Zucchini Noodles with Lemon Garlic Shrimp

Earlier in the year, large shrimp was on sale for an abnormally low price ($5.99/lb) at the supermarket. It is likely due to excess supply and schools/restaurants were closed for the past two or three months. I procured several pounds of this and froze half of it in manageable serving sizes.

For this dish, I enough for one serving. Though in retrospect, I feel like I just made a shrimp dish with a side of zucchini noodles. I'm using the Veggetti spiralizer which is essentially a pencil sharpener for carrots, zucchini, and smaller squash.

The Foodening Blog: Zucchini Noodles with Lemon Garlic Shrimp

Ingredients

8 oz raw shrimp (per person), peeled and deveined
1-2 raw zucchini per person
1 tbsp olive oil, for frying
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp white wine, chicken broth, or dry vermouth
dash of red pepper flakes, to taste
sea salt, to taste
fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

Prepare the zucchini by trimming the ends off the squash and using either a mandoline or a spiralizer to transform the zucchini into thin noodle-like strips.

Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add shrimp in a single layer, season with sea salt and black pepper. Add garlic. Cook for one minute on each side. Remove shrimp from pan to a plate.

Deglaze the pan by adding vermouth. Add red pepper flakes, vermouth, unsalted butter, and lemon juice. Let simmer for about a minute more.

(optional) Add zucchini noodles to the pan and stir until coated in the sauce.

Remove from heat. Stir in the shrimp. Transfer all to a plate or bowl and serve.

Homemade Sour Cream

Maybe one day I'll write up a post of the many combinations of sour cream, heavy cream, buttermilk, whole milk, and the ingredients that thickens the sauce and/or cheese. But that day is not today. Here is how to make sour cream from scratch if you happen to have run out of it or just wanted to make a party chip dip. This will be thinner than store-bought sour cream because it lacks thickeners such as carrageenan, a seaweed extract. 

No lemons? Substitute lemon with an equal amount of white vinegar.

Ingredients

1 c (8 oz) heavy cream
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 c (2 oz) whole milk

Directions

Like the crème fraîche, you'll want to use a clean pint size mason jar.

To the jar, add the heavy cream and lemon juice. Give it a stir to mix together. Add milk. Cover with a lid and shake a bit. Remove the lid and cover with cheesecloth, secured with a rubber band around the rim. Let sit on the counter for up to 24 hours, or overnight.

The mixture should have thickened.

Why this process requires the cream to 'breathe' while the crème fraîche does not. I have no idea. Maybe you don't want extra 'flavors' in the crème fraîche.

Remove the cheesecloth and give the mix a stir. Cover with a lid and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Broiled Lemon Chicken

This recipe is for those of us who don't own outdoor grills. This is the second, successful time I've cooked chicken this way. The timing is everything, and maybe also the level of heat and the distance from the flames (if you also have a gas oven). Let's just say that the first time I did this and used the cook times one would use on an outdoor grill, the chicken turned out a bit more charred than I would have liked. I used two packages of chicken drumsticks, or roughly 10 drumsticks. Also, my oven has an adjustable heat setting for the broiler.

Heat: 500 F
Time: 10 minutes one side, 15 minutes other side
Distance: 2nd rack slot from the top

Marinade Ingredients

juice of one large lemon plus its zest
1/4 c olive oil
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1-2 lbs organic chicken parts, with or without skin on

Marinade chicken for 20 minutes or longer. Place chicken in a single layer on a foil-covered baking tray. Reserve marinade. Cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, Flip the chicken over and brush/spoon marinade on top of chicken. Return to heat and cook for another 10-15 minutes, until a meat thermometer reads 160 F in the thickest part of the chicken.

Blueberry Lemon Bread

Cloudy weather is perfect for sipping hot tea. What makes this even better? A slice of cake. I'm not sure what the difference is between cake and this particular recipe other than the lack of frosting. I feel like I should eat another slice, but I will finish writing this post. 

