Lemonies (Lemon Brownies)

I started seeing lemon brownies making the rounds on Facebook and Pinterest quite a while ago, but you can imagine that in this household, it was a pretty tough sell.

Me: So I'm thinking of making these lemon brownies for dessert tonight.
Kip: Let's just make normal brownies instead.
Me: But these look so good. They're like a cross between lemon bars and brownies.
Kip: (getting out the cocoa) Yeah, regular brownies are better.
Me: But you've never even tasted...
Kip: (mixing cocoa with butter and sugar; licking off mixing utensils shamelessly)

So anyway, the lemon brownies had to wait. But them one day I was craving lemon and we had a church function and thus the stars aligned and I made lemonies and they were the super best most delicious thing ever. And you should make them and be happy and establish world peace.

These really are amazing. Like brownies in texture (dense, almost fudgy except of course they can't be fudgy because they're lemony; it's like baked goods racism or something the way I can't describe the moist and perfect texture without using the term fudgy...). Anyway, the texture is denser than cake, but of course not like a lemon bar either. It's just really good and has an intense (but not acid your mouth off) lemon flavor. They're awesome.

Lemonies (Lemon Brownies)
adapted from I Sing in the Kitchen
Makes 16 small lemonies
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Cost: $2.55
flour: .15, sugar: .25, lemon: .50, butter: .85, eggs: .20, confectioner's sugar: .60

Note: I used fresh lemon for this. You can cheat and supplement some non-fresh juice, but you must have the zest. You must or it will not be as good. That said, my measurements were sketchy. I zested one lemon and gave about a tablespoon to the lemonies and about a teaspoon to the glaze, but I didn't stress if it wasn't exact.

For Lemony: 

1 C flour
1 C sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 Tbsp lemon zest
3/4 C (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted and cooled
2 eggs
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla (I used, but might omit next time to see if it becomes even more lemony)

For glaze: 

1 1/2 C confectioner's sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp zest

To make the lemonies:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square pan.

Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and zest together.

Add melted butter, lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla. Beat.

Pour into pan and bake for 18-25 minutes (remember that metal pans cook faster than glass, so you might want to check a few minutes earlier if using metal).

Remove when a tester comes out with some moist crumbs (or clods), but not liquidy batter.

To make the glaze: 

Now, while it cools for just a few minutes, make the glaze. If you're thinking of skipping the glaze, give your face a good slap and then make the glaze. If you're thinking about halving it or something else, please slap yourself again and let's move on.

Okay, once you've slapped yourself into proper diet-breaking submission, combine all ingredients for the glaze and whisk until smooth. Pour this over the top of the warm lemonies. It will kind of sink in, but mostly not, but kind of and it will be amazing. And you will be so glad you slapped your own face instead of skipping this step because it was worth it.

Allow to cool and eat.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Lemon Curd

This month for Secret Recipe Club, I got Culinary Adventures with Camilla.  Camilla is actually the fearless leader of our SRC group and I was excited to stroll around her blog. I realized that even though I visit her blog every month for SRC, those are other people's recipes she's cooking, and I haven't really looked through her own stuff. It was sooo fun. She had tons of interesting recipes using interesting foods as well as some posts on those foods themselves, which I thought was fascinating and helpful. She's an adventurous eater and that was absolutely and beautifully reflected in the pages of her blog. While looking on Pinterest at some of her recipes, I found a recipe for blood orange and lemon curd. It sounded amazing, but what I really wanted was just lemon curd. She had that too.

I've been wanting to make lemon curd forever and just haven't gotten around to it. I was worried it would be hard. It wasn't. And Camilla's recipe is delicious.

It's like a cross between pudding and jam. I believe you can eat it either way. Spoon it into your mouth if you wish (I certainly did). Or put it on toast or yogurt or cheesecake. 

It is going to be the perfect match for my lemony birthday cake.

