Tag Archives: lemon

Carrot Apple Beet Ginger Juice
Adapted from Juice 101Yield – 1 16-ounce serving

3-4 carrots, peeled
2 beets, peeled
4 stalks celery
1 red apple
1 inch piece of ginger
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Peel the beets and carrots and roughly chop the beets, carrots, celery, apple, and ginger.
Place everything in the juice and juice.
Add the lemon juice and stir. Drink immediately or store in the fridge.

About these ads

6 Comments

Filed under Beverages

Tagged as apple, beet, celery, ginger, gluten free, lemon, pineapple, vegan

May 8, 2013 · 5:00 am

Spicy Lemonade

This one is spicy! It just looks hot and was hard for me to drink. The original recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and I knew that would be too much for me, so I reduced the amount to 1/4 teaspoon. Even that was too much. If you’re not a spicy person, I would definitely recommend an 1/8 teaspoon.

Usually I highly recommend shaking all the juices to mix properly, but for this one I tried to let as much cayenne pepper settle at the bottom as possible. Let’s have some honesty here – I only drank one of these, I couldn’t stand the cayenne pepper. I know I’m kind of a wimp when it comes to spice, so do what your heart tells you for this situation.

I replaced the spicy lemonade with a plain coconut water. Calorie-wise it was about the same and kept me full. If I did a juice cleanse again, I would either completely eliminate the cayenne or add 1/16 of a teaspoon.

Spicy Lemonade
Adapted from Juices 101
Yield – 1 16-ounce serving

2 lemons
1 tablespoon agave nectar
1/8-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I used 1/4 and it was WAY too spicy for me)
14 ounces filtered water

Juice the lemons into a 16-ounce mason jar. Add in the agave and cayenne pepper.
Add water to fill. Screw on the lid tightly and shake.
Refrigerate before drinking.

2 Comments

Filed under Beverages

Tagged as gluten free, lemon, vegan

May 6, 2013 · 5:00 am

Green Apple Juice {Blue Print Green}

A couple of weeks ago I did a 3-day juice cleanse. There are kits you can purchase that deliver all the juice to your house and you can just grab and drink. That’s probably an easier way to do a juice cleanse, but I’ve never done anything the easy way.

Of course I wanted to make it all myself. I’m going to post each day this week and walk you through a homemade juice cleanse. The first step is planning. Look at your calendar and find a 9-10 day window without many obligations. Even though the actual juice cleanse is only 3 days, there is an easing in and an easing out process.

The second step is grocery shopping. Be prepared to buy and store a lot of produce! Clear the fridge, clear the cupboards. I spent about $100 on produce for the three days. That does seem like a lot, but to buy directly from Blue Print, it’s going to run about $180.

Finally, you need some time for juicing. All that time you used to spend eating will now go towards preparing the juices. One tip I can offer is to make multiple batches at once. Since you’re drinking 2 green apple juices a day, make both at once. The green apple is the first juice of the day and you drink a second juice later on, so I made the juices the night before and stored both in mason jars for easy grabbing and consuming.

The texture of the juice is easy for drinking. When making smoothies, the texture sometimes tickles my throat, not so with the juice. The green apple is bright and fresh. The strongest flavors are the cucumber and lemon juice.

Green Apple Juice {Blue Print Green}
Adapted from Juices 101
Yield – 28-32 ounces, enough for 2 servings of juice

3 large romaine leaves
5 large celery stalks
1 large English cucumber
3 kale leaves with stalks
5 parsley ribs
2 large granny smith apples
handful of spinach
2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Clean all the produce and chop into chunks except the lemons. Juice them in the juicer.
Scrape the foam off the top of the juice. Add the lemon juice to the juice and stir.
Divide the juice into one glass for immediate consumption and a mason jar for storage to drink later in the day.

Note – If your produce isn’t large enough to make enough juice, add 1/2 cucumber or apple to get the required amount of juice. Your goal is two 16-ounce servings of green juice.

Lemon Loaf Cake

Many years ago I made this lemon loaf cake several time with great success. I remember wanting to make a lemon pound cake, but without all the butter. I made this cake before I knew the about the awesome world of baking & cooking blogs, luckily, Ina Garten and Food Network were there to help me find this recipe. This cake is moist, rich in lemon flavor, and has zero butter. I’ve been wanting to post this recipe for awhile, but I have been looking for the right occasion to make it.

