Lemon Loaf Cake

I wasn’t so sure about doing this recipe.  I have to go out of town on business this week and my husband will also be away for a few days. Who is going to eat this?  When I go away, my friend and neighbor helps out with my dogs.  She has a wicked sweet tooth!  I’m sure this loaf will be a big surprise for her when she lets my dogs out the first time!

I decided to follow the recipe with only one addition.  After reading all the comments on the TWD blog, I added the juice of one lemon to give it more lemony flavor.  Boy, am I glad I did.  I don’t think it would have much of a lemon flavor without it.  Even with only one lemon, it’s very mild and delicate tasting.  I really like it!  I am not a huge fan of lemon desserts probably because they are usually too heavy on the lemon, but this is just right. 

One of the best gadgets in my kitchen is a microplane.  I think I have about four different ones.  I used the one especially for grating citrus. It has a bigger surface which allows you to make quick work of a lemon or any other citrus fruit.  Here is a picture of the one I use. 

After assembling all the ingredients, the batter came out looking buttery yellow. You can see the flecks of lemon rind.  This will melt away once the loaf is baked.  

I timed it for 55 minutes, not wanting to bake it too long.  However, when I checked on it after the timer sounded, it needed those extra five minutes to finish baking the center.  It was still a little under cooked when I inserted the toothpick.  After another five minutes…Perfection!!  What a beautiful little loaf. Others thought it was too dry, but when I tasted it, it melted in my mouth and was very moist. 

This recipe can be found on page 252 of Baking with Julia or at this week’s hosts sites, Truc and Michelle

Happy Baking!

Karen

Pizza Rustica

The latest recipe on our blog TWD/Baking with Julia is Pizza Rustica.  For this recipe, I decided I needed a new tool.  For some reason, I never used a pastry mat. I have no idea why I never bought one, but after using it for this recipe; I will never be without one!  In all my years of cooking and baking, I realize the proper tools do make a difference and also make the process so much more enjoyable.   I decided to buy two.  One has the circle sizes so you can accurately determine how big the circle needs to be for your pan.  The other one is a silicone mat similar to Silpat.  I used the one with the layout on it for the Pizza and it worked well.  It did slide a bit but it takes up so much room on my counter, it wasn’t that annoying.  

I used the food processor for the dough.  I have the big daddy Cuisinart with three bowls.  I love this machine.  It makes short work of anything you want to do.  The dough came together pretty fast.  It’s very soft dough, easy to roll but very delicate. It breaks very easily.  Once done, it goes into the refrigerator during preparation of the filling.  I thought that would help, but as soon as you start to work with it, it softens up again.  Luckily, this doesn’t have to be too pretty.  They don’t call it Rustica for nothing! 

I did not deviate from the ingredients in the recipe.  I read a lot of the comments earlier in the week in which my fellow bloggers were talking about changes and additions they were trying with the recipe.  I decided to make it exactly as intended in the book.   I believe I will make this again and at that time I may lend my spin to it.  But for now, I just wanted to try it as is and taste it the way Julia intended.

I mixed all the filling ingredients into a bowl.  The Prosciutto was interesting.  It was so soft, I ended up cutting it with a kitchen shears because using a knife was not getting me the results I wanted and the shears were so much easier.  Again, kitchen tools can make a big difference!

  Once the filling was prepared,  I removed the dough from the frig and proceeded to roll out the bottom of the pie.  If you are expecting  the same texture as a standard run of the mill pie dough, think again!  The eggs make this dough pretty different from any other dough I’ve ever made.  It breaks easily and is very soft.  The color is more yellow-gold than a traditional pie dough.  

The filling is just enough to fill up the pie plate.  I am not a fan of lattice pie tops.  You have to play around with the lattice so everything is woven together.  I think that is a problem with this dough. It breaks so easy when you pick it up to place it on the top.  If you have to move it around, it is very delicate so you have to be careful.  I also didn’t quite get the lattice pattern right.  I realized it after I had all the pieces on top.  I tried to fix a few but gave up when it was too difficult to pick them up to interweave the strips.  

All in all, it was a great recipe. Definitely a keeper! 

Head on over to too the following links to see the recipe.  http://capitalregiondiningblog.blogspot.com/    or   http://tptch.com/

Happy Baking!