Lemon bars for Mum

Happy birthday Mum...

Mums birthday was on September 2nd.She loves lemon tart, but unfortunately I don't have a tart baking pan. I wasn't quite game enough to make a lemon tart without the pan, as I really didn't want to fail miserably. It was Mum's birthday after all!

These lemon bars were baked in a square cake pan and essentially tastes the same as a lemon tart. This recipe calls for a lot of lemon juice - the result is a nice, strong lemon flavour. The base is nice and thick and isn't made soggy by the filling.


Lemon bars (Recipe from Baking Bites)


Ingredients:
Base
1 1/2 cups plain flour
Pinch of salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature


Filling
4 eggs
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, strained

Method:
Preheat the oven to 176 degrees C. Grease and line a 20 x 20 cm cake pan. I find it easy to use baking paper with a bit of overhang (have the baking paper extend up a few cm over the cake pan to make it easy to remove the bar without breaking after baking).
For the base, place the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add the butter and use an electric beater on low to mix until it resembles sandy crumbs. I found it easier to rub the butter a little into the flour with my fingers to achieve this after using the beater for a few minutes, but maybe that was me being a little impatient!
Tip the mixture into the prepared pan. Using your fingers press the mixture evenly into the base of the pan, extending to the edges and corners.
Pop in the oven and bake for 16-20 minutes, until golden brown at the edges. Watch closely after 15 minutes, but mine took closer to 20.
While the base is baking, whisk together the filling ingredients until incorporated. You want to pour the mixture onto the base while still warn from the oven, so have it ready!
Take the base from oven and pour filling in carefully before popping back in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the filling is set and doesn't wobble. 
Note - I used a silicon cake pan so I made sure I had it on an oven tray before pouring the filling in - otherwise it would have been very hard to get into the oven!

While the bars taste good on the day of eating, if you leave them overnight (or even a few days) in the fridge, the lemon flavour develops and the bars get better. 

Jam “doughnut” cupcakes and Lemon curd “doughnut” cupcakes

"Doughnut" cupcakes two ways - Jam “doughnut” cupcakes and Lemon curd “doughnut” cupcakes

Following on from my apple doughnut cupcake post a while ago, I started thinking about other possible combinations.

I started off with the very vanilla cupcakes from a recent post. I doubled the recipe this time though so I would have enough to take to a friends place for dessert and have some left for Mr X to take into work (which seems to be routine these days!).

I decided on two types - lemon curd and jam filled. Lemon curd paired well with the cupcake recipe because the cupcakes require four egg whites, and the lemon curd needed four egg yolks. I decided the combination was meant to be! I also made jam filled ones because Mr X requested them.

Ingredients:
Cupcake recipe here (double batch) - makes approx 28 cupcakes

Lemon “doughnut” cupcakes

Ingredients:
14 “very vanilla” cupcakes

Lemon curd filling
Recipe here

Drizzle topping (adapted from bbcgoodfood.com)
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons (freshly squeezed, strained)
43 grams caster sugar

Method:

Bake cupcakes. Leave in pan to cool for 10 minutes before turing out onto wire rack. Hollow out the top of each cupcake (instructions here)

Put caster sugar in a small bowl and add lemon juice to it. Mix to combine. Drizzle over cupcakes while still warm.

Fill the cupcakes with lemon curd using this method.

Jam "doughnut" cupcakes
Ingredients:

14 “very vanilla” cupcakes*
* add 3/4 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp nutmeg to batter

Jam filling
Approx 14 tsp good quality strawberry jam

Sugar coating
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
5 tbs butter, melted

Method:

Bake cupcakes. Leave in pan to cool for 10 minutes before turing out onto wire rack. Hollow out the top of each cupcake (instructions here)

Melt a few tbs butter in the microwave safe bowl. Brush cupcakes lightly with melted butter and roll in sugar.

Fill the cupcakes with jam using this method. 

I spent a lazy day at home with Mr X and our dog, Ari Gold. Ari decided to "help" me update my blog. Thanks Ari!