Every year the family Christmas party has a theme for a white elephant gift exchange. This year’s theme was kitchen gadgets, I was ready to rock this. Last year my gift for the “Great Outdoors” theme was lame and I wanted to bring my A-game, plus, when you bake as much as I do, people have expectations.

My thought was to choose a recipe, not too challenging, and buy the necessary gadget to go with it. I thought about this for a few days and decided on lemon loaf cake, lame gift giver no longer! These are the actual gadget I gave: a beautiful loaf pan, lemon/lime juicer, and zester. I also included a few lemons, the recipe, and a loaf of this wonderful cake.

My mom should have taken this gift, because as it turns out, she does not have a 9″ loaf pan. Instead I made three mini loaves. This turned out better because I was able to give one mini-loaf away, eat one loaf that day, and share the last loaf with my grandparents at lunch the next day. My brother ended up with the gift which is funny because he doesn’t really enjoy lemon and his girlfriend is gluten-free…

Whether or not you were the lucky recipient of this gift bag, make the lemon loaf cake. It is light and tender with plenty of citrus flavor. The lemon truly shines in this recipe. After all the heavy recipes of the Christmas season, this cake is a simple and much needed reprise.

One Year Ago: Mini Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Lemon Loaf Cake
Adapted from Food Network (Ina Garten)
Yield – 1 loaf (10-12 slices) or 3 mini loafs (24 slices)

1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1 + 1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/3 + 1/3 cup lemon juice, freshly juiced (4 lemons)

Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly juiced (1 lemon)

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a 9 inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Grease the parchment paper. Or grease and flour 3 mini loaf pans.
Sift together the flour, powder, and salt onto parchment paper.
In a large bowl whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla, oil, and lemon juice.
Fold in the dry ingredients into the wet with a rubber spatula until just combined. Pour the batter into the pan.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Bake the mini loafs for 25 minutes.
While the loaf cools, cook together 1/3 cup lemon juice and 1/3 cup sugar to make a simple syrup.
Pour the syrup over the cake and then allow to cool completely.
Make the glaze by whisking together the powdered sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Pour over the top of the cake. Allow the glaze to harden.

(My gift wasn’t the most awesome, someone brought a wine rack with bottles of wine. Booze always wins in my family. Always.)

6 Comments

Filed under Cake

Tagged as lemon

September 21, 2012 · 5:00 am

Sour Patch Kid Cupcakes

I have wanted to make these cupcakes for a VERY long time. The fruit curd was made over a month ago, but I never found the appropriate time or event to create these cupcakes! I told you Wednesday that the lame post would be worth it for what I had ready to give to today! I hope these cupcakes are worth the wait.

And by today, I really mean yesterday since I’m obviously not writing posts at 4 am. It’s surprising how many people ask me how I manage to post so early. WordPress makes it so easy, I just choose the day and time to post and it does it automatically for me. Basically, that’s how I pay my bills too, thank goodness for small conveniences, otherwise I’d be a big, hot mess! When I’m on my A-game, I have a full weeks worth of posts ready to go by Sunday, but this past week I’ve been writing all of my posts the night before. Am I really that different from my students?

Aaaannnnnndddddd, it’s even more funny when people ask to sample something I’ve just posted. I’m always like dude, I ate that 2 weeks ago, there is a blogging queue! This blog may be filled with real life, but there is little real time going on here! Most treats have been eaten at least 2 weeks before I get around to posting the recipe and pictures.

So let’s talk about these cupcakes, they are a little bit on the side of ridiculousness! They have numerous steps and are bright neon yellow, orange, and green. Considering the number of steps, I wanted to make these cupcakes for someone who would appreciate them and that person would have to be another baker, obviously! Christine is sweet and sassy, so I thought a sweet and sour cupcake would be perfect for her birthday. Christine and I have taken cake decorating classes together and worked on the Candy Land Cake. Clearly, this is a lady that appreciates a fine baked good!

The top sprinkles are SOUR! Beware! If you like sour things, this is the perfect cupcake for you. If you’re intimidated by sour, add less citric acid and don’t lick the top. I’m not the hugest fan of sour, but when you take a bite of the cupcake as a whole, it totally works! The cake is light and moist and the fruit curd in the middle provides flavor and even more moisture. The whipped vanilla frosting isn’t overly sweet but still provides a perfect balance to the tart top. At the end of the day, this is a FUN cupcake! It’s hard not to be excited by something bright and fruity!

