Meyer Lemon Pound Cake

I am so glad that I am back in Penang, that means I can hangout with my girlfriends CP Choong (also my baking guru on Rasa Malaysia) and Craft Passion (super-talented craft blogger). I met up with them and  told CP Choong to share new baking recipes on Rasa Malaysia, while I am on vacation eating around Penang and enjoying my kitchen days off.

This amazing looking and uber delicious Meyer Lemon Pound Cake is her creation. Since it’s springtime in the United States, and spring is meyer lemon’s main season of fruit production, this recipe is sure to please many people, if you love pound cake and  the exotic great taste and aroma of meyer lemon.

What’s more, she made a killer meyer lemon glaze for the pound cake…now that’s sinful and I am sure you just want to pick up a piece, or two or three pieces of this meyer lemon pound cake from your screen.

Other than this recipe, I also have two other pound cake recipes here and here and Rasa Malaysia. Enjoy!

View the original article here

Meyer Lemon Magic Custard Cake for Breakfast

The Winter Olympics are here and we’re trying our hardest to sneak in as much spectator time as possible, on television, that is. There’s so much that we love about the Olympics, but it’s the personal stories that make watching the events so special. We all have our dreams to pursue and to see someone be able to live their personal dream by just being in the Olympics is so inspiring.

It’s hard to not be drawn to each Olympians personal commitment and story to why they love what they do so much. And it’s also about understanding their personal drive, un-faultering commitment and obsession to their sport. We’re always cheering for for our favorites, even when we scream so loud that it scares the pups. Go Team USA!

On the topic of obsession, we’re not ready to let go for obsession with our magic custard cakes and adoration for homegrown citrus. It started with a craving for blood orange buttermilk pound cake and a blood orange gin and tonic (recipe soon). Then we started picking some meyer lemons from our tree and it all wen’t downhill from there. It’s a citrus addiction, we tell ya. Citrus therapy, please.

We were wanting to make another batch of magic custard cake for breakfast (it’s great with coffee) and had a basket of meyer lemons on the counter. So rather than making the traditional vanilla version, we wanted to experiment with some fresh meyer lemon zest and juice, hoping for a brighter flavor on our original one.

This meyer lemon magic custard cake version is just as delicious as the vanilla version, but not as sweet. It’s lifted with the floral and sweet essence of meyer lemon, along with the bright citrus notes of meyer lemon that make it super special.

Serve up a slice for breakfast along with a cup of your favorite coffee. It’ll start your morning in a simple, lovely and delicious way. The custard cake has enough egg in there, so it’s the perfect partner to your morning meal.

Enjoy Breakfast. And Go Team USA!

Diane and Todd

Our love of meyer lemons is endless and last year we even made a video of it. Here it is again to reflect on our love of lemons.

Yield: One 8"x8" Cake

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Adapted from our original Magic Custard Cake. Click here for the recipe.

Temperatures for the ingredients are important here. Not too warm to cook the eggs before baking, and not cold either. You can use either confectioner's sugar or regular sugar, use the same amount by weight but the volume will be different. If you use regular sugar, 150g will equal 3/4 cup.

A few more notes on making the cake: When adding the milk, we found it easier and less messy to gently hand whip them in instead of using the stand mixer. It is a very liquidy batter, and for us it splattered everywhere even at the slowest speed. For folding in the whites, it is done with more of a gentle whisk/folding motion with the whisk since the batter is so runny. The whites will look a little curd like after mixing them in, just try to mix/fold them to the point where there is no big chunks. Because of the custard-like center, when fully baked, there will be a bit of a jiggle, but not a sloppy jiggle to the cake when gently shook. Same after is has cooled. That's about it. Have fun and every time we've made the magic custard cakes, going into the oven we don't think they will work correctly, and after baking they are magically perfect.

1/2 cup (113g) unsalted Butter2 cups (480ml) Milk4 Eggs, separated4 drop White Vinegar1 1/4 cups (150g) Confectioner's Sugarfinely grated zest from 2 Meyer Lemons1 Tablespoon (15ml) Water1 1/4 cup (156g) all-purpose Flour1/4 cup (60ml) fresh Meyer Lemon Juiceextra confectioner's sugar for dustingPreheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly butter or grease a 8"x8" baking dish.Melt the butter and set aside to slightly cool. Warm the milk to lukewarm and set aside.Whip the egg whites and vinegar to stiff peaks. Set aside.Beat the egg yolks, confectioner's sugar, and meyer lemon zest until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in the melted butter and the tablespoon of water for about 1 minute or until evenly incorporated.Mix in the flour until evenly incorporated. Slowly beat in the milk and lemon juice until everything is well mixed.With a whisk, fold/gently whisk in the egg whites, 1/3 at a time. Repeat until all of the large egg whites chunks are broken up and folded in.Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-60 minutes or until the top is golden. Allow cake to completely cool before cutting and then dust with confectioner's sugar *see Note 1.

