Lemon Bars

Now I'm not a big lemon custard/curd girl because I'm not a huge tart person. But a friend of mine made lemon bars for the Memorial Day BBQ, and I've been craving them insanely ever since. I was stumbling around the other day and came across Bumbleberry Cakes and was drooling pretty much instantly. And lo and behold, a lemon bar recipe!

I tried to stick to the recipe, I really did. But I accidentally (wear to God) added about 1 1/3 cups of white sugar to the "dough". It didn't seem to affect it too much, but it did seem to make it a bit more of a crumble and less of a dough. However, I liked it and no one else has complained.


BAKE SALE LEMON BARS
Submitted by: Elaine, modified by GOURMETMOMMY (and screwed up by me)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup confectioners' sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar (this is the part I mussed up so totally optional)

6 eggs
1 3/4 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup lemon juice

1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking pan.

2. Combine the flour, 2/3 cup confectioners' sugar, 1 cup white sugar and butter. Pat dough into prepared pan.

3. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until slightly golden. While the crust is baking, whisk together eggs, white sugar, flour, and lemon juice until frothy. Add 3 drops yellow food coloring. Pour this lemon mixture over the hot crust.

4. Return to the preheated oven for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, or until light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Dust the top with confectioners' sugar. Cut into squares.

World's Best Breadsticks

Ryan the 3L (of TSLRF fame and whom I've known since I was knee high to a duck) came into town to visit family and crashed at my place this weekend. As far as I'm concerned any excuse to cook is a good excuse to cook, and old friends are one of the best excuses. We did a ton of stuff and I'm sure I'll do a couple posts about it, but I think the best of the cooking was a new recipe I found for bread sticks.

The dough was pretty simple (compared to double-rise bread dough anyway) and they only had to rise for 15 minutes (more if you had more time). Even with proofing the yeast, you can make these in 30-35 minutes no problem. Once they came out of the oven, I brushed them with garlic salt and Italian herb mix and they were just awesome.

One trick I have learned is placing a small oven safe pan with water into the oven as soon as you start to preheat, and keeping it in clear through your cooking. This technique is used with baguettes generally, and gives the bread sticks a nice crisp crust without drying out the middle.


1 cup warm water (between 110-115 degrees)
3 tablespoons brown sugar
2.5 teaspoons of yeast
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups of bread flour

Mix brown sugar and warm water until sugar is dissolved, add yeast and allow to proof at least 5 minutes or until foamy (I like to say it should look like the foam on a latte). Add salt and oil and mix in flour, adding 1 cup at a time. Roll out on floured surface until it's about 10x12. Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut into approx. 3/4 inch strips (I like them about 5-6 inches long, but it's personal preference). Give each stick a twist and place on a baking sheet to rise in a warm place for at least 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 while dough is rising, for crispy crust place half-full oven safe pan unto oven rock below or even with where bread sticks will bake.

Once bread sticks have risen (15-25 minutes) place in oven for 10-12 minutes. When done, remove from oven and baste with melted butter. Sprinkle sticks liberally with garlic salt and your choice of Italian herbs. Serve hot with your choice of dipping sauce!

Any Good Recipes?

So, by some insane fluke I managed to get a "tasting" (aka interview) for a local coffee shop to make their pastries and breakfast stuffs. I have some things floating around my head (I've seriously been driving Lila and Gracie insane because I won't shut up about recipes) but I really really want to try out as many things as I can!

Anyone have any tried and true or interesting recipes they'd like to share?

Scrumptious French Toast

When I'm lazy, and I don't want to really cook, I make breakfast for dinner. Pancakes were my mom's standby, and mine is usually some sort of egg dish. Last night I didn't have time to pull out any meat to de-thaw, and after chasing down 6 rogue chickens in the garage I didn't feel like being super creative. Enter my Wifey Bread cinnamon concoction.

Ever since I made the Yet Un-named Cinnamon Version of Wifey Bread, I've been stealing little bits off of it to sooth my cinnamon roll cravings. Since that craving was in high gear, I decided to use the YUNCV to make French Toast. I whipped up 4 eggs, and a 1/2 cup of milk and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract in a shallow bowl, dipped the bread and threw it in a frying pan. I flipped each piece after about 2 minutes, re-flipping if it wasn't to my liking color wise. Once I pulled them from the pan I threw on some whipped butter, powdered sugar, and topped it with some maple syrup.

Viola, breakfast for dinner is served!