Category Archives: Fruit

Lemon Curd Tarts

May 1, 2012 – 6:00 am

A couple of ingredients that immediately invoke panic in me are yeast and egg yolks. Not just raw egg yolks, but when you are making a custard or pudding-type dessert, and you have to temper egg yolks. Yep, it sends a bit of a chill down my spine. I am so afraid of ending up with scrambled eggs or cooked egg chunks in my dessert. And who wants scrambled eggs and lemon together? Not me.

Thankfully my mom was in town last week and she helped my conquer this irrational fear I have of cooking egg yolks.

My mom has made many a curd in her day, so she assured me that I wouldn’t end up with an omelet if I attempted to make lemon curd. And so with a confidence boost from her, I successfully made my own lemon curd! Now I am already dreaming up other flavors of curd that I can’t wait to try: lime, clementine…..

We all can use shortcuts from time to time and pre-formed phyllo cups are one of my favorite tricks. Already baked and perfectly crispy, the sweet or savory filling possibilities are unlimited for the shells. By simply filling the shells with lemon curd and topping them with a blueberry, the color and texture contrasts were great and the flavor combination was so fresh and perfect for spring.

Lemon Curd

by Mercedes Porter

Keywords: dessert spread lemon filling spring

Ingredients (1 1/4 cups curd)

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 3 lemons)
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
2 eggs
4 Tbsp (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, frozen and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Instructions

Place lemon juice, sugar and salt in to a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and egg yolks. Slowly pour lemon mixture into eggs whisking constantly to temper. Return mixture to saucepan and heat over medium-low heat stirring constantly until mixture is thickened. It is thick enough when you can drag a spatula along the bottom of the pan and it leaves a trail.

Remove from heat and stir in butter until melted and combined.

Pour curd through a fine metal sieve into another bowl.

Press plastic wrap directly against surface of curd and refrigerate at least an hour before serving.

Recipe adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

in a small sauce pan, combine lemon juice, sugar and salt

stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved

in a separate small bowl, whisk together egg yolks and eggs; pour lemon mixture into eggs whisking constantly

return mixture to saucepan and continue stirring with a rubber spatula over medium heat until mixture thickens and when you drag your spatula through it leaves a track as seen in the photo

remove from heat, add butter and stir until butter is melted and incorporated

pour from saucepan through fine sieve into another bowl to ensure smoothness

cover with plastic wrap directly touching the surface for at least an hour

just before serving, scoop chilled curd into a ziploc bag, cut one of the corners, pipe into phyllo shells and garnish with a berry or a mint leave

serve immediately or refrigerate the filled shells covered and serve with in 2-3 hours

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Tags blueberries, Fruit, Lemon | Comments (13)

Lemon Poppy seed Mini Bundt Cakes with Blackberry syrup

April 5, 2012 – 6:00 am

I told you last time that lemons are one of the ingredients that I think of when I think of spring cooking and baking. When you incorporate lemon into any sweet or savory recipe, the food instantly tastes refreshing and clean. Also, I purchased a mini bundt cake pan and a flower-shaped petite four pan a couple months ago and have been dying to use them. So when I was invited to a dinner last week, I used this opportunity to make a nice dessert for others as an excuse to break out the new pans.

It’s funny how sometimes when I make something to share with you, I envision these absolutely gorgeous photos that I will post. Then I actually take the photos and am so disappointed. I live in a condo building with windows facing the north and therefore, lighting for photography is an issue to say the least. But, I do my best. Playing around with my camera and lenses is part of the learning process and I know that I just need to be patient and work with what I have for lighting at least until I can convince my neighbors upstairs to let me cut a hole through my roof and theirs to use as a skylight. But at least I always have this willing (?) subject to test my lighting and camera settings on.

Gotta love the macro lens for torturing the animals .

Ok, back to the cakes. These cakes are so light and delicate and the reason I knew they were something truly special is because my husband could not stop eating them. I have told you before that because I bake so often, he doesn’t get terribly giddy about many treats, so when he does, I pause and take a moment to relish in my success.

I chose a blackberry syrup mostly because I thought the contrast in colors would be gorgeous. And it was, but you could certainly use raspberries or blueberries as well.

This cake recipe is adapted from the America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book and these cakes would make a lovely dessert or tea time snack for Easter or Mother’s Day.

Lemon Poppyseed Bundt Cake

by Mercedes Porter

Keywords: bake dessert snack lemon cake

Ingredients (1 12-cup bundt or 16 mini bund)

Nonstick cooking spray
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp freshly grated lemon zest
2 1/4 sticks (18 Tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and softened
2 cups sugar
3 eggs, plus 1 additional egg yolk, room temperature
2 Tbsp poppy seeds

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Generously spray bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In medium bowl, combine, flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice and lemon zest.