I am down to my last quart of frozen blueberries; picked last summer at Majestic Farms. Fortunately, blueberry picking season is just around the corner. The berries themselves are very sweet and I could have reduced the sugar in the recipe. If you are using frozen berries, thaw them in a measuring cup. 1.5 cups of frozen berries turns into 1 cup of thawed berries. Alas, onto the recipe..

A slice of almost perfection: blueberry lemon bread

Ingredients

1 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 c organic granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
2 eggs
1/2 c almond milk (or regular cow's milk)
zest of one lemon
6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 c fresh or thawed blueberries

Streusel Topping

3 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp organic granulated sugar
1/3 c all purpose flour
1/4 c (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 F.

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, sugar, and lemon zest.

2. Add eggs, milk and butter and stir together until well combined.

3. If you are using thawed blueberries, transfer just the blueberries (not the liquid) to the batter and gently fold it in until all the blueberries are covered.

To make the streusel topping, whirl topping ingredients together in a food processor.

4. Butter a loaf pan and fill with batter. Evenly top the batter with the streusel.

5. Bake for 1 hr and 15 minutes. The topping will be crispy and golden brown.

Candied Citrus Peels

It seems that all you really need is a dry summer day. Laying the sugared peels on a rack then waiting 24 hours for the peels to dry is nonsense. I was able to make a batch of lime peels and a batch of orange peels in the same day. And, a batch of candied lemon peels the next day. Probably could have made it all in the same day if I had more drying space.

In terms of quantities, the peels of six limes filled an 8 oz jar; one medium mandarin orange filled 1/4 of an 8 oz jar, and two large lemons filled 1/2 an 8 oz jar.

Use a sharp edged (not serrated) vegetable peeler to remove the peel from the fruit. Thinly slice the peel into strips. The less pith (white stuff) that is on the peel, the more translucent the peel will become when it is boiled in the sugar syrup.

I used one batch of sugar syrup for all these fruits. I still have 10 oz of sugar syrup leftover.

Sugar Syrup

2 c organic granulated sugar
1 c water

Combine water and sugar in a small pot and bring to a boil. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside.

The Process

1. Peel the fruits and slice the peel into strips. Place the strips into a pot and fill with just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and let boil for 10 minutes. Drain the water.

2. Place the boiled peels into the sugar syrup. Bring to a boil. With a candy thermometer, maintain the heat until the thermometer reads 230 degrees F (syrup stage). The peels should begin to turn translucent. This is best observed with lemon and orange peels. You'll have to make a judgement call when doing lime peels. Boil at 230 degrees F for at least 5 minutes.

3. Remove peels from the syrup using a fork or chopsticks. Lay in a single layer onto a Silpat mat or drying rack. I prefer using a silicone mat for easier removal of the sugared peels. This is just so that the peels cool down a bit.

4. Once the peels have cooled. Fill a shallow bowl with 1/2 c granulated sugar. Transfer peels to the sugar and stir until the peels are coated. Set aside. Every few hours, stir the peels around the sugar. When the moisture has sufficiently evaporated from the sugar-coated peels, remove the peels to a separate container.

I use a canning jar with its inner lid removed and use a square of a paper towel as the temporary lid; using the sealing band to keep the paper towel in place. This way the peels can still dry out and the jar can sit on the counter without bugs getting in.

Tangy Lemon Curd

I have eaten lemon curd in tea shops as an accompaniment to scones and shortbread cookies, and in donuts filled with lemon curd. Commercially available lemon curd has always tasted much sweeter than this batch. This batch came out a touch more sour but is just as good. It is ridiculously simple to make.

Yield: about a cup

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/3 c organic granulated sugar
1/4 c unsalted butter, diced
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice 
1 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon peel (one lemon)

Directions

Whisk eggs, sugar, and lemon juice together in a heavy saucepan. Add butter and lemon peel and stir over medium heat until butter has melted and a pudding-like consistency appears.

Remove from heat and transfer to a small bowl. Let cool before using.