Lemon Curd
from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
Makes about 2 cups
Prep and cook time: 10-15 minutes
Cost: $1.80
lemons: 1.24, sugar: .15, eggs: .60, butter: .80

1 C fresh lemon juice (about 4-5 large lemons--I get mine from the Asian store where they're cheaper)
4 tsp lemon zest
1 C sugar
6 large eggs
12 T butter, cut into cubes

Combine lemon juice, zest, sugar, and eggs in a large saucepan. Mix and warm slightly. Add the butter and mix as it melts. Whisk very frequently over medium or medium low heat until the curd is thick enough to hold the marks of the whisk and maybe the first bubble breaks the surface. Don't let it boil though.

Allow to cool.

Eat with a spoon from the jar if you want:). Or on toast, with plain yogurt, ricotta, cheesecake, or whatever.

Note: If you happen to have some of your egg turn into blechy white bits in the curd, just strain it through a fairly fine mesh strainer and all will be well.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

An InLinkz Link-up

Lemon Bundt Cake

My birthday is coming up this week. I love my birthday--love it like a child. This is what I do every year. On the day of my birthday, I spend the morning going to various stores/restaurants that give you free stuff for your birthday. For a few good resources about where you can go to get free stuff on your birthday, look here. Then Kip and I go out for dinner (often for Indian food, which I love, but Kip doesn't). And then I have adult friends over for cake and ice cream. Because I think we all know that it's perfectly adult to eat cake and ice cream together. I love it. Love love love it. 

But it's only good if you've got good cake. 

I also loooove making my own cake on my birthday. Not everybody does, but I do. Truthfully, I usually make it the night before, but it must be made by me me me. Because I make amazing cake. And I like making cake. And I like eating amazing cake. The end. 

Here is what I'll be making this year. It's a lemon bundt cake. I first made it for a church potluck. I wasn't sure how it would turn out (and, in fact, only snapped a few quick shots of it with my camera). I didn't quite trust the recipe. It had no baking soda. I was worried it'd be flat or weird. Nope. It was incredible. If I had known how amazing it would be, I might have skipped the potluck and just sat in a corner of my kitchen eating it by the fistful. So it's probably fortunate that I didn't know how fantastic it would be. The glaze for this is perfect, but if you wanted to do orange or lime or raspberry, I wouldn't stop you. 

We did it for my birthday with the lemon glaze and then a strawberry glaze over that. Delicious. 

Lemon Bundt Cake

adapted from My Recipe Confessions

Makes one bundt cake

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 70-80 minutes

Cost: $3.35

flour: .40, butter: 1.00, sugar: .30, powdered sugar: .20, buttermilk: .30, sour cream.25, lemons: .75, other stuff: .15

Note: When I made this the first time I used a cheater buttermilk (1/2 C milk and 1/2 Tbsp vinegar). The second time I made it with real buttermilk. The truth is that I think it's better with the cheater version--moister.

Cake: 

3 C flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 C butter, softened

2 C sugar

3 eggs

1/2 C buttermilk (can use 1/2 C milk and 1/2 Tbsp vinegar if don't have buttermilk)

1/2 C sour cream

4 Tbsp lemon juice

zest of two lemons (about 2 Tbsp)

1 tsp vanilla

Lemon Glaze: 

1/4 C butter, softened

1 1/2 C powdered sugar

3 Tbsp lemon juice

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees and spray bundt pan well. 

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. 

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one by one. Mix in the sour cream, lemon juice, vanilla, and lemon zest.  

Mix half the flour mixture in. Then add the buttermilk. Then mix in the other half of the flour mixture. Mix just until incorporated. Pour batter into bundt pan. 

Bake for 60-70 minutes (this was the original instruction; mine took longer--probably close to 80 minutes, so don't freak out if it's not quite done at 70 minutes). A toothpick or knife or some other pricking implement should come out clean or with moist crumbs (not wet blobs) when inserted into the thickest part. 

