Tuesday April 13, 2010

I think I’ve previously established with everyone that when I am stressed, I bake. Well, I bake more than usual, I should say. And I try to pawn off goodies onto people. For instance, yesterday I was particularly on the verge of being overwhelmed — so (in addition to homemade pizza) I baked two types of sweet quick breads to send to work with Steven today, in order to spoil his coworkers a bit. Thankfully we have a lot going on this week, so I have more excuses people to bake for. One fellowship group tonight, another on Thursday, pastoral visitation on Wednesday, and company coming over for dessert on Saturday.
I need to buy more sugar.

This is the lemon bread (I also made apple bread – I’ll post it another time) I made yesterday, and will likely make another loaf to take to the fellowship group on Thursday. I used a Meyer lemon from my grandparents’ tree. I don’t know if any other lemon would make this as perfectly. 🙂 Recipe originally from Hot Providence, page 51.

LEMON BREAD

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
Lemon zest of 1 lemon (remove zest first for the bread, then juice the lemon for topping)

1/4 cup sugar & juice of one lemon = the topping.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together. Add the milk, melted butter, beaten eggs, and lemon zest. Pour into a greased 9×5-inch loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes. Meanwhile, mix together 1/4 cup sugar and the lemon juice; let sit. Remove from oven, but leave the bread in the pan. Carefully (and liberally) poke top surface of loaf with a fork (or toothpick); then pour the topping/glaze over entire surface of the bread. Leave in the pan to cool completely.
This slices easily and evenly.
Just delicious!

This is the cookie recipe I made today for tonight’s fellowship group. They are so delicate, I think they need to be served on china saucers. Recipe from a friend.

LIME SUGAR COOKIES

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons lime zest (I zested an entire large lime)
1/4 cup lime juice (my lime only produced about 2 Tblsp juice, so I used about 2 Tblsp lemon juice to make the rest)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter, sugar and egg. Mix in lime juice and lime zest. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until combined.

Roll dough into small balls (I didn’t roll them because the dough was pretty sticky; I just tried to dollop the dough as neatly as possible), & place on greased cookie sheet.

Bake 10 minutes or until they are slightly browned (mine baked for about 13 minutes).

Place cookies on a cooling rack and (once completely cooled) sift powdered sugar over cookies.