Sour Patch Kids Cupcakes
Adapted from Tie Dye Cupcakes
Inspired by Cookies and Cups
Yield – 16 cupcakes

1 cup sugar
1 3/4 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 eggs
1/3 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
2/3 cup whole milk
Gel food color paste in neon yellow, orange, & green

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
In the bowl of a mixer add the sugar, flour, powder, soda, and salt, mix slowly with the paddle attachment.
Add the butter and beat for several minutes until the mixture becomes nice and crumbly.
While the mixer is mixing, whisk together the sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Pour this in the mixer and combine.
Slowly add the milk in and turn on high for a few seconds.
Divide the batter between 3 small bowls and add a squirt of food coloring to each. Mix each batter well.
Use a standard size ice cream scoop to portion the batter into lined cupcake pans.
Bake 14-17 minutes until a toothpick in a center cupcake comes out clean. Cool on cooling rack.

Whipped Vanilla Frosting
Yield – enough to generously decorate the cupcakes + extra

1 1/2 cups whole milk
7 1/2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
neon orange, yellow, and green gel food coloring

In a small saucepan over medium heat, whisk together the milk and flour. Keep whisking until the mixture becomes smooth and thick resembling pancake batter.
Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla and allow to cool completely.
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy – beat for 8 minutes
Add in the cooled flour/milk mixture and beat until the entire frosting is light and fluffy, about another 5-8 minutes.
Divide the frosting into three bowls and add food coloring to each. MIx well to combine.

Assembly
1 1/2 tablespoons citric acid, divided (I bought mine from King Arthur’s Flour)
1 1/2 tablespoons each of green, orange, and yellow sprinkles
lemon, orange, and lime curd
Sour Patch Kids

Once the cupcakes are cooled, pipe the curd into each cupcake, matching the appropriate color; lime with green, lemon with yellow, and orange with orange. I used an injection piping tip and plastic bags.
Pipe a circular blob on each cupcake. Again, match colors!
Mix 1 1/2 tablespoons of sprinkles with 1/2 tablespoon of citric acid in a cupcake liner.
Smash the top of each cupcake into the sprinkle/acid mix.
Top each cupcake with a sour patch kid.

Filed under Cupcakes

Tagged as birthday, lemon, lime, orange

September 19, 2012 · 5:00 am

Fruit Curd

Let me start by saying I know this is lame post. Fruit curd? Who cares? The reason fruit curd receives its own post is two-fold: one, this is an easy post to write, edit, photograph, and two, it’s a critical step for Friday’s post. Blogging is a lot more work/time than I anticipated. The hardest part is not the baking or thinking about what I’m going to make next. The hardest part is not the photos or the photo editing, I’m actually starting to enjoy and appreciate the process. The hardest part is not typing the recipes or writing the blurbs to say. The hardest part is finding the time to complete the six previous steps! When I started this baby, and this blog is my baby – my friends are starting to have actual human babies, so naturally I had a blog baby – I was coasting at work. It was my fifth year of teaching the same grade/subject, I was done with grad school, my life had purpose and direction, and I wanted to show off my baking, naturally starting a blog was the next step in my life!

Here’s the problem; I still want to show off my baking but my life has too many directions. I’m teaching a new grade with two new curriculums with a new classroom and a new principal. Giving 90% at work isn’t going to cut it this year. Don’t judge me, I know I’m never going to be teacher of the year. After only working for two weeks, I’m struggling to find balance between the job I love that pays my bills and the hobby I love that costs me a buttload of money. What I’m trying to say, rather ineloquently is, I may have to reduce my posts per week to two. The saddest part of this situation is I’m not cutting back my baking, just the time for writing about it.

Doing this, this blogging thing, has made me incredibly satisfied. I have improved in my baking and writing skills and learned new skills like food photography and photo editing. I have gone from being a lurker to someone who is participating in social media. I have direction and I have purpose. I have found an engaging and time consuming hobby, I have finally been able to put my passion into the literal world. It kind of stinks when work gets in the way of life.

So anyway, lets talk about fruit curd. Why make just lemon curd when you can make lemon, lime, AND orange curd! I promise you there is a purpose behind the excess of making three different fruit curds. These curds are all rich and creamy and are flavored with their respective juice/color. It’s not difficult making three different fruit curds, it’s just time consuming. You can totally do what you want, but if you’re going to (I was about to type “when you go through and do it,” but only a few of my college chemistry friends would get the inside joke!) go through the effort of making your own fruit curd, you might as well make three different flavors. Trust me, you’ll see why Friday! And, this can totally be done weeks ahead of time!

