May ABC challenge: Lemon Buttermilk Cake

This month's challenge was "teacake", that being a simple cake that doesn't include a lot of other components, but is eaten rather plain.  With an abundance of lemons, I made this Maida Heatter recipe (which was noted as being slightly adapted from her New Book of Great Desserts.)  Compared to this lemon cake I made several years ago, this one was much less expensive to make, although not as rich.  I modified it further from the recipe to suit my taste and ingredients on hand.

Here's what I used:

1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

2 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 3/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

3 tablespoons lemon juice

Finely grated rind of 3 large lemons (juice will be used for glaze)

Glaze

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup granulated sugar

Grease well and flour lightly a 10-cup Bundt pan. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until soft. Add the sugar and beat until well mixed. (I beat it until very light and fluffy.) Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift the dry ingredients together; on low speed, add in three additions to the butter mixture, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry. Beat only until smooth after each addition, scraping the bowl frequently with a rubber spatula. Remove from the mixer and stir in the lemon rind and juice. (Rind can get caught up in the beaters.) Turn into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a cake tester gently inserted into the middle comes out clean and dry. The cake will be deeply golden brown and will have begun to pull away from the sides of the pan.

 

While the cake is baking, make the glaze. Mix the juice and sugar and let stand, stirring occasionally.

 

Remove the cake from the oven and let it stand in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn out onto a rack and place it over a large piece of foil. With a pastry brush, brush the glaze over the top, sides and tube of the hot cake. Let stand until completely cool.

 

 

 

The only change I made was to increase the salt slightly.  I also reduced the lemon juice a little before measuring by letting it sit out and evaporate, so that it was a little more concentrated.  It finished baking in an hour.  Also, the original recipe calls for dusting the pan with bread crumbs rather than flour.  I tried this, but wasn't happy with the results.  For one, it's more fiddly.  But more importantly, the surface of the cake had a very loose, uneven, sloppy-looking crumb.  I've never had a problem with excess flour being visible on my cakes, even chocolate, so although this is Ms. Heatter's favorite technique, I won't be using it in the future.

I experienced a rare mishap in that the cake broke while turning it out of the pan.  I blame myself.  I guess because of the suggestion to use bread crumbs, I got it in my head that the cake would be difficult to get out, and so was a little rough with it.  It probably would have turned out fine if I'd used my usual technique.  The cake was delicious, and extremely light and fluffy the first day.  (It firmed up slightly by the following day, which I actually preferred.)  However I found it somewhat overly sweet.  The sugar level was fine where you got the tart lemon glaze, but the glaze hadn't soaked in as much as I'd expected, so much of the cake didn't benefit, and although it had a lovely texture, it didn't have much lemon flavor.

Conclusion:  The recipe was too good to disregard completely.  I'm inclined to skip the lemon altogether, add vanilla, and use the recipe that way (reducing the sugar by maybe 1/2 cup.)  However, if I did use the lemon again, I'd make a layer cake so the glaze was more evenly distributed and use whipped cream filling.  (Alternatively, poke the cake prior to applying the glaze so it actually enters the interior.)

Recipe:  Maida Heatter's Lemon Buttermilk Cake via Food 52

March ABC challenge: Lemon Chile Spritz

 

This month, the challenge was "cookies".  Despite the name "Lemon Fire Crisps",  they were neither crisp nor very lemony, although they were sort of firey (from the cayenne powder).  I made half the normal recipe, which called for 6 dozen.  I got about 4 dozen.  Here's what I used:

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/2 egg
1 cup + 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/8 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, and egg and beat well.  Sift the dry ingredients together, then beat into the butter mixture.  Place the mixture into a cookie press and force the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes or until lightly browned.

These were disappointingly bland.  They didn't have nearly enough lemon flavor, but looking back over the recipe, I think I might have failed to add lemon juice.  (I remember at the time thinking that lemon zest wasn't flavorful enough to use exclusively.)  So I made a tart glaze, which improved the flavor.  Weirdly, the result of a bland cookie is it makes you eat more of them, I guess because you're left unsatisfied.