Quick Preserved Lemon

Preserved lemon is a common ingredient to chutneys and by itself as a condiment. I used this recipe as part of a lemon-onion sauce for some roasted chicken. Bittman of the NY Times food section uses a ratio of 2:1 for sugar to salt. I adjusted the salt down, but it was still too salty in the sauce. The salty-sweet-sour of the lemon is a good flavor though. In retrospect, I'd eliminate the added salt in the chutney recipe.

Ingredients

1 fresh lemon
1 tbsp organic granulated sugar
2 tsp kosher salt

Directions

Wash, halve and de-seed the lemon. Slice lemon into 1/4" dice and put into a glass jar with its juice. Add salt and sugar. Muddle the ingredients together, then cover and refrigerate for a few hours.

Use this in recipes that call for preserved lemon.

Lemon and Sage Buttered Clams

Was at the U-district farmers market today and picked up two pounds of fresh clams (manila and savory, harvested from the Hamma Hamma River Delta in the Hood Canal) from a seafood vendor.

This is a good cooking liquid for clams:

1/3 c freshly made garlic-sage butter

1/2 lemon peel, no pith, thinly sliced

juice of half a lemon

1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (or substitute with a dry sherry)

1/4 c water

You'll need a covered casserole pan for this. Since most of the cooking happens with the lid on. If the clams are fresh, like these were, all the clams should open within 2-3 minutes of cooking. Don't cook them for longer than 5 minutes, or the meat will be tough and chewy.

Cheers!

Chicken with Lemon and Olives

This recipe originates from Morocco; or at least that's what the Mediterranean the Beautiful Cookbook says. I've had Moroccan food before at a restaurant, and it involved eating everything (including the chicken) with my hands. This dish is intended to not replicate that experience but to use up a lot of preserved green olives that just happened to be on hand at the time.

The organic chicken from Trader Joe's was skimpy on giblets, so I wasn't able to take them or the chicken's missing liver to mash up into the sauce. The hardest part of the recipe was pitting the whole green olives using a cherry pitter. It's very hard work to do it by hand. Overall, this recipe process was very similar to making curry chicken. 

The original recipe called for preserved lemon, and I only had fresh lemons on hand. Using a vegetable peeler, I removed the peel of a lemon and sliced the peel thinly then soaked the peel in lemon juice with a pinch of salt and sugar; because if I had two extra days, that's how the preserving could have started. Anyhow. The peel doesn't go into the pot until 30 minutes of cook time has transpired.

This dish was served with Israeli couscous that was cooked in duck broth and lightly spiced with ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cumin, and freshly ground black pepper.

Ingredients


1 whole organic chicken, cut into pieces
1 c white onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 c olive oil
2 c water (I used mushroom dashi that was leftover from a previous meal)
2 c good quality green olives, pitted
juice of two lemons
peel of one lemon, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Take a whole raw chicken and carve it into individual pieces (wings, thighs, drumsticks, etc). I thought the chicken breasts would have added too much meat to the recipe; so those were reserved for another dish. If you are going to trim off the excess fat, don't throw it out, toss it into the pot with the chicken.

2. In a large heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat, add olive oil. Add spices and onion and stir until the oil is fragrant, a couple minutes. Add the chicken pieces (including giblets, if any) and turn the pieces over to coat with the spices and oil. Add water or a neutral broth to cover (approx 2 cups). Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.

3. Add olives, lemon peel, and lemon juice. Cook for an additional 10-15 minutes. Transfer chicken and sauce to a platter. Serve hot.

Lemon Pound Cake

...with six egg yolks. Yeah, so we had all these leftover egg yolks from that brown butter hazelnut cake (which, according to Smitten Kitchen's recipe takes six egg whites if using large eggs) from two weeks ago that I thought I'd toss into this recipe. This cake recipe ordinarily takes just four egg yolks, but I wasn't about to do fancy math with the dry ingredients to accommodate two more egg yolks. I'll soon find out in about an hour if the cake came out okay.

