Tag Archives: what to do with Meyer lemons

It’s Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake Prime Time

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A super simple cake that bakes up souffle-like on top, and creamy pudding-like on the bottom.
A super simple cake that bakes up souffle-like on top, and creamy pudding-like on the bottom.

Jessica Merchant wasn’t kidding when she wrote that this “looks like nothing but tastes like everything.”

Her “Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake” might never win a beauty award, but this light-as-air creation will floor you with its fathomless wallop of zingy citrus taste.

This easy-as-can-be cake is from her newest cookbook, “Easy Everyday” (Rodale), of which I received a review copy.

The creator of the How Sweet Eats blog, Merchant offers up 100 effortless eats. This is a woman who believes dinner should never take more than 45 minutes to prepare, and breakfasts and lunches should be ready in a snap.

That’s evident in recipes such as “Whipped Cottage Cheese Protein Pancakes” (throw everything in a blender to make the batter in seconds), “Fire Roasted Lentil Lunch Soup” (saves time by using canned lentils), “Sticky BBQ Meatballs with Herbed Smashed Potatoes” (makes use of your favorite prepared barbecue sauce), and “No Bake S’Mores Pie” (the filling is made on the stovetop).

This pudding cake is one of those magical concoctions where the batter separates as it bakes so that the top turns fluffy like a souffle — without the anxiety of actually making one — and the bottom becomes creamy like a cross between pudding and curd.

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Meyer Lemons II: Sweet and Decadent

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Zest, juice and slices of Meyer lemon flavor this irresistible Meyer lemon coffee cake.

Zest, juice and slices of Meyer lemon flavor this irresistible Meyer lemon coffee cake.

 

April showers bring May flowers. But last winter’s deluge of rain nearly drowned my poor little Meyer lemon tree.

Usually flush with deep green leaves and bountiful with sunny yellow lemons, it looks more like Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree right now. In fact, I managed to pick all of about four decent-sized ripe lemons this year — not nearly enough to make this spectacular “Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake” by Martha Stewart.

But lo and behold, my friend Kiki to the rescue. With her tree overflowing with lemons, she gifted me a big bag of them — plenty to make this cake that requires a load of Meyers.

Thin slices of lemon are layered and baked right into the cake, which has a batter laden with lemon zest, too. Then, a mountain of crunchy streusel goes on top — an amount nearly as deep as the cake, itself. Finally, a Meyer lemon citrus glaze is drizzled over the top.

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Tear Into Meyer Lemon & Thyme Hearth Bread

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Here's what to do with all those Meyer lemons.

Here’s what to do with all those Meyer lemons.

 

These days, cutting back on carbs is such a thing.

In that regard, I am decidedly unhip.

Because I love bread, pasta and rice — and would never give them up unless I absolutely was forced to do so.

After all, few things are as blissful as tearing into a rustic slab of warm bread drizzled with good olive oil.

That’s why “Meyer Lemon & Thyme Hearth Bread” caught my eye.

It’s from the new cookbook, “Citrus: Sweet and Savory Sun-Kissed Recipes” (Ten Speed Press) by Valerie Aikman-Smith and Victoria Pearson, of which I received a review copy.

Aikman-Smith is a former cook at Greens restaurant in San Francisco, and Pearson is a food photographer, whose images have graced Food & Wine and Martha Stewart Living magazines.

CitrusCookbook

The book is all about what to make with citrus, which is at its prime in winter. Enjoy everything from “Rosemary Lemonade” and “Tropical Granola with Candied Lime” to “Grilled Sardines with Orange Polenta” and “Pomelo & Basil Granita.”

With a dwarf Meyer lemon tree in my yard, I’m always looking for ways to use its fragrant fruit, which is a cross between a regular lemon and a mandarin, rendering it less sharp tasting. In this recipe, the lemons get sliced thinly and fanned over the top of the bread.

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A Load of Lemons, Part I: Meyer Lemon Cake

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More than a pound of lemons goes into this cake, along with almonds and candied ginger.

That’s what my backyard tree gifted me this winter: a load of Meyer lemons.

After last season’s dismal crop that netted me barely enough lemons to make a couple quarts of lemonade, I was overjoyed to see the bumper harvest this year from my one little dwarf tree.

When life gives you a load of lemons, you just have to use them, of course. In everything you can think of — and then some.

So, I couldn’t have been happier to spy this recipe for “Meyer Lemon Cake” in the new “The Sunset Essential Western Cookbook” (Oxmoor House), of which I received a review copy. The cookbook, by the editors of Sunset magazine, features more than 150 recipes that are so very Californian in spirit — everything from “Hangtown Fry” to “Char Siu-Glazed Pork and Pineapple Buns” to “Tagliatelle with Nettle and Pine Nut Sauce” to homemade fortune cookies.

This quite citrusy cake uses more than a pound of lemons. Most of them are pulverized — rind, pulp and all — to go into the cake batter, which contains no butter. Instead, ground almonds give it richness, along with five large eggs.

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