French Lemon Cream Tart

Quick pinch me! Am I dreaming! Could something taste so delectable, so decadent, so delicious but at the same time be so comforting. It is either food of the gods or food for babies. This is the lemon curd of my dreams...the words to describe this filling...I could go on in an ecstatic drivel about the wonders of this tart. It is silky and smooth and voluptuous combined with the right amount of sweet and lemony tartness. The pusses of my family were not puckered with sourness but puckered up to kiss the next wonderful bite of tart. The super dreamy cream curd matched with the sugar cookie crunch of the tart shell was a wonderful match.

Lemon Cream
1 cup of sugar with the zest of 3 lemons rubbed into it (the sugar should be moist and fragrant)
4 large eggs
3/4 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice (5 lemons)
2 sticks plus 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature cut into 12 pieces
1 9 inch tart shell

Have a food processor or blender ready with a strainer at hand.
Place the sugar in a medium size heavy bottom saucepan and whisk in the eggs then lemon juice. Over low heat and whisking constantly bring the mixture up to 180F on an instant read thermometer (the mixture will thicken like a custard). As soon as you hit 180F strain the mixture into your food processor or blender and let rest until the mixture cools to 140F.
Turn your blender or high or turn on your food processor and add butter pieces a few at a time scraping down sides as necessary.
Once the butter is incorporated blend on high for 3 minutes until the texture light and airy.
Put cream in a container that seals well with a piece of plastic wrap pressed to the top. Chill well. Spread into a tart shell of your choice.


Note: the original recipe calls for whisking the egg/sugar/juice mixture over a double boiler which I did but after 30 minutes of whisking and not getting above 140F, I dumped it all it a pan and proceeded that way. The recipe states the whisking double boiler could take 10 minutes. I don't know went wrong with my tried and true double boiler bowl and pan but it worked out fine straight in the pot. Just heat the mixture up gently.

Recipe "Baking From my home to yours" by Dorie Greenspan

Lemon Sables

It is time for the lemon harvest! I have a bumper crop this year and I am looking for new ways to preserve and store my lemons. I do not know what variety my tree is but it produces very balanced lemons just the right amount of acid to sweet. I made these lemon shortbread cookies and they were delicious and super easy. They were tender and sandy at the same time. I had to hide the container around the kitchen because my kids were devouring them and I would forget that I hid the cookies and then open the cabinet or microwave and find the container of cookies! They are so good you can't stop eating them!

Lemon Sables

2 sticks of butter at room temperature (67F) the stick should bend not greasy soft

1/2 cup sugar

zest of 2 lemons or to your taste

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1/4 teaspoon of salt

2 large egg yolks at room temperature

2 cups of all purpose flour

coarse sugar for decorating edges of cookies

Beat butter until smooth and creamy. In a small bowl rub the zest into the granulated sugar until moist and fragrant. Add sugars, salt and beat until well blended about a 1 minute. A smooth velvety mixture not light and airy. Add the egg yolks at low speed and mix until combined. Add the flour all at once and mix at low speed being careful not to spew flour out of the bowl (do a couple of quick pulses to get it incorporated. Mix for 30 more seconds and use a spatula to mix in remaining flour. Dump flour out onto work surface and gather into a ball, divide in half and place each half on a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper and form dough into a 9 inch log. Refrigerate for 3 hours or freeze for 30 minutes or so.

Preheat oven to 350F

Brush log sparingly with leftover egg white and roll the exterior in coarse sugar

Slice cookies off log 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick and place on Silpat or parchment lined on cookie sheet leaving an inch of space between cookies.

Bake for 13-17 minutes - they should brown very slightly on the edges.

Let sit on cookie sheet for a minute then transfer for cooling racks.

Recipe inspired by "From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan

Spaetzel

I made a pork schnitzel for dinner that was had a superb crisp exterior and tender and juicy interior. The only "complaint" from my family spoiled with gravy dishes deluxe was "where is the schnitzel gravy?" While delicious, the recipe was labor intensive especially with the shaking of the pot when the meat hit the oil. The best part was finding a delicious light and airy spatzle recipe!

