Lemon Bars: taste of sunshine

For me, cooking is one of the most enjoyable activities. I love whipping up delicious concoctions in my kitchen. After a long day or week at work, it's a great way to get my mind off things (and my eyes off the computer screen.) To a lot of people, cooking is work and there will always be people who see my time in the kitchen as work - but for me, it's a hobby and one I enjoy and would never willingly give up. Might sound strange to many people - probably not my readers since most of you are foodies like me.

I guess it comes down to the saying, "to each his own". I know people who love running marathons. I don't get it. All that time and training - and all those miles... I'm all for exercising to stay healthy, just like I'm sure marathon runners are all for food to stay nourished, but marathons are to me what The French Laundry cookbook must be to others.

Anyway, I'm rambling. It's my love of cooking that always leads me to seek out new recipes and I was pretty psyched to find this one for lemon bars. In my little kitchen in Fanwood, I was able to bake up a fresh batch of sunshine. That's exactly what each of these sweet, tart bars tastes like: pure sunshine. When was the last time your hobby let you create sunshine?



This recipe is from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook - I followed it exactly (surprising, I know!). I did have to bake mine a bit longer but I think that's just because my oven has a mind of it's own.

Lemon Bars
from the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook



For the crust:

•  1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups flour
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

For the filling:

• 6 extra-large eggs at room temperature
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (4 to 6 lemons)
• 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 cup flour
• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the crust, cream the butter and sugar until light in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Combine the flour and salt and, with the mixer on low, add to the butter until just mixed. Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and gather into a ball. Flatten the dough with floured hands and press it into a 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking sheet, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides. Chill.



Bake the crust for 15 to 20 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let cool on a wire rack. Leave the oven on.

For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.

Cut into triangles and dust with confectioners' sugar.

Spring in action: Lemon mascarpone layer cake

The coming of Spring means different things to different people. In our family it means a lot of celebrating. There's Easter, Mother's Day, and birthdays galore. Both of my nieces have Spring birthdays, as does my brother-in-law. This year was a perfect storm of sorts with Easter falling on my brother-in-law's birthday and just 3 days after my youngest niece's 1st birthday.

Easter weekend - always full of food and treats - was especially celebratory this year. We attended a 1st birthday party for little Catie on Saturday with 2 cakes and then my sister baked a cake on Sunday for her husband's birthday. Her lemon mascarpone layer cake was a hit with everyone and the lemon was perfect for an unseasonably warm Spring day.

Given how yummy this cake was and how beautiful, I thought we'd give a guest spot to my sister for today's post. I plan to file this recipe away for future use so it only seemed fitting to share it with everyone. Enjoy!

Note well, to save time, you can substitute good quality store-bought lemon curd for the homemade. You'll need about 16 ounces.



Lemon Mascarpone Layer Cake
Adapted from Bon Appetit

Lemon curd
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Cake

6 large eggs, separated

14 tablespoons sugar

1 3/4 cups sifted cake flour (sifted, then measured)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup boiling water
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Filling and frosting
2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup sugar
3 8-ounce containers chilled mascarpone cheese

For lemon curd:

Whisk first 4 ingredients in medium metal bowl. Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water). Whisk constantly until thickened and instant-read thermometer inserted into mixture registers 160°F, about 10 minutes. Remove bowl from over water. Add butter; whisk until melted. Transfer 1 cup curd to small bowl for spreading on cake layers. Reserve remaining curd for filling. Press plastic wrap directly onto surface of both curds. Chill overnight. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Keep chilled.)

For cake:
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Line bottom of two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with parchment paper. Using electric mixer (hand mixer recommended here since you'll need it for several different items, and a stand mixer with only one bowl would be problematic) beat egg yolks and 7 tablespoons sugar in large bowl until mixture is very thick and slowly dissolving ribbons form when beaters are lifted, about 4 minutes. Using clean and dry beaters, beat whites in another large bowl until soft peaks form, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add remaining 7 tablespoons sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff and glossy, at least another 4 minutes. Fold half of whites into yolk mixture, then sift half of flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt over and gently fold in until incorporated. Fold in remaining whites, then sift remaining flour over and fold in just until combined, being careful not to deflate batter.