Another issue was the dough was already VERY soft, so added liquid (lemon juice) would have made the dough that much more difficult to handle.  It might benefit from a light chilling before shaping.  Also, I sensed that using the 2 setting on my press released too much dough and would have resulted in shapeless cookies, so I used the 1 setting, making smaller cookies than the recipe calls for.  (And slightly less baking time.)

I found I preferred these baked slightly less as opposed to more.  It gave them a richer and creamier texture, as though they had cream cheese, but also made them very soft.

Conclusion:  I found these far too bland.  They definitely benefited from the added salt, but needed far more lemon flavor.  (Again, I might have left out the lemon juice by mistake.)

Recipe:  Lemon Fire Crisps via Chile Pepper magazine, June 1993 (Fiesta Canning Co., Inc.)

March ABC Challenge: Tiny Lemon Thyme Loaf

I'm not a huge fan of lemon cake, but that keeps me searching for an excellent recipe.  I want the perfect balance of tartness and sweetness, with just the right texture.  This one isn't it.  But it is good.  Many people in the challenge didn't like the cornmeal, and I suspected I'd find the coarse texture cornmeal creates in harsh contrast to the light lemon taste.  So I substituted rice flour, which is finer and bakes up a little softer, while still providing texture.  The cake was slightly spongy, but light (although it became slightly tougher the following day.)

I found this cake to be a little too heavy on the lemon oil flavor and too light on the lemon juice.  The strong lemon oil could have been my fault; I never know how tightly to fill the measuring spoon with lemon zest, which affects the quantity used.  Since I quartered this recipe to make a single, small loaf, exact measurements become very important.  It's possible I packed the zest into the spoon too tightly, and while it would have been only a slight increase in the 3/4 teaspoon measurement I used, multiplied by 4 for a full recipe could have been a significant increase.  (Does that make sense?)  

The other change I made to the original recipe was to throw in some thyme, using a quantity similar to what I found in another recipe.  I'm not sure I could taste it.  It was very subtle.

Here's what I used.  Changes from an exact quarter of the original are shown in strikeout and italics:

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ tsp baking powder
1/16 tsp baking soda
4 teaspoons yellow cornmeal rice flour
½ large egg, at room temperature
¼ large egg yolk, at room temperature
¾ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/16 1/8 tsp salt
½ teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
4 teaspoons pure canola oil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 350°F; grease a 4x2-inch rectangular loaf pan.  (Six 4x2 pans would normally be used in place of a 9x5 loaf pan, but since I was making 1/4 the recipe, I would have needed 1.5 pans. I risked all by using only one pan.) 

In a bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add cornmeal and whisk together to blend evenly.  Using a whisk attachment, beat together the whole egg, yolk, zest, salt, and thyme on medium-high speed until foamy, about 40 seconds. Gradually add sugar while beating. Increase speed to high and beat until mixture is very pale and almost white in colour, about 5 minutes. The mixture will nearly triple in volume.

In a small bowl, combine oil and lemon juice. Whisk it with a fork to blend. Gently fold the flour mixture into the eggs in three additions, alternating with the oil mixture, beginning and ending with the flour.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely.

This cake rose in a strange manner -- straight up, with sharp edges.  No crowning or cracking.

Everyone else's loaves -- including the original -- were also fairly stout (which is why I was encouraged to overfill the pan.  I wanted a thicker loaf anyway.)  It might have been better with another few minutes in the oven, but it wasn't noticeably under baked. (I'm never quite sure how to adjust for different sized pans.)

Conclusion:  This was good, with a nice texture.  The sweetness level was good, but it would have benefited from a light, tangy glaze for a pleasant contrast.

Original recipe:   Lemoniest Little Lemon Loaf via Scientifically Sweet

Meyer Lemon Tart

There's an old saying:  when co-workers give you lemons... make lemon tart!  Or something like that.