Allow the cake to cool for 5-10 minutes, then turn it out on a cake platter. Spread half the lemon glaze over the warm cake. Do this! It will soak into the cake and contribute to its sheer amazingness. 

Let cake cook completely and add the rest of the glaze (Note: The picture you see up top is just with the first layer of glaze. I had to wait for it to cool and by then we were at the potluck and I was dumping it on there, so I didn't get any shots of it truly complete. The glaze on the cooler cake will be more of a frosting and less of a glaze that sinks in.)

For the glaze: 

Cream butter. Add sugar and lemon juice. Beat well until it's smooth and creamy. 

Optional Strawberry Glaze:

1/2 C strawberry jam

2 Tbsp cream

1-2 Tbsp milk

1 C powdered sugar

Blend in a small blender or whisk. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Lemon Layer Cake with Lemon Butter Frosting

Because why wouldn't I post two lemon cakes this summer?

And you should absolutely make them both. The first was a simple little sheet cake--a butter lemon cake with an interesting and wonderful frosting. This one is a perfectly moist, perfectly textured layer cake (that, P.S., could also be made as a sheet cake if you wanted to), which uses two oils as its fat, and has a smooth lemon butter frosting. I took it to a baby shower and the next day when I went to take a picture, I just had this teeny tiny little piece left. After the pictures, it was not long for this world.

I let my daughter frost this for me, and she did a fabulous job. However, if I knew I was taking this to a group of coconut lovers, I would have sprinkled toasted coconut on the frosting, and I think it would have made for a fabulous compliment to the lemon cake. Another nice addition might be a raspberry drizzle or raspberry filling.

I must tell you that this calls for pure lemon extract, which is not cheap. The cheapskate in me so so badly wanted to skip it, but since this was for a friend, I didn't, and I'm really glad I didn't because I don't think it would have been the same without it. Even adding lemon juice wouldn't have made for a punchy enough lemon flavor, or so I think. Sorry, friends. If I ever find a good substitute, I'll let you know.

Lemon Layer Cake with Lemon Butter Frosting
adapted from Rock Recipes
serves: 20 ladies and probably fewer men
Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Cook time: 30-35 minutes (then you'll have to cool it before frosting it)
Cost: $4.90 (which is only about $.25/serving depending on whether you're serving ladies, gentlemen, or teenagers)
flour: .30, sugar: .30, oil: .20, coconut oil: .50, extracts: .70, eggs: .30, buttermilk: .40, lemon: .20 powdered sugar: .90 butter: 1.00, other stuff: .10

2 3/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 C sugar
2/3 C vegetable oil (I used canola)
1/3 C coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp pure lemon extract
3 large eggs
1 1/2 C buttermilk
zest of one largish lemon, finely chopped

For the frosting:

4 C powdered sugar
1 C butter
1 tsp pure lemon extract
1 tsp minced lemon zest (optional--this absolutely makes the frosting more lemony; however, it does add tiny bumps in the frosting. That doesn't bother me at all, but if you know it will bother you, don't add it.
2-4 Tbsp milk

Grease and flour 2 nine-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom with circles of parchment paper or wax paper.

Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar.

Beat together oil, coconut oil, vanilla, and lemon extract.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.

Mix in lemon zest.

Alternate adding dry ingredients with the buttermilk (so dry ingredients, some buttermilk, dry ingredients, some buttermilk, dry ingredients). Don't overmix this. Beat or mix it just until the ingredients are combined and not lumpy.

Bake at 325 for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick (or blade of any variety) comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs attached.

Allow to cool in pans for 10 minutes, then turn them out on a rack to cool completely.

For the frosting:

Melt the butter, or mostly melt the butter. Beat in sugar, zest, and lemon extract. Now beat in the milk, starting with a couple tablespoons and then adding more if the frosting is too stiff.

When your cake is cool, frost it.