Ingredients

1 c. organic granulated sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 1/4 c. unbleached all purpose flour, minus 2 tbsp flour
6 egg yolks
1/3 c. half and half (or whole milk)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract
zest of one lemon
pinch of kosher salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. In a stand mixer: cream butter and sugar together. Add vanilla and lemon extracts. Add lemon juice and lemon zest. Add egg yolks. Beat until pale and fluffy.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

3. While the stand mixer is running (on low), alternate while adding half-and-half and flour. Beat until well combined.

4. Butter a loaf pan and fill with cake mixture. Bake for 50 minutes or until edges of the cake are lightly browned and start to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Let cool on a rack before removing from loaf pan.

Lemon Pound Cake

I grew up eating the Sara Lee stuff and can probably still eat an entire loaf by myself. This ingredient ratio comes from Cooks Illustrated and becomes a pretty tasty dessert bread for guests who enjoy a more lemony than sweet flavor to this classic cake. The magazine would have you poke holes with a toothpick or skewer into the top side of the cake before drizzling on their lemon glaze, which really isn't quite a glaze at all but more like a lemon syrup. For a real glaze, you'd probably have to swap out the real granulated sugar with powdered sugar so that it sets up like a crust when it hardens.

If you don't stock cake flour, simply combine 1 cup all-purpose flour (minus 2 tbsp) with 2 tbsp cornstarch.

Ingredients: Cake

1 1/2 c. cake flour
1 c. (2 sticks; 16 tbsp) cold unsalted butter, diced
1 c. organic cane sugar
4 large eggs
2 tbsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt

Optional additions to step 4:
For lemon poppy seed pound cake, stir in 1/2 c. poppy seeds, or
For lavender pound cake, stir in 1 1/2 tbsp dried lavender flowers

Ingredients: Lemon Glaze

1/2 c. powdered sugar
juice of a lemon
lemon zest (optional)

Bring sugar and lemon juice to a boil in a small pot, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Let cool and set aside until ready to use.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Prepare a 9" x 5" loaf pan by using unsalted butter or olive oil to grease the pan, dust it with some flour, and tap out the excess.

2. In a food processor, pulse together sugar and lemon zest. Add lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla extract. Transfer mixture to a large bowl.

3. In the same food processor, pulse together flour, baking powder, salt, and butter. 

4. Gently whisk flour mixture into wet ingredients. Pour batter into prepared pan. 

5. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees F and bake for an additional 30-35 minutes until the surface is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

6. Cool on a rack before storing or serving.

Simple Lemon Syrup

Makes about 1.5 cups

Ingredients

1 c. sugar
1 c. water
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, water, lemon juice, and lemon zest over medium heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about five minutes until sugar has dissolved.

Remove from heat and allow syrup to cool before using or storing.

Lemon Sorbet

These lemons had been sitting around on the kitchen counter for almost a month, so it was time to do something with the fruit. They were the average lemon you'd get at a grocery store, except these were extra sour. I suppose that if they were used when fresh, the lemons wouldn't have been as fibrous to squeeze and might have held more juice. This recipe used five lemons.

In the US, a sherbert contains dairy and a sorbet has no dairy content. Think of this recipe, like a frozen lemonade, though more on the sour side and a palate cleanser, than a sweet dessert. Also, the colder the ingredients, the faster it'll turn into sorbet in the ice cream maker.

Makes 1 pint.

Ingredients

1 c. fresh lemon juice, chilled
1 c. simple syrup, chilled

Directions

1. Squeeze lemons for the juice and remove any seeds or pith bits. Mix the simple syrup and lemon juice together in a bowl before adding to the right-from-the-freezer bowl of the ice cream maker.

2. After 20 minutes, or until the mixture has fluffed up a bit and formed the sorbet. Use a rubber spatula to empty the ice cream maker bowl into a 1-pint container. Store sorbet in the freezer until ready to serve.

Simple Lemon Bars

This is the simplest lemon bar recipe that I know of. Its crust is for an 8" x 8" baking pan.

Lightly sprinkled with powdered sugar

For the crust:

1 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

2/3 c. organic, granulated sugar
2 tbsp all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
3 tbsp lemon juice
zest of one medium lemon

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. In a bowl, whisk together flour and powdered sugar with a fork. Stir in melted butter until small crumbs form. Empty into an 8 x 8 baking pan and press crust down with a fork.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, baking powder, lemon zest, and lemon juice until ingredients are mixed well. Add in eggs and whisk to combine.