Someone brought a huge bag of lemons to work, all bumpy, sooty, and misshapen.  A big sniff of the contents revealed the distinct orange of Meyer lemons.  Having been invited to a dinner of tikki masala and palak paneer the following day, I decided to make a fresh lemon tart for dessert.

I'd seen this video on YouTube of a British lady making a classic lemon tart, and the impression was that she was the Queen of Lemon Tarts.  It turned out to be Mary Berry on the heels of a Great British Bake Off.  It was a video more for entertainment than instruction, and her results were different from mine.  For example, her crust dough was butter yellow.  Also, she ended up with exactly a pint of filling, which fit perfectly in her 9-inch pan (of course), while I had more than a pint, and extra filling, even though I was using a 9.5-inch pan.  Granted, my measurements had to be adjusted slightly for the conversions, and of course eggs come in different sizes, but it shouldn't have made much of a difference.  The magic of Hollywood.  (Paul Hollywood, hahaha... get it?  Okay, never mind...)

The other big mystery is that everyone knows cream will curdle in lemon juice, and yet here we are mixing the two.  She doesn't say anything about it.  I ended up with large globs of curdled cream, and had to pull out the electric mixer to break them down.  The final product also had a somewhat curdled texture, which I was not anticipating.  (I wanted something very smooth, more like lemon curd.)

About the ingredients:  Meyer lemons are not as acidic and have an orange flavor, so the tart will be less tangy, like an orange/lemon cross.  Double cream has a higher fat content than heavy cream -- there is no widely-available commercial equivalent in the U.S.  According to Mary, using granulated sugar in place of caster sugar (which has a slightly smaller grain size) will give a rough surface.  Indeed it did.  There must be something else causing the difference, because I completely dissolved the sugar in the solution, so grain size wouldn't have had an effect.  It's the froth that causes the rough surface texture, but I don't know what is making the froth.  I added a little salt not only to brighten the lemon flavor but also to balance the sweet richness of the dessert, and I lessened the sugar in the crust slightly.  Other recipes call for up to 1/2 cup more sugar in the filling -- I found this plenty sweet as it is, especially since Meyer lemons aren't as tart.  In fact, I would prefer this with regular lemons in order to give it more zip.

Here's what I used:

For the pastry

175g/6oz plain flour
25g/3 2 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
100g/7 tablespoons cold, unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water

In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, salt, and butter and process until no butter pieces remain.  Add egg yolk and water and process until it comes together in a ball.  Knead lightly for a few seconds and shape into a disk.  Place a 9-inch tart base on a non-stick surface (such as parchment or a pastry cloth) and sprinkle with flour.  Roll out the dough on top of the base to about 1/8" thick, extending about 2" beyond the base edge.  Flip the edges to the center and move the base with the pastry into the tart pan.  Lift the pastry edges back up and press dough firmly against the sides of the pan.  Allow the excess dough to fold over the outside pan edge.  Prick dough lightly all over, line pan with foil, and fill with baking beans.  Bake on a cookie sheet at 200C/400F for about 10 minutes.  Remove tart from oven, remove foil, and trim edge of pastry.  (You can leave the pieces on the sheet to finish baking, for later snacking.)  Return to oven for another 10-15 minutes, until pastry is completely dry.  Allow to cool.  Reduce oven to 160C/325F.

For the filling
5 eggs
225g (1 cup) caster granulated sugar
zest of 4 lemons
150ml (2/3 cup) lemon juice (from 4-5 lemons)
1/8 teaspoon salt
125ml (1/2 cup) double heavy cream
confectioner's sugar, for dusting (optional)

In a bowl with a pour spout (I used my 4-cup liquid measuring cup), whisk eggs and sugar together until smooth.  Add zest, juice, and salt and mix until well combined, then whisk in cream.  With the tart pan still on the cookie sheet, place on the oven shelf.  Stir the filling contents, then pour filling into tart pan and bake for about 35 minutes -- it should still have a wobble in the middle.  Leave to cool in tin for about 10-15 minutes, then remove from tin and cool completely.  Refrigerate for several hours before serving.  Best served cool, but not right out of the refrigerator.

