- About
- Recipe Index, In Progress
- Homeschooling
- 4Real OPML File
- Paco’s Curriculum and Book List, 2007-2008
- Migi’s Curriculum and Book List, 2007-2008
- Music Schedule
- Free Flashcards for Latina Christiana I
- Aisa’s Curriculum and Book List, 2007-2008
- Online Resources
- Unschooling / Relaxed Schooling Helps
- Filipino Homeschoolers
- The Plan for Art
- How to Homeschool
- My Favorite Books on Books
- Towards *our* Philosophy of Education
- Yena’s Booklist 8/07-7/08
- Paco’s Curriculum and Booklist, 2008-2009
- Migi’s Curriculum and Book List, 2008-2009
- Yena’s Booklist 8/08-7/09
- Aisa’s Booklist ’08-’09
- Plan for High School, Paco 2010-2011
- Books We Love: Science
Currently viewing the tag: "desserts"
Shortbread and lemon curd. Lovely, tangy, melt-in-your-mouth combo. THIS recipe I’ve had since 1999; it’s about time I blogged it. Cook’s Illustrated called it “Perfect Lemon Bars” and though I don’t agree with all of their assessments for “perfect”, this is one of the exceptions. It’s incredibly easy to make. The first time, I couldn’t believe it came out of my own oven. I’d take it any day over other lemon bars I’ve seen in bakeries. Cooks Illustrated, you did well. The crust is a basic shortbread, not even lemon zest, so its buttery sweetness shines through: an excellent contrast to the tart filling. The minimal flour and milk in the filling gives it body so you don’t end up with an oozy, soggy mess. And it keeps well in the refrigerator… that is, if you ever have any leftovers — not likely. CI’s instructions were long, so I’m giving you my translation. 
Crust
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, at cool room temperature (where it’s still slightly firm) and cut into 1-inch pieces
Filling
4 large eggs, beaten lightly
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2/3 cup strained lemon juice
1/3 cup whole milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
Cooking spray
Additional confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Adjust rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Line 13 x 9 inch baking pan with two pieces of parchment, crossed, and long enough to leave a 1-inch overhang on long sides. Grease lightly with cooking spray or butter.
In food processor, pulse crust ingredients just until mixture forms coarse crumbs. Transfer to pan and press mixture down with your fingers or the back of a spoon until evenly distributed, building up the sides just a bit more than the center. Chill 30 minutes, then bake 20 just until golden, about 20-25 minutes.
While crust is chilling/baking, whisk filling ingredients in a bowl.
Reduce oven temperature to 325°F. Stir filling mixture to reblend and pour onto warm crust. Bake until filling is firm, about 20 minutes. Cool pan on wire rack to near room temperature, about 30 minutes. Lift gently using the parchment overhang onto a cutting board. Use a pizza cutter or a really sharp knife to cut into bars or squares, wiping cutter/knife clean between cuts.
Dust with confectioners’ sugar.
Makes about 24 squares; number of bars depends on how small or large you cut them!
If you love walnuts, this recipe is for you. It’s all walnut, walnut, walnut. And oh yeah, butter. But mostly walnut. The “batter” is walnut, the frosting is walnut. A pity that several family members are allergic to walnuts. Which is why I waited 10 LONG YEARS to make this recipe. That’s right! I’ve had [...]
If you love walnuts, this recipe is for you. It’s all walnut, walnut, walnut. And oh yeah, butter. But mostly walnut. The “batter” is walnut, the frosting is walnut. A pity that several family members are allergic to walnuts. Which is why I waited 10 LONG YEARS to make this recipe. That’s right! I’ve had this recipe in my files for ten years. I finally made it a couple of weeks ago. And hah! You’d think I’d have the sense to make it perfectly after waiting to make it for TEN YEARS. But nooooo….. I had to mess it up. Thank goodness butter is so forgiving. My friend Debby said it reminded her of her grandmother’s nut roll — I’ve never had a nut roll. Mostly I kept this recipe because of the word “Gascon”. There was something romantic about that. And the walnuts, which I love. So here we go. You can also find the recipe here. I made a few changes to the recipe, first of all with the eggs. WHY OH WHY do they always ask you to beat the egg yolks first, then the whites? That would only work if you had a hand-held mixer and two clean mixer bowls. If I were to write the recipe I’d start with the whites first. Get them all whipped up and ready to go, transfer to a clean bowl THEN beat the egg yolks. The whites will keep, if you don’t expect them to wait long.
2 cups walnut halves
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 oz. unsalted butter, softened
4 large eggs, separated
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly grease a 9-inch cake pan and line with parchment.
Grind walnuts with 1/4 cup of the granulated sugar plus 1/2 teaspoon salt.
In a mixer bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form. Transfer to a clean bowl and set aside.
