Bring Out the Sun

Lemons!

Today is a gorgeous day in New England.  One of the first real days of spring, even if the official event is still a couples days off.  A couple weeks ago, however, it was the middle of the dullest part of February winter.  The doldrums when winter seems endless.  It's about this time of year that I like to play with lemons.  

Lemons are a great winter fruit that somehow banish the grey gloom of the season in every citrusy bite.  Today I will do a quick review of two truly fantastic lemon recipes for those of you who may still have a few more grey days ahead before spring and summer come back in force.

We'll start with a King Arthur Flour recipe that I made a couple weeks ago to make Braided Lemon Bread and then I'll discuss Eating Well's Lemon Pavlova.

Braided Lemon Bread, with gooey Lemon Curd in the middle.

I'm not going to do a whole step by step for this recipe.  In part, because one of the amazing resources on the King Arthur website (there are many), is their blog posts where they do step by step with photos.  They did a write-up recently on this recipe.  Their explanation of how to braid bread takes all the guess work and mystery out of the process while still making you look like the baker of the year.

The sweet yeast bread recipe is a basic recipe that you can use with any number of fillings.  I've made this bread in the fall with an apple pie like filling and as a base for delicious cinnamon buns.  When I made it a couple weeks ago, I used their cream cheese filling topped with home-made lemon curd.  King Arthur recommends using their lemon curd for the recipe, but in my experience, making it from scratch is quite an easy and enjoyable process.

Straining the Lemon Curd

For the Lemon Curd, I used Eating Well's recipe.  I first used this recipe with their Lemon Pavlova dessert a couple of Christmases ago.  Pavlova is a New Zealand dessert designed in anticipation of the ballerina Pavlova's visit according to legend.  According to my own experience it's a delectable sweet that balances the tart curd with whipped cream and crunchy meringue.  My brother-in-law is gluten-free and this is one of the great  already gluten-free recipes out there. 

Both of these recipes are somewhat time intensive.  It's been a while since I've done the Pavlova, since it's more of a showstopper, but the braided bread takes about 3 1/2 hours with time for rising and the Pavlova is about the same.  Some tips that I have from my experience with these recipes:

• Be patient.  This goes for both waiting for the yeast to rise, twice, whipping up egg whites for meringue, and cooking the lemon curd.  Your patience will be rewarded.  The bread will be larger, the whites will reach their firm peaks, and the curd will thicken.  
• Temperatures for Yeast: I went to a King Arthur Baking Demo about this time last year and my instructor explained yeast like this - it's a living thing, just like you and me, and with the warm water we are trying to create a kind of bath that the yeast would enjoy.  Too hot and it'll scald the living organism and kill it; too cold and the yeast won't bubble and grow.  Invest in a kitchen thermometer.  The ideal temperature is roughly between 100 & 110 degrees F.
• Plan for a long day in the kitchen.  Again, these recipes run on the longer side of things, so they're great for a cold day with snow on the ground and a lot of pent up cabin fever energy just itching to be used up.