Conclusion:  Good.  Not great.  Whenever I have lemon something, I expect a great tangy impact, and rarely receive it.  This was no exception.  That was partly due to the use of Meyer lemons, so it's not a fair criticism.  I still have issue with the texture, though, and I don't know if that was my inexpertise or the recipe.  (I blame it on the curdled filling.)

Original recipe:  Mary Berry's Lemon Tart video with Paul Hollywood (from which I transcribed the recipe) or her written recipe for Tarte au Citron via BBC Food.

Iced Lemon Loaf

Someone brought in to work yesterday a bunch of fresh lemons right off her neighbor's tree.  They inspired me to make a lemon loaf, and I knew just what recipe I wanted to try.

Supposedly this tastes like Starbucks' original iced lemon cake.  I wouldn't know, because friends don't let friends drink Starbucks.  But, I hear they have a pretty tasty lemon cake.  Or had.  Until they discontinued it. And then brought it back.  But not the same one.  Fickle product lineup is just one more reason to stay away from Starbucks.  

I followed the original recipe, but rearranged the directions.  I modified the glaze slightly (in italics), though, to give it a little more zip.

1½ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
3 eggs, room temp
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
½ cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoon lemon extract
⅓ cup lemon juice
zest of one lemon

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 9 × 5 loaf pan.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until thick.  Continue beating while adding the oil and butter, then the vanilla extract, lemon extract, and lemon juice; mix until well blended.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and blend until smooth. Add lemon zest and mix well, making sure it's evenly distributed.  Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake for  about 45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. (Check at 40 minutes.)  Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan, then gently remove and cool completely on rack.  Spread with glaze while still warm.

Glaze
1 3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 1 tablespoon whole milk powder
½ teaspoon lemon extract
1½ - 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Beat all ingredients together until smooth, adding enough lemon juice to make a thick but easily spreadable glaze.

Conclusion:  Very good -- moist and delicate with a mild lemon flavor (except for the glaze, which I made quite lemony).  It's moderately sweet, and surprisingly buttery tasting.  It's somewhat oily, but that's typical in commercial-style cake (to keep it "fresh".  For quick consumption, you could reduce the oil up to half.)  It over-browned on the bottom (due to the high oil content), so would need protection there.  It was especially good still slightly warm.  A dash of cayenne would really make this interesting.

Original recipe:  Starbucks Lemon Loaf via My Honeys Place

August ABC challenge: Lemon Braided Loaf

Lemon -- not my favorite.  It's not that I dislike lemon, it's just that I can't figure out what to do with it aside from lemonade.  Everything it goes in seems better without or with a different flavor.  I was sorely tempted to use a different fruit, or chocolate, or plain cream cheese -- anything but lemon -- but 1) I have a Meyer lemon tree with an abundance of ripe fruit from which I can make delicious lemon curd, and 2) I had the remains of a jar of very unsatisfactory purchased lemon curd already in the refrigerator, waiting to be used.  So, lemon it was, but that didn't mean I had to leave it at that.  

I wanted some texture and more complex flavors, so I added shredded coconut and a little ginger to the cream filling.  I substituted Greek-style yogurt for the sour cream, as I had it on hand.  Feeling lazy, I opted to use the purchased lemon curd, thinking the poor flavor would be compensated for with the other quality ingredients.  I was wrong.  There's no salvaging cheap lemon curd. 

I didn't realize when I started that the recipe made two loaves.  I cut the recipe in half thinking I was making only a half loaf (always tricky with a false braid.)  Oh well.  More for me!