Note 1: For faster cooling you can place the cake in the fridge. Even after fully cooled, it will still be slightly jiggly

View the original article here

Meyer Lemon Crinkle Cookies

I love a really good cookie. Though I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I appreciate and savor every bite of dessert that my palate can tolerate. And though I’m not capable of eating too much, I’m always searching for a great recipe that can satisfy my two to three bites of sweet joy.

And what do I mean by a really good cookie? I know everyone has their criteria on what they expect out of a cookie, so having an open discussion here is always fun to see what you expect in your next warm batch. I don’t consider myself a cookie-snob, though I’m known to be very frustrated if I pay $3.50 for a mediocre cookie in a bakery!

What I love out of cookies are great texture, chew and flavor. We’ve previously written about one of our favorite granola cookies and now I found this on recipe on Pinterest and I’m so blown away by it’s flavor because I love meyer lemon and the flavor really shines in this cookie. It’s so excellent that I actually inhaled 4 cookies in one sitting. And for me, that’s an eating feat.

I found this popular lemon crinkle cookie recipe on Pinterst and it was made my Lauren of the lovely Lauren’s Latest blog. Thanks to Pinterest, I’ve been finding some really fabulous recipes, including my last magic custard cake and when I found Lauren’s cookie recipe few months ago, I’ve been equally obsessed over it.

Finally, I reminded Todd about it and he immediately dived into the kitchen to bake up a batch with our garden meyer lemons. He’s a great guy and why I cherish him so much is that he loves to bake cookies. I’m good at finding the recipe and eating them, so we’re we’re a perfect match!

The verdict is nothing but applause for Lauren’s recipe. I’m sending you all a big word of caution because if you love lemon cookies, if you love meyer lemons and if you’re a lover of snickerdoodles, you will find yourself stuffing yourself silly with these lovely cookies. They’re soft and chewy, similar to the texture of a snickerdoodle, but with the bright flavors of meyer lemon and delicate aroma of powdered sugar. We’ve adapted it a bit to suit our taste and our meyer lemons. But you can refer to her original recipe or use our version with the meyer lemons.

I’m confident this recipe will be making it’s appearance at our Summer dinner parties because they’re that good!

Enjoy,

diane

Our cookbook, Bountiful, is available for pre-order on Amazon! & we shared a post about it here.

Yield: 24-36 Cookies

Total Time: 30 min

Adapted from Lauren's Latest Lemon Crinkle Cookies. The cookies have a soft interior texture with a slightly crisp exterior given to it by rolling the cookies in confectioners sugar before baking. Their texture reminds us of one of our favorite cookies, our Snickerdoodles, but with a lemon flavor. Adjustments to Lauren's original recipe were made to suite the sweeter taste of the meyer lemon and to our own personal preferences. Make sure to check out her original recipe as well. It's fantastic.

1 1/2 cups (190g) Flour1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt or Kosher Salt1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder1/8 teaspoons Baking Soda1/2 cup (113g) unsalted Butter, softened1/2 cup (110g) packed Brown Sugar1/2 cup (100g) Sugar½ teaspoon (3ml) Vanilla Extract1 Egg1 teaspoon (5ml) Meyer Lemon Zest (@ 1 meyer lemon's worth)2 Tablespoons (30ml) fresh Meyer Lemon Juice1/4 cup (30g) Confectioners SugarPreheat an oven to 350°F. Line a couple sheet pans with parchment paper.In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda for at least 20 seconds. Set aside.In mixer, beat together the butter, brown sugar, and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract, egg, meyer lemon zest, and meyer lemon juice until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again to make sure everything is incorporated.Stir in the flour mixture until just combined, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to get all of the flour.Sift the confectioners sugar onto a large plate. Form the dough into 1 inch sized balls (a 1/2 oz. cookie scoop works perfectly to help make balls). Roll the balls in the confectioners sugar then place 2 inches apart on the lined sheet pans.Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookies just begin to turn light golden and the tops of the cookies look matte (no longer shiny or wet looking). Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

View the original article here

For the Love of Meyer Lemons: Video & A Little Giveaway

This giveaway has ended, thank you all for sharing your love of meyer lemons. Scroll to end of post to see winner.

