Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

Family dinner is every Friday, as I think I mentioned in the Baked Shrimp Scampi entry, and dear brother snorlax comes over. With Business School done and over with and me enjoying my summer days I now have a bit of time to do some baking. So for family dinner I made Ina Garten's Lobster Pot Pie (recipe next entry) and for dessert I thought something citrus would be refreshing.

While browsing the internet I stumbled upon another website with just recipes upon recipes for cupcakes, one recipe in particular caught my eye. Lemon Meringue Cupcakes. So fresh, lemony and adorable to boot! If there is one thing that dear brother snorlax loves it's lemon.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

• 1 1/2 cups of cake flour Note: If you do not have cake flour you can mix 1 3/4 cups of AP flour and 1/4 cup of cornstarch to make 2 cups of a AP flour substitute then just use 1 1/2 cups.
• 1 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 stick of butter (room temperature)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup of milk

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Mix Flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Gradually beat in butter (if it is room temp this will be so much easier), one the butter is well mixed (little clumps will start forming) throughly beat in the sugar.
4. Beat in Eggs, vanilla and milk and fill into baking cups about 2/3 of the way.
5. Bake for 20 min. You'll know the cupcakes are done when a tooth pick comes out clean.

Filling:

• 1 egg + 1 yolk
• Juice of 1 fresh lemon
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1/2 cup of sugar

I would recommend setting out everything before beginning this process as you want to be beating the mixture constantly so you don't end up with scrambled eggs.

1. Using a double boiler (that is a bowl set over simmering water) beat the egg and yolk, I used a hand held electric beater.
2. Beat in the lemon, butter and sugar.
3. Stir over medium heat until the mixture has a pudding like consistency.

It will look weird at first especially as the butter breaks down but eventually you will end up with something that looks like a lemon pudding. To me this was like making caramel all over again, because you look at the mixture and you tell your self "there is no way that it is going to get thick" and then 5 minutes later it is thick and you wonder how you could have doubted yourself.

Frosting (Meringue)

• 5 tbsp of water
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 1/3 of cup of sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 1tbsp of light corn syrup
• 1 tsp of vanilla

1. Beat water, cream of tartar, sugar, egg whites, and syrup in a double boiler on low.
2. When the mixture reaches 140 degrees beat on high for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from heat , add vanilla and beat for another 3 minutes.

Assembly:

To put the filling in the cupcakes I used a small cookie cutter to hollow out the top of each cupcake:

Spoon a little bit of the lemon filling into each cupcake:

Pop the top back on and cover with meringue!

Lemon Cheesecake

It is the week of cheesecakes for me!

Every Friday night I have family dinner with my mom, her husband John, and my dear brother Snorlax (and our wonderful kitten Louis of course, who supervises my baking). This week I've decided to make Lemon Cheesecake for dear brother Snorlax.

Following the same recipe forNew York Cheesecake that I made for my dad this past week. I added a lemon curd to the top.

For the Lemon Curd:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Lemon grated zest
• 1/3 cup of lemon juice
• 5 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Combine lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a sauce and bring to a simmer.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg until light.
   
3. Beat some of the hot lemon mixture into the eggs. -It is really important to do this slowly and to constantly beat the egg or else the egg will cook because of the heat and you'll have scrambled eggs. Which is not yummy in cheesecake.
4. Add the egg mixture back into the saucepan and strain.
   
5. Stir in the vanilla and cool to room temperature.

You would add this to the top of the normal cheesecake (therefore making it not a new york style). Adding this to cheesecake I made the mistake of stirring it too much, the egg in the curd caused air bubbles which led to my first cheesecake cracking. Disappointing but still delicious, and in the end when it is for loved ones as long as it's delicious the way it looks doesn't really matter.

It still looks pretty yummy.

Lemon Bars

I have to admit that 99.99% of my baking is usually for someone else. One of my favorite people to bake for is my brother Snorlax. My brother used to be a sane Chocoholic like myself but in recent years it seems that his love for chocolate has waned. As it turns out his sweet tooth is delighted by tart! Lemon, lemon, lemon!

So after raiding my mother's cookbook shelf I came upon Luscious Lemon Desserts, a collection of tartly delicious lemon recipes.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup plus 2 tablespoons All-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 large eggs
• 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8x8 baking pan
2. Whisk 1 cup of the flour, 1/4 cup of the confectioners' sugar, the zest, and the salt.
3. Cut the the butter into tiny cubes. The cookbook calls for a pastry blender or 2 knives used in scissors-fashion, but I cut the butter into tiny tiny pieces and it made no difference.
   
4. Mix with your best tool-a pair of clean hands!-until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs and then keep kneading the mixture until the dough comes together.
   
5. Transfer the dough to the baking pan and press it evenly into the bottom. Bake for 25 minutes and allow it to cool while you make the filling
6. Whisk together the remaining confectioners' sugar (1 1/2 cups), the remaining flour (2 tablespoons) and the baking powder in a small bowl.
7. Beat the eggs on high for about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low, add the sugar mixture, and beat just until blended, scraping down the side bowl.
   
8. Add the lemon juice and keep blending!
9. Pour the lemon mixture over the crust and bake for 18-20 minutes.
10. Let cool in the pan.

Cut and enjoy after they've cooled. Just before serving sprinkle with more confectioners' sugar.

A sure delight for anyone that likes lemon. I had a bite and could not believe the tartness. I feared that they might have been too tart but my brother loved them. I think next time I want to use the same recipe but instead of using a square baking pan I want to use tartlet pans. How amazing would mini lemon tarts be?