This dough was extremely soft -- the instructions should insist you form the dough on parchment so you can transfer the whole easily to the baking sheet.  I can't imagine being able to pick up the raw loaf!  Again, due to laziness, I dispensed with any decoration.  I need to come up with something besides sugar or sliced almonds anyway. 

The bread part of this loaf was delicious, and smelled heavenly while baking.  Very buttery!  Some people commented that they lowered the temperature and baked it for less time.  I baked at 350 for about 42 minutes, and I think it still could have used less time.  Lightly golden is probably the right color.  Otherwise, the only disappointment was the lemon.  (And I still haven't finished that jar.)  

Conclusion:  While I loved the bread, I would use a different filling next time, closer to my liking.

Recipe:  Braided Lemon Bread via King Arthur Flour

Lemon Cake with Lemony Sugar Wash

I had some heavy cream I needed to use up, so I looked for a recipe that called for a lot in something other than whipped cream (because it doesn't keep well) and found this one for a lemon pound cake.  It looked pretty easy too.  This has to mix for a LONG time -- it's important not to cut this time short because you're trying to build air into the batter.  Since I have only a hand mixer, that meant I had to stand there the whole time, which wasn't much fun.  But I've been listening to Moby Dick on line, so I had that going.

I got lazy and didn't clean off the beaters after I'd finished mixing the batter, and that's too bad because when I finally did I found most of the lemon zest wrapped around them.  The final cake wasn't very strongly lemon, and I wonder if that had an effect.

I didn't have cake flour, so I used part corn starch.  I also didn't have unsalted butter, so I used salted butter and omitted the salt in the recipe.  In the end, I think the cake could have used just a bit more salt, maybe 1/2 teaspoon.  (I think it would have brought out the lemon zip a little more.)

Here's what I used:

2 tablespoons finely grated lemon peel
2½ teaspoons lemon extract
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 3 cups minus 2 tablespoons unsifted, unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons corn starch
1 cup unsifted bleached cake flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
2½ cups superfine sugar
1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar, sifted
6 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Combine the lemon peel, lemon extract, and lemon juice in a small mixing bowl.  Set aside.Lightly spray a 10-inch Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray and coat with flour, tapping out the excess.  (This makes a lot of batter so if your Bundt pan can't hold it all, put the excess batter in small ramekins and bake those as well.)  Sift the flour, corn starch, and baking powder onto a sheet of waxed paper and set aside.

Cream the butter in the large bowl of a freestanding electric mixer on moderate speed for 4 minutes.  Add the granulated sugar in 4 additions, beating for 1 minute after each portion is added. Add the confectioners’ sugar and beat for 45 seconds. Beat in the whole eggs, one at a time, mixing for about 20 seconds after each addition to combine.  Add the egg yolks and beat for 30 seconds longer.  Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula. Blend in the lemon peel and extract mixture. On low speed, alternately add the sifted mixture in 3 additions with the heavy cream in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl thoroughly with a rubber spatula after each addition. Beat the batter on moderately high speed for 1 minute.  Pour and scrape the batter into the prepared baking pan. Smooth the top.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until risen, set, and a toothpick inserted into the cake withdraws clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes.  Loosen with a narrow spatula and invert onto a serving plate. Spoon the lemony sugar wash all over the cake, including the sides, giving time for the liquid to absorb before you spoon more over the cake. (See Conclusion.)  Cool completely.

Lemony Sugar Wash
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Combine the sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan and heat, stirring, until sugar is dissolved. Spoon over warm cake.

My oven is an old O'Keefe & Merritt with only a bottom burner, which often causes a problem with bottom browning.  This cake bakes for over an hour, and while it wasn't over baked, it did turn out very brown on the bottom (which became the top.)

Conclusion:  This was good -- dense, rich, and moist.  But when I want lemon, I want LEMON, and this only hinted at it.  The wash was the best part, adding a nice tang.  I wish I had poked holes in the cake before pouring it over.

Recipe:  Lemon cake with lemony sugar wash via Stir It Up!