Lemon Buttermilk Sheet Cake

So, if I was a better person, I would have posted this before Memorial Day. It's pretty much fantabulous--moist and lemon-y with a sugar sprinkle on top that sort of hardens on the frosting to create a lemon-sugar shell. I made this cake for last month's book club. We discussed favorite fairy tales. Mine was Little Red Riding Hood. Turns out that in the original Grimm tale, Red takes Grandma cake. That worked for me.

In addition to being fantabulous, this cake is nice and simple. In their way, sheet cakes are almost dangerous. I mean, I know I'm not going to go make a three-layer cake every weekend, but this--this you could churn out on any old Thursday. I'm not sure we--who according to the internet are thoroughly obsessed with our bikini bodies--should delve into such dangerous waters. And yet. Something like this would be perfect for any picnic or potluck or Sunday dinner. It's not too heavy or embarrassingly intense while still being--you know--kind of divine.

Alright--I'm going to admit that I did some shadowing in these pictures to hide a scratch/blemish that was on the center of that plate and kept showing up. Sorry--don't they look heaven blessed in this light though. 

Lemon Buttermilk Sheet Cake
adapted from Frankly Entertaining
Makes one 9x13 inch sheet cake
Prep time:
Cook time:
Cost: $2.90 (that's about $.12/piece if you cut 24 pieces)
flour: .30, buttermilk: .25, lemons: .75, sugar: .25, butter: .40, eggs: .40, confectioner's sugar: .45, other stuff: .10

Cake:

2 1/2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 C buttermilk (or 2 tsp vinegar and a scant 3/4 C milk mixed together)
3 Tbsp grated lemon zest and 1/4 C juice (2 large lemons or 3 normal ones)
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 C sugar
12 Tbsp butter, softened
3 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk

Glaze:

3 C confectioner's sugar
3 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp buttermilk

For the cake: 

Preheat to 325 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl.

Combine buttermilk, lemon juice, and vanilla in smaller bowl.

In large bowl, beat granulated sugar and lemon zest until moist, fragrant, and yellowish. Transfer 1/4 C of this mixture to a small bowl, cover, and reserve. Don't forget this step. 

Add butter to remaining sugar/zest mixture and beat until light and fluffy. Then beat in eggs and yolk (one at a time preferably) until incorporated.

Now add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then half the buttermilk mixture, then flour mixture, then buttermilk mixture, then flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

Put batter in pan and even it out. bake until cake is golden brown and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean--25-35 minutes. (My husband did this step because I had to go somewhere and everything still turned out okay.) Cool cake for about ten minutes.

For the glaze:

While the cake cools, whisk confectioner's sugar, lemon juice, and buttermilk until smooth. Spread it over the warm cake.

Now let it cool a little more. When it's still a little warm, but not hot, sprinkle the reserved sugar/lemon mixture on top of this. In this way the sugar doesn't melt into the cake/glaze completely, but it does form this little sort of crunchy shell that is just fabulous. This is what it will look like:

Let cake cool completely.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

My Favorite Lemon Bars

I really like lemon bars. Every time I'm pregnant (note: I am NOT currently pregnant just because I am writing about lemon bars), I crave lemon and lemony things like a lunatic and occasionally make a pan of bars that I eat half of that night, like even more of a lunatic (normally I'm a small treat kind of a girl). Nevertheless, you'll notice there's not a recipe on here for one yet. That's because even though I think most bars are decent, I have been looking for one to fall in love with for a very long time. Some of them get this kind of crusty thing going on up top. Some are too lemony (sometimes to the point where they almost burn my mouth) and some are just not very interesting. Then again, some are a little too interesting--I found a recipe a couple years ago where you just threw a lemon (seeds, rind, and all) into the food processor and processed it with all the other stuff. I loved that concept--the simple efficiency of it, and it actually tasted pretty good, but the bars came out with little chewy lumps of pith in them, and I didn't love that.

