It’s always nice to have friends with fruit trees, especially those with an over abundant crop. So I invited myself over to pick a bag of lemons with loads of optimistic cooking plans.
First on the agenda was lemon marmalade with candied ginger. I’ve made this once before but I used a mixture of every kind of citrus fruit from my in-law's orchard, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, etc. And I think I liked how all the other fruit tamed it down a bit more. But needless to say this is pretty yummy stuff. A fresh loaf of bread, some Plugra butter and a slathering of this yellow goodness and you’re in a good place.
I think some people are mystified by making jams but it’s really so easy and a great way to use extra fruit. You can control the sugar and fine tune your flavoring all you want. It’s one of those things I pride myself on very rarely buying because we make our own. I think it makes the best gifts too. Heck, I even gave homemade jam away at my wedding, raspberry-peach. I gave some of these away for little Easter presents this year.
Next was lemon bread, an adaptation of my father-in-law’s recipe. It's dense but oh-so lemony and good. More lemon still left, what's next?
Mighty Lemon Bread
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
zest of 2 lemons, juice of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons of powdered sugar
Cream together butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest. In a separate bowl mix together flour, salt, and baking soda. Alternately add flour mixture and milk to egg mixture. Bake in a 5x9" loaf pan at 350 degrees for 1 hour. When bread comes out of the oven combine lemon juice and powdered sugar. Poke holes in the top of the bread and pour the juice mixture over it to soak. Let rest for 15-30 minutes before cutting.