I grew up with strong food memories due to my father's Slovakian heritage. He made ethnic dishes that I make today. I hope to pass on the same passion my father gave to me for his/my heritage through food to my own children. So much is lost after immigrants assimilate into their new country and new generations are born - language (my grandparents spoke Slovakian and my father use some words and I do not use any, traditional dress, religion and customs - everything except for Food was lost, and I am ever so grateful!
Some of my favorite food memories are watching my grandmother, aunt, mother and father making pirogi (cheese, potato, and onion, prune, sauerkraut) for an entire day so we could have a feast later that evening and into the next day. Watching my father and uncle eating pig knuckles with the gelatinous liquid with such vigor! My granny making chicken feet soup after the butchering of the chickens. She was in charge of taking the feathers off and and can remember her plucking away and those feet floating in a big pot on the stove. I will never forget that wet feather smell mixed with blood. The butchering was a neighborhood event for us kids, some kids dared to participate in the butchering - my father was very accommodating (I did not participate). Holidays meant granny would make her famous nut and poppy seed roll cakes. We looked forward to those! My mother thought the nut roll was too sweet but I enjoyed the textural grit of the sugar. My father loved the poppy seed cake. What I would do if I could have a piece of Granny's nut or poppy seed cake now.
One mainstay was halushki or homemade egg noodles. Every time my father made chicken soup, he would whip up a batch of noodle dough consisting of 2 eggs, 2 cups of flour and water. He would drop the dough into boiling water sliding each noodle off the fork with his finger. We loved those thick, dense, heavy and satisfying noodles especially drenched in butter and salt, and in the soup. My father would always give us a noodle dumpling to sample while we waited for dinner - it was a real treat! We called these noodles halushki.
When my grandmother died, I received a ricer from her kitchen and I started using that to make my dumplings. I make them a few times a year because they are so labor intensive even with the ricer and the clean up was enough to cry over.
Then I recently made pork schnitzel and wanted a spatzle to go with it. As a child I loved the Birds Eye green beans with spatzle that was such a treat and brought the word spatzle into my life. I found a recipe for spatzle in a cookbook that I have had for nearly 20 years and have never used a single recipe from. I love the book because it is filled with photos that remind me of home. I used Ruth Henderson's spatzle recipe and it is something to Love. The spatzel is light and airy and so easy to make and clean up. I have made the spatzle 3 times now in 2 months. It is a breeze and so worth it. (sorry, granny)

Spatzle
2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of ground white or black pepper
1/8 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
3 large eggs
1 cup of milk

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. Beat the eggs and milk in a small bowl pour into the well in the dry ingredients.
Bring 2 quarts of water, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of oil to a boil. Place about 1/3 of the dough in a lightly oiled ricer, spatzle maker or colander. Push through with a wooden spoon.
Cook spatzle until water returns to a boil and the spatzle rise to the surface about a minute.
Remove with a slotted spoon and repeat until dough is gone.
Ruth & Skitch Henderson's Seasons in the Country

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

One of my absolute favorites is cinnamon swirl bread. When I bake a loaf I just might eat nearly the entire thing! The bread is redolent in fragrant cinnamon sweetened lightly with sugar and scented with orange zest. So lovely. This recipe, from Dorie Greenspan, called for cocoa in the cinnamon mix that I hesitated on adding but I am glad I did because the small amount only enriched what is already a delectable treat.

As a child, yeast breads were not generally homemade - I grew up in the convenience generation and really -why not - women were being liberated from the shackles of confining gender roles! There was a brief period where my mother made homemade bread out of necessity due to a job layoff and interestingly I have nice memories of those breads and big pot meals that had to last a week. As a family we bonded together out of necessity even though my siblings and I were young children. In some ways it reminds me of today's economic clime, where there is so much uncertainty, and cutting back is the name of the day. I feel a stronger sense of togetherness and have a firm belief that no matter what comes our way we will make it through. Even with my own sense of determination I realize that so many families are facing economic uncertainty and that suffering is plain suffering and that can dash any firm sense of "we shall overcome" attitude. I hope for those who are suffering that they take each day as it comes and may their dreams be laced with the fragrant scent of better times ahead.

My favorite way to eat the cinnamon swirl bread -toasted!


recipe to follow

Cheesecake Bars

Cheesecake has always had an allure in my family of the ultimate rich and decadent dessert cake. Growing up, making cheesecake and cheesecake recipes passed through the family like a wildfire. There is the famous cheesecake my Aunt Julie made (I do not remember ever tasting it) and then the excitement over my mother buying a spring form pan. I loved those little mini cheesecakes made with vanilla wafers and cheesecake filling in muffin wrappers that were present at every cousin's wedding and baby shower. My mother made a few cheesecakes and what I remember most was, of course, eating the delicious treat and the talk of the cost because of the number of ingredients, and the famous cheesecake that overflowed the pan and spilled into the bottom of the oven and filled the house with a burnt cheesecake smell. I don't know if we wiped out the oven or let it burn off but I will never forget that smell-it seemed like it lasted for years.

I still love cheesecake and love to make it in the bar form so my kids can pack it in their school lunches, plus, I will admit, that I like to eat cheesecake out of hand like a cookie. This recipe was easy and delicious with a firm crust. I use Annie's brand bunny grahams for the crust.

Cheesecake Bars

Crust

preheat oven to 325F

1 1/2 cups to 1 3/4 cups or so of graham cracker crumbs

5 Tbl of melted butter

2 Tbl of brown sugar

2 Tbl flour

dash of salt

Pulverize the graham crackers in a food processor and add the rest of the ingredients until ingredients are incorporated.

Press evenly into pan (I used a removable bottom rectangular tart pan or you can line a 8 or 9 inch square pan with overlapping foil or parchement for easy removal). Play with the size depending on your preference for a thin or thicker cheesecake layer.

Bake at 325F for 12 minutes until fragrant and beginning to brown.

Cheesecake

2 8 ounce packages of softened cream cheese

2/3 cup of sugar

1/4 cup sour cream

2 large eggs

2 tsp of lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add sugar and beat until incorporated. Beat in eggs one at a time until combined. Beat in sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla until combined. Pour filling over baked crust. Spread evenly. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until edges are set and center jiggles slightly. (adjust your baking times for your pan size).

Chill well. Cut into squares and serve.