Lemon Ginger Scones

I'm shivering at the thought of tonight's low, forecast at 22 degrees.  This time of year I'm drinking two or three cups of tea a day, and it's nice when I have a treat to nibble with it.  These scones are studded with pieces of candied ginger, and drizzled with a lemon glaze.  The scones are soft, and the flavors very bright.  They're also super easy to make -- no food processor or pastry blender required here.  That's because these are cream scones, made with cream instead of butter.  Just stir it all together, forget the rolling pin, and pat it into a round.  The dough is very sticky, so flour your hands a lot.  Cut into wedges, and in 20 minutes they're ready.

So I know what I'll be doing tonight: coming in from the cold, putting on the kettle, and brewing a cup.  Fall into a chair with a scone, a magazine, and maybe a cat.  Stay warm!

Lemon and Basil Sorbet

Are you a fan of Italian ices?  When I lived in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, they called them water ices. Joe has been buying a lot of the lemon Italian ices from the supermarket, and I wondered about making something similar.  After two rounds of homemade ice cream recently, it sounded like a lighter and more refreshing option.  And not in that bland diet way.  These are wonderfully cold and lemony and won't weigh you down.

But I didn't want to do a plain lemon sorbet, and I remembered Kiersten from Oh My Veggies blogged a Meyer Lemon and Basil Sorbet a while back.  Alas, meyer lemons were in season when she blogged them in February but they aren't now, and I've never seen a meyer lemon sold around here.  But the sorbet still turned out awesome with ordinary lemons.  I was afraid when making the simple syrup that it smelled too strongly of basil, but when tasting the sorbet it truly was the perfect amount of the herb.  It doesn't overpower the lemon at all but enhances it, and while the basil definitely has a presence I wonder if others could guess what it is.

And Joe?  He went nuts for the sorbet.  It costs just a little more to make the homemade sorbet rather than buying the Italian ices -- luckily I plucked all the basil off my front porch -- but the sorbet was way better.  I can't say I'll be replacing his Italian ice fix with homemade sorbet a few times a week, but it will make an appearance a few more times this summer.

Click here to visit Oh My Veggies for the recipe.

Update: This post made the Foodbuzz Top 9.  Thanks for all the buzz!

Braided Lemon Bread

Photo updated December 2013

This braided bread looks sophisticated, and tastes even better.  The slightly sweet bread is filled with cream cheese and lemon curd, and it really brightened up our morning.  Here you can see that I switched up my second loaf with raspberry jam instead.  Both are good, but the lemon is where it's at.

The mock braid is easier to assemble than it looks, and I will definitely be making it again.  A dusting of sanding sugar gives it nice crunch and extra sweetness, and that's what I sprinkled on the lemon loaf.  It's not as pretty or dramatic as the white nonpareils here, but it's better taste- and texture-wise.  (Nonpareils will melt in the oven, unlike sanding sugar, so cool the loaf completely, brush with a bit of corn syrup, and then sprinkle.  I still say, go with the sanding sugar.)  Update Dec. 2013: The new photo at the top uses Swedish pearl sugar, which won't melt in the oven.

The dough before and after its first rise.

Like almost all yeast bread recipes, this one takes time.  But it's well worth it.

The dough rectangle is roughly divided into thirds, and the cream cheese and lemon curd are spread with space left on all sides; a bench scraper is used to cut strips at 1-inch intervals; the top and bottom flaps are tucked in, and then the strips are folded over on alternating sides to form the mock braid.

A bench scraper worked great here, creating straighter edges than a pastry wheel would.  I transferred the braid to a silicone mat, but I recommend assembling and baking on parchment (I didn't have any at the time).  Cutting on a silicone mat can damage it, and moving the braid can make it crooked or mess it up.  For convenience, I used storebought lemon curd.

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Sweet Treats Thursday
Sweets for a Saturday

At Last... Madeleines!

I have finally made a worthy madeleine, and it is a thing of beauty.  They are cakey and tender in the middle, crisp at the edges, shell-shaped with well-defined ridges, and lemony in an understated, floral kind of way.

I got some inspiration recently at my most favorite afternoon tea place in the world, the Taj Boston.  They have harpists and violinists, for cryin' out loud, and I love the beautiful china.  I hate it when tea is served in stainless steel pots.  But look at these amazing desserts.  There are (working from the top down) chocolate-covered strawberries, lavender sables, cornmeal scones, currant scones, lemon curd and Devonshire cream, macarons, citrus tarts, pistachio financiers, opera tortes, and, of course, little madeleines.  Sugar rush, anybody??

