Lemon Icebox Cookies - SOOOO SIMPLE and OH SOOOO GOOD!!!!!

I love a big bowl of citrus on the counter...it looks so pretty, is an affordable "kitchen bouquet" and you can make a cake, cookies or add some zest to a stir fry or use the juice to make a salad dressing...


Today I decided to use some lemons and make Lemon Icebox Cookies...absolutely a snap to make...all done in the food processor...how simple is that?!

Flour (2 cups), confectioners sugar (1 cup), salt(1 tsp) and lemon zest 1 tbsp + 1 tsp) go in first for a spin in the processor...

The unsalted butter ( 1 cup or 2 sticks) in in small chunks is added and processed to a sand like texture...add the egg yolks (2) and a little lemon juice (1 tsp) and DONE...How easy...

Dough is divided in half and rolled in parchment and placed in the frig for a couple of hours...

Once out of the frig...just roll in sugar (1/4 cup)

Slice in 1/4 inch discs and place on parchment lined baking sheets


Fifteen minutes later and cookies are baked (350 degrees)...the fragrance was lovely...buttery and lemony...and that is exactly what they taste like.

Once cooled I packaged them up in glassine bags, added a yellow bow and a metal framed tag with the name of the cookies on it...makes a nice presentation for gift giving. Of course I saved out two for both my husband and myself...

You always needs two cookies...one for each hand of course!!!!!

Elizabeth

Meyer Lemon Coffee Cake

It really is hard to pass up a good sounding recipe with lemon as the star ingredient. I found this recipe on the Martha Stewart website and it read really well...it baked up even better!!!!! The cake is dense, the Meyer lemons add a nice sweet lemony flavor and the strudel topping is buttery and crunchy...I plan to take the topping and try it on another dessert just to see how it does...it really is wonderful.

As you can see it has wonderful eye appeal...looks like a coffee cake just waiting for a steaming mug of joe...

The recipe calls for about 10 Meyer lemons...5 lemons must be sliced paper thin...so I used my mandolin..a gift from my father many years ago...the mandolin is intimidating and I have a great deal of respect for it...it gives me shivers just thinking about the prospects of running into the blade at a high rate of speed...but you can't beat it for making wonderful paper thin slices...

A half of the batter is placed into a greased tube pan then half the lemon slices are piled on... you must simmer the sliced lemons in water twice and they must be cooled before using...a bit of time required but little skill is needed to do this...

After the last layer of lemons are placed the top of the cake it is covered in that delicious butter, brown sugar, flour strudel...


Once baked the cake is allowed to cool for 10 minutes you take the outer pan off...then the instructions for removing the cake from the tube reads like something I have never done before...place two large spatulas under the cake and lift it off and place it on the rack to cool...well easy said then done...due to the heaviness of the cake...this procedure was very very very tricky!!!!! I had to use one cake mover spatula (really big one that looks like a pizza peel) and then I doubled up on my spatulas for the other side and lifted...ohhh...the cake sagged at the seams and I was sure it was going to split in half...I lowered her back down...counted to three and tried again...once in the air...busting at the seams...no hands to spare...the tube would not drop off...sooooo with my chin I pushed down on it and it dropped onto the cooling rack just where the cake was suppose to go...not good...with an elbow I knocked the tube away...I believe all these shenanigans were called for, so as not to drop a single crumb of strudel...in the end it worked but this truly was on the trickiest cake from pan removals I have ever encountered.

Once cooled and the coffee was brewed...I totally forgot how hard it was to get this cake put the pan...one bite took all my "bad" memories away...simply delicious...

Excuse me while I have one more "little" slice...like the skinny girls say..."ohh just a little slice for me...no no even thinner than that please"

...uh huh...right...signing off with a mouth full...

Elizabeth

First Attempt Making Kaiser Rolls

I decided to try a go at King Arthur Flour's Kaiser Rolls...making the dough was cinch...really nothing do but put everything into the bowl and let the dough hook do the work...during the 10 minute rest period for the dough I was able to fold a load of laundry...love my Kitchen Aid mixer.




The cutter is a what gives the rolls that distinctive Kaiser look...KAF (King Arthur Flour) has some great recipes and tools...


Dough getting ready to rise...go baby go!!!!!

So once the first rise is complete the dough is cut into six pieces and rolled into balls...you have to place the cutter on the roll and press hard almost to the bottom but not through...this is a little tricky...as KAF says practice makes perfect...I am a long way from perfect...husband is going to love this experiment process as he loves Kaiser rolls. Another rise, brush the tops with milk and into the oven

The finished product...not too bad

The inside is very tender and they were tasty...I toasted one the next day and it was delightful

You can go onto the KAF website for this recipe...you don't need the cutter to make these delicious sandwich rolls...give it a try, you will not be disappointed.

Elizabeth