Beat 4 tablespoons of butter with the remaining 3/4 cup granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Add in the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well before adding the next. Stir in the ground walnut-sugar mixture.
Gently fold the beaten whites into the walnut batter, then pour into the prepared pan. Tilt the pan to evenly distribute the batter. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the cake is set and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Transfer to a rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the side of the pan and turn the cake out onto a serving plate to cool completely.
In a food processor, pulse the remaining 1 cup of walnuts with the confectioners’ sugar until finely ground. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and pulse until creamy. Spread the frosting evenly over the cake.
Using the edge of a tablespoon, make a decorative pattern in the frosting. Cut the cake into 1-by-2-inch bars and serve.
I had dropped my 8-inch square baking pan (porcelain) on the floor a few months ago and shattered it — so I had to make do with a metal cake pan. Which means that, when you cut the bars, there are ends leftover from the trimmings. Hee. A nice little treat for the baker. No need to remind me that I had most of it anyway, after the party.
Now, here’s where I made a mistake. Because I was following the original recipe (not very well, obviously), I did the butter with the sugar and then the yolks, BUT I put in ALL of the butter into the mixer instead of just 4 tablespoons. UGH. I hate it when I do that. I didn’t want to add more ingredients to make up for the over-abundance of butter, since I needed the eggs for another recipe. So I transferred the beaten yolks into a sieve, pressed out some of the butter-egg-yolk-sugar until I had about four-tablespoons-worth, and used the remaining amount to whip into the egg whites. The 4-tbsps-worth of butter-eggyolk-sugar mixture, I cooked on very low heat for just a few minutes, just so the egg yolks (that aren’t supposed to be there) don’t stay uncooked. Then added 2 more tablespoons butter, to make really yummy oh-my-heavens-what’s-in-it frosting. The frosting was FABULOUS and no one was the wiser so I can safely say that if you want to do it my way, you won’t regret it. I’m sure this compensation for my mistake isn’t going to make any sense at all to someone trying to follow a nicely-written recipe. I merely put it here to document my blunders and remind myself not to do it next time. If there is a next time. Maybe in another ten years.
from my old baking blog:
Not a perfect recipe yet, still working on it, but getting close and the kids scarfed it up, especially drizzled with some non-dairy chocolate syrup.
cooking spray, oil or shortening for greasing pan
alternative flour for flouring pan (I used rice flour)
1 cup superfine sugar (or regular sugar, whirled in a blender)
115 grams Spectrum Organics Shortening (no trans-fats, yay!)
2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Wheat-Free Biscuit and Baking Mix
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup rice milk
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)Prepare 9 in x 2 in cake pan — grease, then cover bottom with cut-to-fit parchment, then grease again, then flour. Tap off excess flour and keep pan in refrigerator until ready to use. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream sugar and shortening in mixer bowl, about 30 seconds. Add flour, applesauce, vanilla extract, rice milk, and cocoa powder. Continue beating until combined well, about 3 minutes. Bake for about 40-45 minutes in the middle of the oven. Test cake for doneness using a skewer or cake tester — it should come out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack 10 minutes. Take knife and carefully slide it around pan to loosen cake. Turn over gently to release cake then turn over again onto plate and set aside to cool.
Changes I’m thinking of making:
try different kinds / a combination of different flours
try it “marbled” — half of the batter mixed with melted non-dairy dark chocolate, then swirled together in the pan before baking.
we haven’t tried it frosted, so that’s also on the list.The cake should be moister and denser than a regular cake, but that’s okay, my kids thought it was good, so yours might like it too. It should not be “wet” though. I made this twice in November, but lost the pics when our desktop crashed.
Since then, I’ve made this cake 3 more times. I’ve learned to make my own cake mix so now instead of using Bob’s Red Mill, I’ve come up with the following formula:
1 cup rice flour
1 cup fava and garbanzo bean flour (I can make the garbanzo bean flour myself, but I haven’t found dried fava beans that I can grind)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
I would make a large batch of this and use it as needed.
In November of this year I also tried varying the spices to make my 9-yo’s birthday cake. Earlier in the month I had made a buttermilk spice layer cake for a friend, so I used the same spices for this and it came out very well. (I’ll blog about that later.)
We also used this for making cupcakes and they turned out well also. I haven’t solved the crust problem — but the inside is so regular-cake-like that an easy solution would be just to lop off the top 1/4 inch or so. I have NOT tried making it into a layered cake. That should be easy enough to do, though the cake may need to be chilled before slicing, frosted, THEN brought to room temp (or cool) before serving.
I’m planning to try it out again sometime in the next two weeks…. maybe layered, with raspberry filling, and a “ganache” of dark chocolate (dairy free) melted in soymilk, and a frosting made with Smart Balance and confectioner’s sugar. Or maybe a Vegenaise-dark chocolate combination. We’ll see.