We do love to share, but sometimes it’s really impossible to pass around a few baskets of citrus from our garden to all you kind folks. When we can, we do enjoy sending out a little bit of our Southern California sunshine to friends in the chilly parts of the country. A little box of  citrus love can warm up even the coldest days during the Spring Season. We’ve given away some garden citrus before, but it’s been a while.

Because we love meyer lemons so much and we appreciate you all, we thought it’s time to share some of our garden meyer lemons. It’s not much, but for those of you who don’t get an opportunity to enjoy a really fresh meyer lemon, this little giveaway will bring a little warmth to the chilly part of your world.

And we made a little video, sharing a little glimpse of what’s sprouting up in the garden this month.

There’s just something special about meyer lemons. Their floral fragrance, their delicate beauty and vibrant flavors really add so many wonderful elements to cooking. One of our favorite articles on the many uses of meyer lemons always inspires us to continue cooking and creating new dishes with one of our favorite lemons. It’s so hard to not want to make everything on that list. When the conversation of meyer lemons comes around, everyone’s faces always seem to light up!

The Giveaway has ended, thank you all for sharing your love of meyer lemons! Congrats to Winner #288, Alexandra! Thanks to twitter for helping us be our random number generator.

For the love of meyer lemons, here’s the giveaway details:

Giveaway only available to folks living in the continental United States. Winner will receive a box of fresh meyer lemons from our garden!Just leave a comment below and tell us what you would make if you won!You are welcome to have another entry if you want to tweet or facebook the giveaway. Just leave the link in another comment.Giveaway ends Sunday April 7th, 2013 at midnight pst. Check back here for the winner on Monday April 8th.

View the original article here

Fizzy Blueberry Meyer Lemonade

I’m a berry boy. I love my berries. Unfortunately, Southern California doesn’t so much, or at least so I thought.

Strawberries being the huge exception (they are amazing down here), I always thought that growing berries in our garden would be  a futile task. I’m talking blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries. They were so easy for us to grow on the ranch in Oregon. It seemed like all we had to do was plant them and forget about it until we were ready for a mid-day treat.

Oh how the horses would stretch and strain to try and reach the raspberry vines. Lips stretching like little kids fingers reaching into the cookie jar high on the counter. The fence between the raspberries and horse had to be double high and narrow enough between rails that they couldn’t slide the heads through to reach our precious red fruit.

8 years ago when we were initially planning our garden here in Southern California we made a list of plants we loved. Next we grudgingly  crossed out the ones which wouldn’t grow well in our zone, then started designing the garden based on the remaining plants. All but the strawberries were crossed off the berry list. Silly us.

Little did we know that many of them can grow quite well down here. Our ignorance was partly due to some varieties which have been developed or shown to do well in our milder climate, and part because we didn’t do enough research.

But a garden in never finished. It is always evolving and changing and a berry boy is now quite happy with his Southern California garden.

We’ve been able to add 4 blueberry bushes (3 diff. varieties to see which does best), a couple raspberry vines and a blackberry vine to add to our strawberries as our berry plant inventory.

The blueberries went in first. After a year of planting, adjusting and growing, we’ve started to see a nice production off of them. Well, almost. We see a lot of growth and green berries, but our mockingbirds have discovered their berry goodness. At this point our teenager plants can’t produce more than the #%^%@-ing mockingbirds can eat, so we’ve only been able to eat a handful. Sigh.

The raspberries and blackberries have replaced a set of vines we took out this spring after its trellis broke. The jasmine was nice, but the berries are bad-ass. There is nothing like a home grown raspberry and they have been “goin’ gorilla” as the two baby vines are giving us almost a cup worth every other day. The blackberries are growing and fruiting well, but our blackies have yet to hit their season.

To celebrate our berry delight, and a friend’s cookbook, here is an adapted recipe from Sara Kate’s new cookbook, Good Food to Share.

Sara Kate’s gorgeous cookbook is filled with beautiful recipes full of fresh, seasonal produce and ingredients. It’s hard not to be inspired to cook, share and feed your family and friends when flipping through each thoughtful page and photograph. Each dish is sure to feed and please a crowd for any occasion and gathering.

So because of her book and love of giving, we’re more thoughtful about sharing our blueberries with the birds. At least on the days they beat us to the berries. A boy still has to have berries of his own.