What obstacle lay in my madeleine path?  For years I had this beautiful mini-madeleine pan, because I love all things bite-sized.  But though they were tasty and developed that hump the madeleine is known for, they never took on those beautiful ridges. So, in my opinion, it wasn't a proper madeleine. I wondered if it was some error of mine or a bad recipe.  Finally, I got a full-sized madeleine pan, one that produced beautiful ridges on the cookies.  Only they came out burnt brown, even though I opted for the lower end of the baking time in the recipe.  But determination won out, and I think these madeleines are perfect. Maybe some lavender or Earl Grey varieties are up next?

After the madeleine batter rested overnight, it became thick and developed air bubbles, like a yeasted dough. The batter is then scooped into the pan.  The first batch came out burnt, even though I followed the recipe!  I shaved off a couple of minutes the next time, and they came out to golden perfection.

Raspberry Crumb Bars & Citrus Bars

These raspberry crumb bars got inhaled here at home and will be making a repeat appearance, but those citrus bars?  Never again!  It's not that they weren't good, because what lemon bar isn't good?  Especially one with the addition of lime?  But where the raspberry crumb bars were relatively simple and fun, the citrus bars demanded more elbow grease and then ran into technical issues.

The raspberry crumb bars involved making an almond-y dough that would serve as both the base and topping.  The base gets baked briefly in a cookie sheet lined with parchment, then cooled and spread with jam.  Then the remaining dough is scattered on as a topping and baked.  When cool, a bench scraper works well as a cutter.  They were bagged with the citrus bars as thank-you gifts to volunteers at an event I organized and excitedly received.

The citrus bars?  This one photo speaks to my stress with this recipe.  There were lots of lemons and limes to juice, and the limes took more work.  And then I used a rimmed cookie sheet as directed for the base, but the dough came up to the rim, leaving no room for the pourable fillling!  So I moved and pressed the partially baked dough into this 9x13 pan and the rest into an 8x8 square pan, and poured the filling on top.  It worked, but some dough pieces floated to the top and it wasn't attractive.  But confectioners sugar covers up all sorts of ugly, so I was still able to gift them.

Now I did make this once before, halving the recipe and baking it in this 9x13 pan and it worked out just fine, if you want to try it.  But I'd had enough with this try, plus it's a heart attack special with the 8 eggs, pound of butter, and 4 cups of sugar (which I cut down to 3 cups without a problem).  But I really recommend those raspberry crumb bars!

Mascarpone Gelato

I had been looking forward to trying this gelato, and Sis had been nagging me to make it.  Would I make it again?  Probably not, because of how much it cost!  The recipe calls for two tubs of mascarpone, and I was shocked they cost $4.99 each.  That means you're making a $10+ quart of gelato!  So I wasn't even upset when Joe returned from the grocery store with just one tub, and I halved the recipe.

The gelato recipe also didn't get a thumbs-up.  I thought it was all right, but both Joe and Sis complained the lemon flavor was too aggressive, and lemon aside, it just failed to wow them.  I found that funny, since I used only the zest of one lemon.  And I left the pine nuts out, since no one wanted them.  The Mascarpone Gelato recipe is on this page.  If you know of a better one -- and if it doesn't cost over $10 to make -- let me know!  I've got another ice cream post on the way, a winner that I make over and over again.  Stay tuned!

And some gratuitous photos of a tomato tart with roasted garlic and fontina I made, just because the colors look cool.

The colors got very muted after baking.  Plus, I didn't have time to snap a photo before it got eaten at a potluck.

Citrus Tart

If you like lemon bars, you'll like this citrus tart.  It's like the lemon bar's lighter, more sophisticated cousin.  At first glance you expect a heavy, rich custard, but the texture is light and the taste tart and tangy.  And it was way more successful than the lemon souffles I made around the new year and would rather forget, after they fell and tasted awful eggy.  But everyone raved about this tart, and my friend Charmie asked if it would "make an appearance on wasb."  "What does that stand for?" I asked.  "What about second breakfast!" she said.  It was so cute, I figure I have to start using the acronym.

On an unrelated note, check out this bottle of vanilla extract!  This monster is 32 ounces of top-quality Madagascar bourbon vanilla, with your usual-sized bottle next to it for comparison.  I was both horrified and excited to get this gift, which is larger than a bottle of cough syrup.