Divide batter between pans; smooth tops. Bake until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 10 to 12 minutes. Cool in pans on racks.

Run knife around edge of pans to loosen cakes. Invert cakes onto rack, tapping on work surface if necessary to release cakes. Cut each cake horizontally in half (layers will be thin). Peel off parchment and set layers aside while you make the syrup and filling.

For syrup:
Place sugar in small metal bowl. Add 1/3 cup boiling water; stir to dissolve sugar. Stir in lemon juice.

For filling and frosting:
Beat cream and sugar in large bowl until peaks form. Add mascarpone to lemon curd in medium bowl; whisk until well blended. Fold whipped cream into lemon-mascarpone mixture.

Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on platter. Brush with syrup (do not drench the cake). Spread a thin layer of lemon curd over it, then about 1 cup lemon-mascarpone filling. Top with second cake layer; brush with syrup and spread with lemon curd and 1 cup lemon-mascarpone filling. Repeat with third cake layer, syrup, lemon curd, and filling. Top with fourth cake layer. Brush with syrup, then spread lemon curd over. Spread the lemon-mascarpone filling over the cake top and sides to coat it (like a crumb coat). Fill pastry bag fitted with 1/4-inch star tip (to be used for rosettes) with filling. Pipe small rosettes of frosting over top of cake, covering completely. Spread remaining lemon-mascarpone filling as a frosting over sides of cake until covered. You may not use all of the filling so keep it for another use if you want. Refrigerate at least 6 hours and up to 1 day.If your filling is too soft to pipe the rosettes, just put the bowl of filling in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes until it firms up a bit.

Remove from refrigerator about 30 minutes before serving.

Summery lemon cakes with grilled pluots

Last Saturday, the farmer's market once again led me to try something new. Pluots look like plums, but are hybrids of plums and apricots. Sweet and juicy, they have greenish skin and bright pink flesh. I couldn't resist buying a container of 6 of them. I knew we'd never eat all of them (I had already bought peaches and raspberries), so I knew I had to serve them with something. I also gave one to my parents to try.

As I rode home, I decided on lemon cakes. I'd seen a recipe in Food Network Magazine that sounded interesting. So before the sun got too hot, I cranked up the oven. It was also a great opportunity to use my new mini bundt pan!! It makes 6 little cakes in 3 different designs.

One unique thing about this recipe is that it is prepared in a blender. So I hauled out my blender and started whizzing away. I made a number of modifications from the original and I also served them with grilled pluots. Here's my recipe. This makes 6 small or 12 mini bundt cakes. If you don't have the specialty pan, use muffin cups or whatever, just watch your baking time.

Lemon vanilla olive oil cakes with grilled pluots

For the cakes

• 1 Tbsp. butter, melted
• 1 cup flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1 Tbsp. grated lemon zest
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla paste (or vanilla extract)
• 1/4 cup Extra Virgin olive oil
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

For the glaze

• 1 1/2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• Confectioners' sugar (about 1 cup)

3 pluots, quartered, pits discarded (peaches or nectarines make a good substitute.)

Preheat oven to 350F. Brush pan with melted butter. Dust with flour, shaking off any excess.

Mix flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl with a fork. Set aside.

Pulse sugar and lemon zest in a blender until combined. Add eggs one at a time, blending between each addition. Add vanilla. Gradually pour in the olive oil and milk. Pulse until it forms a thin batter.

Add the flour mixture in 2 additions, mixing and scraping the sides between each.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in center of oven for about 25 minutes until cakes just start to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then invert onto a rack. Cool slightly.

While cakes are in the oven, make the glaze. Whisk together the butter and lemon juice then whisk in confectioners sugar until glaze is the consistency you like. drizzle over the cakes.

Before serving, preheat the grill over medium-high heat. Grill the pluots, flesh-side down, for about 3 minutes per side. You want some grill marks to form, but you don't want them to turn to mush. Repeat on the other side.

Serve cakes with grilled pluots and a sprig of fresh mint.