Fruit Curd
Adapted from Baking Illustrated, page 394
Yield – 1 cup each

1/3 cup lemon juice (or lime or orange)
2 eggs + 1 yolk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
yellow, green, orange food coloring if desired

Heat the juice in a small saucepan until hot but not boiling.
Whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale yellow. Slowly add the hot juice into the eggs to temper them. Add the egg/sugar/juice mixture back to the saucepan.
Cook and stir until the mixture reaches 170 F and is thick enough to cling to the back of a spoon.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter, cream, vanilla, and salt. Stir until the butter is melted. Stir in the appropriate color of food coloring at this point.
Pour the mixture through a fine sieve and cover with plastic wrap so that the plastic wrap rests directly on top of the curd.
Refrigerate until cool.
Repeat the process for each different juice.

5 Comments

Filed under Miscellaneous

Tagged as gluten free, lemon, lime, orange

July 27, 2012 · 5:00 am

Strawberry Vodka Lemonade

After I had listened to a year old podcast by Joy the Baker and Tracy of Shutterbean, I was inspired to make this Infused Vodka from Tracy’s website. Once the vodka idea was in my head, I had several ideas of what to do with said vodka! The first idea was a strawberry lemonade.

The sad thing was I had never made lemonade before. After some high quality Internet research it seemed like the magic equation for lemonade was 1 cup water to 1 cup sugar to 1 cup lemon juice and then add water to taste. I reduced the amount of sugar in my simple syrup because I knew the strawberry vodka would be really sweet.

I was so pleased with this cocktail! It starts going down so smoothly and I was like, oh man, I thought this would be stronger. But then, after several tastes, the strength started to catch up with me! This cocktail packs a delicious, hidden punch! The sweetness of the strawberry vodka is balanced by the tartness of the lemonade. I can’t wait to make this again!

Strawberry Vodka Lemonade
Yield – 4-6 servings

3-4 days before serving
16 ounces strawberries, washed, trimmed, & cut in half
3 cups vodka (I used Stoli Strasberi)

Add the strawberries and vodka together in a pitcher or jar with a lid.
Shake or stir the mix. Place the mixture in a cool dark place.
Try to shake or stir the mix 1-2 times per day for three days.
Strain the mix through a fine mesh strainer into a bottle, I just used the empty vodka bottle. Store until needed.

An hour or two before serving
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup fresh lemon juice (7 lemons)
2 cups strawberry vodka
1 cup water
sliced lemons and strawberries for garnish

Add the sugar and 1 cup of water to a small saucepan and bring to a boil stirring occasionally to make a simple syrup.
Juice the lemons.
Add the simple syrup, lemon juice, strawberry vodka, and the remaining 1 cup of water to a pitcher. Mix to combine.
Add in the sliced lemons and strawberries. Refrigerate for at least an hour to cool the drink and let the flavors marry.
To serve add ice to a glass and pour over. Garnish as desired.

Filed under Beverages

Tagged as gluten free, lemon, strawberry, summer, vodka

July 18, 2012 · 5:00 am

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes

Nichole came to visit!! She used to live right down the street but then she moved far, far away to Arizona. We always have a great time when we are reunited and this trip was no different! Nichole celebrated her birthday while she was in town and we went to one of my favorite restaurants, Bogota, for a delicious dinner and wonderful drinks! After dinner, we came back to the apartment for dessert and our annual birthday dance party, true story.

Some friends are not huge chocolate lovers and Nichole is one of them. In the past I have made her unique desserts like pistachio-lime-zucchini cake which is much more delicious than it sounds! This year I sent her a link to my Pinterest page and told her to pick out a few things. I was not surprised at all when she included these lemon, blueberry cupcakes among her choices! And this, my friends, is a great choice!

The lemon cupcake is soft and moist and full of juicy blueberries. The frosting is very sweet but has the right balance of tartness and lemony goodness. The blueberry drizzle is a perfect and much needed topping to make this cupcakes marvelous! Its sweetness brings everything together and adds just the right finish. This is a messy cupcake you should eat on a plate, but embrace the mess, its all worth it!