Lemon curd filled vanilla cupcakes with cream cheese icing

After making lemon curd for the first time recently, I was excited to make it again. I asked my taste tester (husband) which he would prefer - a lemon tart, or lemon curd filled cupcakes. He requested cupcakes, so I made these.


Makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Lemon curd

• 4 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 7 tbs strained freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 7 tbs unsalted butter, cut into tiny pieces
• 7 tbs heavy cream
• 2 tbs icing sugar

Vanilla cupcakes

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 3/4 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Cream cheese icing

• 150g cream cheese, room temperature
• 75g butter, softened
• 2 cups icing sugar, sifted
• 2 tbs lemon juice

Method:

Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 176 degrees C, grease and line cupcake tins.
Beat butter on high for about 30 seconds, until soft. Add sugar and beat on medium high until mixture looks pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds in between each.
In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking soda and baking powder.
Mix the buttermilk and vanilla together in a jug.

Add a quarter of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and mix to combine. Add approximately one third of the milk, mix to combine. Repeat steps above, ensuring you end with the four mixture. Make sure you mix until just combined.


Fill prepared cupcake tins each to two thirds capacity. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until test skewer comes out clean.

Lemon curd

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, mix together egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice. Cook on low heat for about 4 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens slightly (enough to coat back of spoon). Transfer to a bowl, cover with glad wrap to prevent a skin forming on the curd. Refrigerate for approximately two hours to cool.
Whip cream and icing sugar in a bowl until stiff peaks form, and mix into lemon curd.


Cream cheese icing
Beat cream cheese and butter by hand or using an electric mixer until creamy. Sift in icing sugar and beat until smooth. Add lemon juice and beat to combine.


How to assemble the cupcakes:

• Cut off the top of the cupcake in the shape of a cone using a small paring knife
• Fill the hole with approximately 1 tbs lemon curd
• Replace cupcake top securely
• Pipe icing onto cupcake

Jam drops

I made these on a whim over the weekend - I had an urge to bake but hadn't been to the supermarket so I was limited by what we had at home. We had jam in the cupboard, so the decision was made! Next time I'm going to go a step further and make my own jam.


Makes about 20 cookies.


Ingredients:

• 130g butter, softened
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 2 tbs cornflour
• 1 cup plus 3 tbs plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup jam - I used strawberry

Method:

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and creamy.

Add the egg and beat until combined.

Sift in flours and mix until combined using a spoon. The dough will be quite soft and fluffy. Refrigerate the dough for half an hour to firm in up.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C (fan forced). Line two baking tray with baking paper.
Once taken out of the fridge, the dough should be firm and easier to make into cookies!

Roll heaped teaspoons of dough into balls and place them evenly spaced on the baking trays. Make a deep indentation in the centre of each ball. I used the end of a chopstick.

Place half a teaspoon of jam in each hole. Try not to overfill them, or they will overflow during baking.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a golden pale colour. Allow to cool before trying them, the jam will burn you otherwise!

On a slightly random side topic, I also made lemon curd the same day as the cookies. Instead of filling all the cookies with jam, I baked some without, and added a teaspoon of lemon curd to the top of them after baking. Sort of like a mini lemon tart, but in a cookie instead! Forgot to take a photo of the finished product though :(

Lemon Curd (A Martha Stewart Recipe)

Ingredients:

(Note - the ingredients below is for half the original recipe)

• 4 large egg yolks
• Zest of 2 lemons (fine)
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold)

Method:

Add yolk, zest, lemon juice and sugar in a heavy bottomed pan, whisk to combine.

Cook over medium high heat - making sure you stir it constantly with a wooden spoon. Make sure you scrape down the sides of the pan. When the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon (after approx 10 mins), remove saucepan from heat.

Add salt, then add the butter one tablespoon at a time, stirring until smooth. Strain through a sieve into a medium sized bowl. Cover with glad wrap (press glad wrap directly onto the lemon curd to stop a skin from forming on it). Place in the fridge to set for a minimum of one hour. mine set within two hours but apparently it can take up to a day according to Martha (she did make double the qty though)

Shoeboxgirl