3. Bake crust for 10-15 minutes, or until lightly golden on top. Remove from oven and add the filling.

4. Bake lemon bars for 20-25 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and not dark brown. Let cool before cutting into squares.

To add extra zing to the crust, you can split the lemon zest between the filling and the crust. And, to make it more tart, an additional tablespoon of lemon juice can be added to the filling.

Baba Ganoush (eggplant dip)

This recipe is surprisingly easy and has a total prep/cook time of an hour. You'll need a large European eggplant, not the long, thin Japanese eggplant. There are two parts to this recipe, the eggplant and the tahini (sesame paste).

Tahini Ingredients

2 tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 c. warm water, scant

Eggplant Dip Ingredients

1 large eggplant
1/4 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. tahini
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp sesame seeds

1 1/2 tsp olive oil (optional)
dash of paprika (optional)

Directions

1. In a food prep (large enough to accommodate 3 cups), combine 2 tbsp sesame seeds, sesame oil, and sea salt. Grind by adding a little water at a time until a smooth paste forms.

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

3. Take eggplant and slice in half. Putting the cut side down onto a lightly oiled baking dish, say a 9" x 13" glass or ceramic baking dish. It is not necessary to turn the eggplant while it bakes, nor be concerned if the skin starts to char.

4. Bake the eggplant for 40 minutes, until soft. Remove from oven and scoop out the eggplant flesh into the food prep where the tahini is already. Add minced garlic and lemon juice. Blend until smooth. View pic.

5. Remove eggplant dip to a container and let chill in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving.

6. When serving, add olive oil on top of the spread and sprinkle with paprika.

Makes almost 2 cups.

Note: Trader Joe's now carries 2.4 oz bottles of raw white sesame seeds for $1.99. It's in their spice section.

Fresh Blueberry Scones

It'll be blueberry season through September and I'll probably go to Majestic Farms either this weekend or on Labor Day weekend for more blueberries. I'd say that fresh blueberries have a shelf life of about 1-2 weeks in the refrigerator after they've been washed, dried, and put into an airtight container. I'd like to make blueberry crepes before the season is over and need more fresh blueberries for that. Sure, I have already picked 11.5 pounds of blueberries, most of which are in the freezer or have been eaten or made into something. There's just no beating the fresh taste of blueberries.

Ingredients

2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
3 tbsp granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sea salt
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 1/2 c. fresh blueberries
1 tsp grated lemon zest (optional)
1/3 c. heavy cream
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. In a bowl, sift flour, 3 tbsp sugar, baking powder, and salt together. Cut in butter.

3. Using a fork, whisk egg and cream together in a cup. Pour into the center of the dry ingredients. Stir lightly until the dough comes together.

4. Carefully fold in blueberries. I suggest that the bowl you are mixing the flour in be large enough to accommodate all the ingredients because kneading the dough on a floured board just doesn't seem feasible, at least, not to me. And this way it is far less messy. Though, that's not to say you won't make a mess.

5. Turn out dough onto a floured board and pat into a square-like shape, roughly 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut into scone-like shapes (usually triangles, but any shape will do). Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

6. Sprinkle tops of scones with granulated sugar.

7. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool on wire racks before eating.

Not your average Chinese Almond Cookie

This recipe ended up being one of two items that I decided to bring to my company's potluck lunch. I'm dubbing these not your average cookie since there's a key ingredient missing from the authentic taste of these cookies, the almond extract. Having moved to this area about a half year ago, my kitchen boxes are still in quite a sorry state of disarray and while I know I have at least four bottles of almond extract, none of them chose to materialize today. So, I swapped out the almond extract with another extract in my pantry, lemon extract. I suppose then the name would surely change to Lemon Almond Cookies, but who has really heard of those things?