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
Adapted from Cooking Classy
Yield – 12 cupcakes

1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest (about 1 1/2 lemons)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Zest the lemons and add to the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment.
With your fingers rub the sugar and lemon together for about 2 minutes to release the essential oils.
Add in the butter and oil and mix until well combined.
Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Add in the yogurt. Scrape the bowl as needed.
Sift together the flour, powder, and salt onto wax paper.
Add the dry ingredients in 3 additions with 2 additions of buttermilk in between. Mix until just combined.
Fold in the blueberries to combine.
Use a standard size ice cream scoop to evenly distribute the batter between lined cupcake cups.
Bake for 18-20 minutes until cooked all the way through. Cool completely on a wire rack.

Blueberry Sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon corn starch
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Whisk together the sugar, corn starch, and water in a medium sauce pan.
Add in the blueberries and stir to combine.
Heat and bring the mixture to a boil and then cook for 5 minutes until the blueberries break down.
Remove from the heat and use an immersion blender to blend the blueberries into a smooth sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until you’re ready to use.

Lemon Frosting
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
small squirt of yellow food coloring

Add all of the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Place the frosting into a piping bag and pipe a nice blob on the cupcake.
Transfer the blueberry sauce to a squeeze bottle and drizzle on top of the cupcakes.

2 Comments

Filed under Cupcakes

Tagged as birthday, blueberry, lemon, summer

July 6, 2012 · 5:00 am

Lemon Cornmeal Pancakes {Roommate Dinner}

I was born in raised in Michigan, I love myself some Jiffy mixes! In fact, it’s one of the few mixes I’ll eat. There is just something about those fake little blueberries that reminds me of home and my mom baking muffins when we were out of milk for cereal. One of the mixes I love is the corn muffins, they make great pancakes! These pancakes are really similar to the corn muffin pancakes of my youth, but jazzed up a bit.

Sometimes you just need to eat breakfast for dinner. The morning comes way too soon and there are never enough hours in the day to start off with a nice hardy breakfast like pancakes. So when I’m in the mood for a big breakfast, I make it for dinner.

These pancakes are nice and tasty. The cornmeal has a little bit of grittiness and the lemon adds a nice flavor twist. When eaten with some bacon, strawberries, and a bellini, you have yourself a delicious meal!

Menu

Lemon Cornmeal Pancakes
Bacon
Strawberries
Peach Bellinis

Lemon Cornmeal Pancakes
Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod via Tasty Kitchen
Yield – 4-5 servings

3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons oil
1 lemon, zested
1/2 cup flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
stick of butter to grease the gridle

Preheat a cast iron skillet and wipe down.
Beat together the eggs with a whisk and then add in the buttermilk, zest, and oil. Mix well.
Sift together the cornmeal, sugar, powder, soda, salt, and flour onto wax paper. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined.
Grease down the skillet by rubbing the stick of butter on it.
Pour 1/4 cup batter onto the skillet and cook until the top bubbles, flip and cook for 1 minute longer.
Store in a warmed oven until serving.

Filed under Breakfast, Savory

Tagged as lemon, maple

June 25, 2012 · 5:00 am

Lemon Blueberry Scones

Sometimes you just need to have a weekend marathon of Downton Abbey, and any marathon that involves a British period piece require scones. It’s like a law or something. After our taco dinner salads, we needed something sweet the next day to continue our marathon.

These scones are more biscuit like than muffin like, which I love! They are not too sweet and and definitely delicious with the little bursts of blueberry throughout. All the cream makes for a very tender scone! Scones are easy to throw together and require minimum equipment.

If you read my last post about Downtown Abbey it should be clear how obsessive I am. Season three is set to begin showing in September, I cannot wait!!!

Print the recipe.

Lemon Blueberry Scones
Recipe from Baking Illustrated, page 58
Yield – 8 scones

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
5 tablespoons cold butter cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon lemon zest (1 lemon)
1/2 cup blueberries
1 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 425 F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk together the flour, powder, sugar, and salt.
Use a pastry blender to combine the butter and lemon zest into the flour. Cut the dough until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Gently toss in the blueberries.
Add the cream and mix with a spatula until just combined.
Pour the whole mixture on the counter and knead lightly to bring together. Don’t overwork the dough, it’s going to be crumbly, just let it be.
Push the dough into a circular shape and cut into 8 pieces. Place each piece on the parchment paper.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack.