A week of lemony goodness

Last weekend, Erin and Greg gave me a bag. A big bag. This bag was full of lemons. Fresh, wonderful, ripe lemons from their tree.

While I had started of thinking that I'd use some and then freeze the rest - I ended up having a week-long bake-fest, which I think my coworkers were appreciative of.

I did a great job of failing to take photos though :( So you only get a few.


Tuesday - Lemon Cream Puffs

These were simply fantastic right after being baked - the shell lost it's crisp-ness when I brought them in on Tuesday for my co-workers. The cream is lovely, so lovely, in fact, I used it later in the week for something else.
This is a "fancy" recipie that is unbelievably simple, and easy.
We (Dan and I) followed the recipie on all points except for adding twice as much lemon to the cream. I like lemon.

Thursday - Ultimate Lemon Bunt Cake

I made two of these. One s the recipie prescribes and one slightly altered. The recipie version was OK. The texture was great, it was light and soft - but the flavor was lacking on all fronts, in my opinion.
The altered version used all purpose flour instead of cake flour, and instead of 1 cup of milk - 1/2 cup lemon juice, and 1/2 cup cream cheese. This was because I didn't have lemon extract until Dan brought some home for me. So instead of lemon extract - I used vanilla extract. The flavor of this was far superior, and had that fantastic tartness of lemon while still being light. The texture, however, was off - the all purpose flour really did make a difference :(

Friday - "I Hate Lemon Meringue Pie Lemon Pie"

This was me wanting a lemon meringue pie without the meringue - I love meringue cookies, they are crisp and melt in your mouth - meringue on pies, however, is soggy and weird. So anyway..

Shortbread Crust -
2 cups flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp or so salt

preheat 350
Beat butter, shortening and sugar till light and fluffy
mix in flour, salt, and baking powder
press into greased pan on bottom and up sides - it'll be rather thick.
prick all over with a fork to avoid too much puffing
Bake 15 minutes or till just starts to turn golden brown.

Now, make this lemon tart recipie - pour into the pie crust and bake as described.
After baking allow to cool, and then put in fridge and let cool *completely*

Now, make the cream from the cream puff recipie above - and spread it all over the top of the pie.

EAT!
This was so great - the crust is so tender, thick, crumbly and tasty - the tart is tart, and the cream is fabulous, it's just.. lovely, like an ultimate lemon bar.