I wrote the following (and took the previous pictures) about a month ago, then never posted it. I think it is a perfect post for Valentine's Day because it involves two things I love - lemon desserts and visits from Santina. To make it a bit more current, here is a pic of the Valentine's Day manicure I gave myself.
On to cooking...
You may have noticed that I don't really do desserts. I think the only dishes I have posted that come close to dessert are pumpkin bread and sweet corn tomalito. Three things this evening came together that led me to make a dessert:
1. I bought a bag of Meyer lemons earlier this week because I love them and they're in season. I did not have any plans for what I would do with them;
2. I moved my cookbooks to a new place in my kitchen and came across one my parents got me ages ago, Luscious Lemon Desserts. Lemon desserts are my favorite, and the recipes within that book are sorely under-utilized; and
3. Santina arrives at 10.30pm this evening, and I need something to do so that I don't pace restlessly around my house, checking the time every 30 seconds, not being able to stand the anticipation.
I perused the cookbook, knowing that I couldn't take on anything too complex or anything that required ingredients I do not have in my house. When I saw that I had everything for lemon curd, I was thrilled. And the fact that it looked relatively easy was a bonus.
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
3 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest
Pinch of salt
6 large egg yolks
1. Melt the butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat.
2. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the sugar, lemon zest, and salt. Whisk in the yolks until smooth.
3. Cook the mixture, whisking constantly, until it thickens and leaves a path on the back of a wooden spoon when a finger is drawn across it; do not allow the mixture to boil.
4. Immediately pour the Lemon Curd through a strainer into a bowl. Let cool to room temperature, whisking occasionally. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve. (Lemon Curd keeps for a month in the refrigerator and for about 3 months in the freezer.)
I look forward to finding ways to use the lemon curd. It goes well on everything, even just a simple piece of toast. Or can you imagine how good it would be smeared on a sweet cream scone? Or a buttermilk biscuit? Mmm. There are also numerous recipes in the Luscious Lemon Desserts cookbook that call for lemon curd. Maybe I'll try another from there. I don't know. I don't know if we'll have enough time.
Bon appetit.
Before Halloween weekend, I hadn't had a weekend with no plans, visitors, or traveling in... I don't know... months? So I was very excited to stay in and clean, cook, and sleep. And that's pretty much all I did, with the addition of giving myself possibly my favorite manicure ever: slaughter nails. They are really easy to do, and I think I am going to use the same technique in the future with other colors since I don't think I can rock slaughter nails year-round. You can get a tutorial on Refinery29, but it's basically just painting your nails white then using a straw to blow the red on top.
Back to cooking. The next pumpkin recipe I knew I would make is pumpkin bread. I love pumpkin bread, and it's a very easy thing to make. I am terrible at baking, and even I can handle this recipe.
The below recipe is for one 9-inch loaf. The pumpkin I roasted yielded enough for two loaves, so I made two: one raisin and walnut and one chocolate chip. For the chocolate chip version, replace the walnuts and raisins with 1 1/2 cup chocolate chips.
Oh, and if you are roasting your own pumpkin, all you need to do is pre-heat the oven to 350F, cut the pumpkin in half and clean out the seeds and strings, place on a foil lined cookie sheet skin side up, and roast for ~45 minutes or until a knife pierces the pumpkin very easily. I think I ended up roasting mine for ~55 minutes. Then remove the pumpkin from the skin and mash. I like to do it while the pumpkin is still hot because it is easier to get out of the skin and mash. But be careful not to burn your hands.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 cups pumpkin, mashed (or 1 15-ounce can pumpkin)
1 cup sugar
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup toasted pecans or walnuts, chopped coarse
1 cup raisins
1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle positions and heat over to 350 degrees.
2. Generously coat a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
3. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and ginger together in large bowl. Whisk pumpkin, sugar, melted butter, eggs and vanilla together in separate bowl until frothy.
4. Gently fold pumpkin mixture into flour mixture with rubber spatula until just combined. Fold in nuts and cranberries or chocolate chips. Batter will be very thick.
5. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth surface. Bake until golden and toothpick inserted into center comes out with just a few crumbs attached, 45 to 55 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool at least 1 hour before serving. (Bread can be wrapped in plastic and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.)
I didn't check how much sugar I had before I started the recipe, and I didn't have enough white sugar, so I subbed a cup of brown sugar. I think it improved the recipe, personally, and in fact, next time I make pumpkin bread, I am going to use half white and half brown sugar.
Also, I like chocolate chips an immeasurable amount more than I like raisins and walnuts. I flat out don't like walnuts, and raisins are only so so. But I prefer the raisin walnut bread to the chocolate chip. Interesting, no?
Lastly, This bread is really good with some cream cheese on it. In fact, I kind of wish I had made cream cheese frosting for it. There's always next time, I suppose.
I just have to note one thing pertaining to one reason I don't like to bake, especially things that are frosted. It is very difficult to frost without getting crumbs into the frosting and ruining the aesthetic of the baked good. It took me an absurd amount of time to put cream cheese on those pieces of bread and not have any crumbs or streaks of chocolate showing. And crumbs are showing. Please don't look too closely.
Bon appetit.
