with a link to the Kitchen of the Month’s post about the bread.
2. *E-mail the Kitchen of the Month with your name and a link to your post OR leave a comment on the Kitchen of the Month’s blog that you have baked the bread and a link back to your post.
3. *Kitchen of the Month will do a round-up of our Bread Baking Buddies at the end of the week and send you a BBB badge for that month’s bread.
4. *No blog, No problem - just e-mail the Kitchen of the Month with a photo of the bread you baked and you’ll be included in the round-up.

Do join in the fun! You have until August 29th. You know you want to!


Sweet Portuguese Bread: Massa Sovada
Mostly from A Baker's Odyssey by Gregg Patent p 221

Keep in mind this requires an overnight sponge.

Ingredients

Over night SPONGE:
72 grams bread flour
2 1/4 teaspoons osmotolerant yeast (instant worked just as well too)
114 milliliters potato water, or whey or water (potato water or whey really make it extra tender & soft) (about ½ cup)

DOUGH:
6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
30 to 100 grams brown sugar
lemon zest
1 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, room temperature
120 milliliters milk, room temperature
460 grams bread flour (second version used a flour blend...see notes below)
2 tablespoons flax seeds, ground
egg wash
melted butter when it comes out of the oven

Method
Mix together the sponge the night before baking the bread. Leave sitting at room temp 8 to 12 hours.

Beat sugar and butter until creamy.

Add zest and salt and beat.

Beat in each egg separately and completely; mix will appear curdled.

Stir in milk and sponge.

Stir in 2 1/2 cups flour and beat vigorously (in a stand mixer it would clear the sides of the bowl, by hand lifting the spoon up stretches the dough about a foot.)

Add remaining flour to make stiff dough. Knead 5 minutes or more to incorporate all the flour:
Dough should be smooth, soft and very supple with a slight stickiness. Looks a little like very thick cake batter or a brioche dough.

Shape into ball, oil bowl and dough ball.

Cover and allow to rise about 2 hours, should almost or triple in size.

Divide into loaves, shaped into balls.

Allow to rest 20 to 30 minutes before final shaping with rolling pin.

To shape, press down firmly with a dowel, narrow rolling pin or clean broom stick. Then press down again to make a cross, press again between to make wedges and then between the other large quarters to make more wedges.

For best demarcation of indents be careful to dust dough ball well with flour.

Shape and place into well oiled cake pans seam side down.

Allow to rise an hour to 2 hours; more than double in size.

Brush with egg wash if you want that beautiful glossy finish.

Bake 350° - 50 minutes as two loaves, 35 minutes as four loaves (mine took less)

Brush with melted butter when hot from the oven (I skipped this step…it is already a pretty rich dough).

If you're really a sweetie, I suppose you might then dust this with sugar. Not me…there is plenty of sugar in the dough, although I can see that an extra dusting of confectioner’s sugar would make it a great dessert base to which you could add berries and whipped cream or ice cream for a very sweet treat.

For the second version I used 55 grams of bread flour and 17 grams barley flour for the sponge, plus some white whole wheat for part of the flour in the dough instead of using all regular unbleached bread flour which is what I used in the first batch. I used the full 100 grams brown sugar for the second batch, too. I left out the zest to give the ginger center stage. After the first rise I kneaded 1 tablespoon chopped crystallized ginger and ¼ cup golden raisins into the dough before dividing it into the two balls.

Otherwise version two was the same as version one. Both were delicious! The second version was just a bit sweeter because of the raising, but the ginger gave it some bite, too. The crumb was soft and almost cakelike. It made fantastic toast! Great French Toast too, I'll bet.