But as fate would have it, this Christmas, one of my sweet sweet piano students brought me a plate of lemon bars that she herself had made. And they were perfect--lemony and acidic, but nothing that'd burn your mouth off.  A perfect custardy filling with a lovely shortbread crust. I also liked the crust to custard ratio. They were it--the one--the lemon bar I'd been looking for.

I admit that I was almost scared to try to reproduce them. What if it had just been a fluke? What if they didn't work out for me? What if I messed them up?

But then, another friend, in another simple act of friendship gave me a whole bagful of lemons that her mother had grown. They were the most fragrant, beautiful juicy lemons I've ever seen. You could just squeeze them by hand and get nearly 1/2 cup of juice from them.

And then I knew that the time had come to make the lemon bars. And so I did. And they were just as perfect as they'd been when my piano student brought them.

I hope you like them as much as I do.

My Favorite Lemon Bars
Makes 9x13 inch pan
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes, (20 for crust; 30 for filling)
Chill time: a couple hours--you'll chill the crust before baking and then you'll want to give yourself time for these to cool since warm lemon bars just seem weird (and too gooey).
Cost: $2.40 (that's about $.10/bar)
flour: .20, cornstarch: .05, sugar: .40, butter: 1.00, eggs: .40, lemon juice: .35

Note: This recipe is for a 9x13 inch pan. I didn't trust myself not to eat all of those, so I halved the recipe. If you make a smaller batch like I did, know that your cook times will be a little shorter. You'll probably cook your crust a wee bit less and your filling for about 20 minutes whereas mine was closer to 30 minutes.

Crust:
1 3/4 C flour (all-purpose)
1/4 C cornstarch
1/2 C granulated sugar (NOT powdered sugar)
1/4 tsp salt
1 C cold butter

Filling:
4 large eggs
2/3 C lemon juice (can be fresh-squeezed of from a bottle, but must be 100% lemon juice)
1 1/2 C granulated sugar
1/4 C flour
1/8 tsp salt

I made the crust in the food processor and recommend this. You just throw everything in and give it a few whizzes. It will end up looking crumbly, but it can be pressed together (kind of like a graham cracker crust actually).

However, if you don't have a food processor, just add all the dry ingredients and then use your fingers to rub the butter in until it forms fine crumbs. [Note: You could possibly melt your butter and stir it in for simplicity. I did NOT do this, since I followed my student's recipe perfectly. It might affect the texture of your crust and make it a bit denser, but then it might save you 10-15 minutes and that might be worth it--just an idea if you don't have a food processor].

Press this into a 9x13 inch pan. (I used parchment paper in my pan so that I could cut and remove the bars easily. Also, this makes it easier to freeze some of the bars so you don't eat them all immediately--this is always a good thing. Unless you are a pregnant lunatic, in which case you should just grab a spoon and have at it.)

Chill the crust for 30 minutes. [Note: Again, you could possibly skip this step. I didn't--I wanted the bars as I'd had them, so I followed the directions. But next time I will skip this step and see if it makes a big difference or not.]

When you're ready to go, heat the oven to 350 and bake the crust for 20 minutes. Then--without opening the oven door--turn the heat down to 300 and bake for another 2-5 minutes.

While it's baking, make your filling.

Whisk the eggs and then add the rest of the ingredients. Whisk it good.

Take your crust out when it's done (you don't want it super cooked--it's going back in with the filling and I just hate a burned crust; don't you?). Let it cool for 2 minutes and then pour the well-whisked filling over your crust (you want the crust still hot when you pour the filling in).

Bake for 25-30 minutes at 300 degrees until filling is set. When you take it out it should not be liquid, although a very soft jiggle is okay.

Cool it completely. When it is COMPLETELY cool, sift powdered sugar onto the top, and cut those babies up.

These keep well for several days and freeze extremely well. I just leave them on their parchment paper (cut into pieces) and put them in a large Ziploc bag in order to freeze.

PRINTABLE RECIPE