In a large bowl and with an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time mixing after each addition.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredient mixture and mix to incorporate, followed by half of the wet ingredient mixture, mixing well after each addition. Follow with dry, wet then dry mixing to incorporate after each addition. Add 2 Tbsp poppy seeds and mix.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

For 12-cup bundt pan bake 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean.

For mini bundt pan, bake about 18-20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Remove pan from oven and place on wire rack to cool. Invert the pan onto a serving plate and jiggle lightly to remove the cake from the pan.

Recipe adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

cream together butter and sugar

add eggs one at a time

alternate incorporating dry and wet ingredients, then add poppy seeds

pour batter into prepared pans and bake

to make the blackberry syrup, combine 1 cup sugar with 1 cup water in a small saucepan

stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves

add 1 cup blackberries, turn heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes

allow syrup to cool slightly before serving over cake

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Tags Berries, Lemon | Comments (11)

Chocolate-swirled Banana Bread

March 10, 2012 – 6:00 am

How are we supposed to decide what we want to be when we grow up? By our second year of college, we are supposed to have some idea about which profession we would like to pursue to make our mark on the world. Now, even high school students are encouraged to choose a track to set them up for their college careers. We job shadow and interview professionals and we think that these exercises give us some idea of what that professional’s day-to-day life is like. But until we have truly taken on the responsibilities ourselves, we really don’t have a clear sense of all that comes with being a teacher, lawyer accountant or dentist. All the years of studying, researching and working so diligently to earn a degree and a living and do what we think will make a difference only to realize that we lost our happiness somewhere along the way.

Sometimes I wish I could be a professional student. I love the academic environment and find pure bliss in watching a student understand something for the first time and have an “AHA” moment. Nothing makes me feel more fulfilled. Sometimes we don’t discover the paths we are meant to be on until much later than we were “supposed to”, but the revelation is worth the wait.

That is my insight for the day.

Now, onto the sweet of the day.

I love my mom’s banana bread. It is so moist and has the perfect mix of bananas, nuts and chocolate. This is not my mom’s banana bread. This bread is made with white whole wheat flour and has more of a sponge cake texture. I love to heat up each piece that I eat and sop up the melty chocolate chips with the spongy cake. Yum, I am beginning to salivate just talking about it!

Chocolate-swirled Banana Bread

Keywords: bake bread breakfast snack banana chocolate

Ingredients (1 loaf)

1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 overripe bananas
2 large eggs
1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl and with an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, yogurt, vanilla and bananas and mix well. Add flour, salt and baking soda and mix.

Pour half of the batter into another bowl and add cocoa powder and chocolate chips.

Pour half of plain batter into prepared pan and smooth. Top that batter with half of the cocoa batter and smooth. Repeat once more with plain batter and chocolate batter and smooth top of batter.

Bake about 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of bread comes out clean.

Adapted from Babble Family Kitchen

cream butter and sugar

add eggs, yogurt, vanilla and bananas

mix in dry ingredients

place half of the batter into another bowl and add cocoa powder and chocolate chips

pour half of the plain batter into the prepared pan

pour half of the cocoa batter on top and smooth

repeat again with plain batter and top with cocoa batter

bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean

cool before removing from pan and slicing

What did you (do you) want to be when you grew (grow) up?

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Tags Bananas, Chocolate, quick bread | Comments (4)

Superfood Smoothie

February 3, 2012 – 6:00 am

Even though I am not a person who makes New Year’s resolutions, I do always find myself thinking of the things I can do better or new things that I wan tot try when January comes around. One conscious change I have been trying to make this year is to eat more fruits and vegetables. I love almost all produce, I just don’t feel like I know how to get enough of them everyday in my diet.

One way I have been trying to remedy this is by drinking “superfood” smoothies. It is a simple way for me to efficiently get an extra 3-4 servings of fruits and veggies in 1 smoothie and the rest of my daily servings I can easily get in with my meals.

All I do is load up my Vitamix with 8 ounces of water (you could also use milk and or a splash of juice), a cup of fresh or frozen mixed berries, one banana and 2 cups of spinach and blend away. Other great options to add are greek yogurt, kale and any other fruits and vegetables of your choice.

And no need to be scared off by incorporating greens into your smoothie. All you taste is the wonderful freshness of the berries and bananas!

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Triple Berry Streusel-topped muffins

January 12, 2012 – 8:00 am

In my last post I shared some of the reasons that I love brunch. One of the reasons that I failed to mention was that I have so many recipes in the “Breakfast/Brunch” section of my recipe collection that I am dying to try! I need excuses like hosting or attending brunches to make these recipes because while I do eat breakfast everyday, it is usually not something quite as indulgent as most of the recipes that I want to try are.

My mother-in-law made these muffins with fresh blueberries and the reason that I loved them so much was because of how cakey they were. Fresh berries can be more expensive this time of year so I made these with a frozen berry blend of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries and they were just as delicious. The really special part is the crumby streusel topping which provides a nice crunch and extra sweetness.