-Todd & Diane

Yield: 1 Drink

Total Time: 5 Minutes

3 T fresh Meyer Lemon Juice (about 1 lemon)1-2 T Simple Syrup - 1:1 ratio (to taste - 1 part sugar : 1 part water)1/4 c Blueberriesfew dashes Bitters of choice (usually we'll use orange bitters)Soda WaterIceMint for garnishCombine lemon juice, simple syrup, and blueberries in a blender. Blend until smooth.Fill a glass with ice. Add blueberry lemonade. Top with soda water.Garnish and serve.

View the original article here

Meyer Lemonade w/Rosemary + Thank You Sunset Magazine

It’s been almost 15 years ago since we had our first conversation about growing a garden together. It’s been that long? We still can’t believe it.

Back then, our garden inventory was a mere small handful of terra cotta pots filled with herbs on a tiny balcony of a second story apartment. We were only able to occupy half of that balcony because we shared the apartment with two other roommates. So, our personal space back then was one bedroom, a shared bathroom, kitchen and half a balcony.

Compared to what we have growing now, we had very little back then. But we always dreamed big because of what our monthly issue of Sunset Magazine inspired us to what we “can do” with our small space and if we had just a bit more yardage, of  what we “could do”.

Well, we found our space, filled it with 38 fruit trees and continually played in the dirt. But never ever in our wildest dreams would we ever believe that we would find ourselves and reading about ourselves in Sunset Magazine, the exact publication that continually encouraged and inspired us to grow more and live green.

It’s surreal and strange to see our faces in the very magazine that inspired our garden to grow and flourish to become what it is today.

So it’s here, the February 2011 issue of Sunset Magazine and we’re on pages 50 and 87. There isn’t just one, but two stories about our garden citrus in this issue and it’s too overwhelming for us to even comprehend how this all happened. We’re still in shock and often shy about it all. In fact, they even used our photographs of the detailed fruit that we shot in the story. Double shock treat omg wow!

All we can say right now (or shout) is a huge THANK YOU to all the editors at Sunset Magazine,  Senior Garden writer Sharon Cohoon and photographer Andrea Gomez for championing our humble citrus garden in this month’s issue.  And to all of you readers and friends who have supported us on this blog, we thank you profusely.

We’re thrilled, excited, in shock and even more humbled by this whole experience. You all made our wildest garden dreams come true!

To celebrate and keep in theme with the citrus sunset stories, we made some refreshing meyer lemonade. The floral qualities of meyer lemons brighten up the classic lemonade with a floral twist. With an added sprig of fresh rosemary, this wonderful meyer lemonade becomes extra special, delicate and fragrant for such a joyous occasion. Make sure you slice up the meyer lemon rinds and infuse in the lemonade. The flavor will pop, and make this a drinkable meyer lemon candy.

Thank you to every single one of you!

Much love and gratitude,

-Todd and Diane

You can read one of the stories here, at Sunset.com. For the 2nd story, you’ll just have to buy the February 2011 issue. But also included are our some of our favorite citrus recipes!

our meyer lemons are finally ripe!

a touch of rosemary, one sprig is plenty, makes this lemonade outstanding

Enjoy More Meyer Lemon Recipes:

 Print This Recipe

Meyer Lemonade with Rosemary Recipe
Don’t go overboard with the rosemary, because it can quickly overpower the lemonade.  It should give just the subtlest hint of rosemary to compliment the Meyer lemons. Throw in a few of the squeezed Meyer lemon rinds into lemonade to give it an extra brightness of flavor. Citrus have incredible flavor in the oils of their rinds and after squeezing, those oils have been pushed to the surface, just waiting to be used. We make our lemonades with simple syrup, a great staple to always have in the fridge, but you can always just use sugar or agave nectar to taste. Makes  5 1/2 c.

1/2 c (120ml) fresh Meyer Lemon Juice
1 c (240ml) Simple Syrup *recipe follows
4 c (960ml) Water
a couple sprigs of fresh Rosemary

1. Combine all ingredients in a pitcher, adding in a few freshly squeezed rinds of the Meyer lemons.  Stir to combine and serve over ice.

Simple Syrup Recipe
This is our basic simple syrup recipe. We’ll often make variations by substituting palm sugar or agave nectar for some of the light corn syrup or by infusing ginger or mint into the syrup when boiling. They are great for making your own sodas with a soda water. Simple syrup keeps very well, usually for months if your storage jar is sterile before filling. Makes about 3 cups.

2 c (480ml) Water
@ 1 1/2 c (285g) Sugar
1/2 c (170g) light Corn Syrup

1.  Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan.  Stir and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 15-20 seconds then take off the heat.  Allow to cool then store in a sterile jar in the refrigerator.

View the original article here