Both Fred Meyers (owned by Kroger) and Trader Joe's didn't have any blanched almonds in stock, so I decided to pick up a few whole raw almonds and blanch them myself. Despite just about every online and cookbook resource that says this is easy to do, it really isn't. In fact, peeling the damn almonds was more time consuming than baking the entire batch of cookies. Ugh. The dedication to cooking I have for a mere garnishment... anyhow.

To blanch almonds, simply put your almonds into a heatproof bowl. Barely cover them with boiling water. Let the almonds sit for about a minute, drain, and rinse with cold water. Have fun peeling the almonds.

The almond cookie recipe is almost a standard sugar cookie ratio, except it has almond meal in the flour mix. It is traditionally made with lard, which is hard to get, make, or find fresh these days.

Ingredients
3 c. unbleached white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 c. almond meal (or finely ground fresh almonds)

1 c. unbleached cane sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
3 tbsp water
1 tsp almond extract (if you wanted to make real almond cookies)

about 1/4 c. raw whole almonds, blanched (skins removed)

1 egg, beaten (optional egg wash for top of cookie)
1/2 tsp almond extract

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, almond meal, and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar together, blend in the egg, water, and almond extract.
3. Combine 1&2 together to form a dough.
4. Form dough into 1-inch balls, and flatten slightly with your fingers onto the cookie sheet. The cookies spread out a bit, so, space them at least an 1-2 inches apart.
5. Press a whole blanched almond into the center of each cookie.
6. (optional) Brush each cookie lightly with an eggwash.
7. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes, or until the tops and edges of the cookies are light golden brown.

I used an egg wash (1 egg whisked together with 1/2 tsp almond extract) on this batch, but it's not necessary. It's for aesthetics only.

Imagine if you could if you had everything listed in this recipe except for the almond extract. While I could have used vanilla extract, that'd just be boring and I wouldn't learn anything from the experience. So, in went lemon extract. There you have it, not your average Chinese Almond Cookie. There are almonds in the recipe, but that's not what comes to mind for the name. It's the aroma and pleasing scent of almond extract that everyone remembers; not the almonds themselves.

Pix:

Lemony lemon bars

So, I started with this basic recipe, and ended up with a more-tangy-than-sweet product in the end. Lemon drop makers would be proud to eat this creation. Juice and grated rind of 5 lemons might just be overkill and needs to be washed down with a cup of mildly hot tea. Alas, I took no pics of the process, but it has less than 1-hour prep/cook time.

Ingredient/method adaptations:

Crust: 1 1/2 sticks of butter (instead of 2 sticks); sifted unbleached white flour and powdered sugar together, then added melted butter and mixed by hand.

The filling: juice of 5 small lemons, grated rind of 5 lemons, 1 1/2 cups granulated organic sugar (instead of 2 cups), 4 eggs. Blended with a hand mixer.

I cut the bars after they cooled, then dusted the batch with sifted powdered sugar before taking them into work. The crust is definitely tasty. The filling is a wee bit too tart for me and needs less lemon juice

O Madeline

Among other things, I am a dessert-a-holic. When I find a restaurant that serves really good desserts, it's not unlike me to work my way through their entire dessert menu, except for those sacrilegious ones that have embedded nuts, or other undesirable flavor combinations. While I did craft a dessert tonight, I don't think I'll be sharing it with the masses, e.g., my division. It's relatively inexpensive to make, easy to do, and has very little prep time. The dessert output is what I would call a limited edition batch, which, contrary to my other posting about how I eat less than 10% of any batch; I shall have to make another exception. As I stare at my dozen cookie rejects, in their misshapen forms, they still smell delicious and just make me want to brew some decaf to scarf these down before bed. I made madelines.. with real butter, organic sugar, a touch of lemon juice (from a real lemon!), and grated lemon peel in the batter. Mmmm.. and then! I dipped them in melted dark chocolate. I'll have to see if the chocolate sets okay in the morning. With this particular dessert cookie, they just might not make it out of my apt; if they do, the cookies'll be shared with a small handful of people.

Yield: 4 dozen
Material cost: low
Mad scientist factor: **