Pork Chops with Garlic and Lemon Sauce

You guys, I made an awesome dinner the other night. Seriously, we were both super satisfied with these amazing pork chops. Oodles of flavor and on the table in about 20 minutes.Seriously, what more could you ask for? The pork chops are delicious and tender, and the sauce has a good balance of lemon and garlic to offer something a little different and bright. What I enjoy of these stove top pork chops is how easy it is to keep them juicy and moist, which can sometimes be tricky when you're working with them on the grill--they can get dry so quickly. So in addition to a delicious chop, you also get a lovely sauce with this recipe. By the way, that sauce was pretty tasty when it made it's way to my baked potato, too.

Lemon Raspberry Bread

Recently there were some delicious looking raspberries at the farm stand. After I bought a pint, Dave and I ate the entire thing in one sitting (maybe 10 minutes)--they were just the perfect combination of tart, sweet and juicy. So I went back to get another pint and paired those raspberries with some lemons for this amazing summer-flavored quick bread. This bread is amazing. Tart, sweet, soft and delicious. I made mini loaves, two of which Dave and I ate up right away. I shared one with Cindy since she needed some sweet lemony goodness in a bad way, and there's one left in the freezer, yet, but I'm not sure it'll be there much longer. This perfect summer recipe came from the best source--a Secret Recipe Club assignment!

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes

Last week was my coworker Kate's birthday so I knew I had to make a sweet treat to celebrate. But seeing as how we were having a department social with other treats later that afternoon, I was looking for something slightly less indulgent. Enter these tart and tangy pink lemonade cupcakes with a funfetti twist. Colorful and tasty, these are an excellent treat--and made with applesauce and just a touch of oil, they are relatively healthy to boot! Low fat and delicious means I can have two, right?

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Rarely do the stars align so I can share a recipe for birthday baking on someone's actual birthday. Happy Birthday, Rachel! We had Rachel and some other friends over this weekend and I made these lemon cupcakes when the birthday girl asked for something lemony. And boy are they. Lemon juice and zest give these cupcakes a tart, citrus tang and lemon extract in the buttercream frosting is quite literally the icing on the cake. This frosting is slightly different than I typically make thanks to a little cream in the frosting, whipped up to creamy and smooth. Yum! These cupcakes will definitely make you think spring (even if you do still have chipmunk igloos in your yard like we do).

Lemon Bread

A tasty quick bread with a great lemon flavor and a sweet light glaze.  I loved this recipe because it made two loaves, came together quickly and the lemon really shined without being overly tart or sour.  The glaze is light and brings a bunch of lemon flavor, but since it's added while the bread is still warm, I think it adds to the soft, moist crumb of this bread.  Since it made two loaves, I took one to work for a meeting and gave half of one to Cindy since she loves lemon. (Dave and I ate the other half.)  Rave reviews all around, with one of my colleagues even asking if I'd made the bread because it was delicious.  I won't lie--I get tickled every time someone compliments me on a new recipe.

This lemon bread was a result of having 3 lemons in my house and no idea what to do with them.  So I scoured Pinterest for a recipe that would be assuredly lemony.  I finally found the right recipe from Lind at Stick to Your Hips.  This was a perfect recipe, although I opted to leave out the various berries.  I had some strawberries and blueberries on hand, but really just wanted to focus on the lemon flavor coming through.  This could easily be adapted to mini loaves, but I went with 2 loaves, one in an 8 x 4 pan and one in a 9 x 5 pan.  Yummy and delicious.  Make one for yourself and share one with a friend.

Freezable Lemon Bars

Pretty and delicious--always a winning combination.  So just as Cindy loves cheese more than chocolate, she will also always choose a fruit-based dessert over a chocolate dessert as well.  So of course I needed to incorporate some light and fruit flavors into the dessert table with the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars and Pretzel Brownies.  These lemon bars are perfect.  They have a very different texture and composition than my previous Lemon Bars, but they are still delicious and a tasty bite of summer.  The crust is a simple graham cracker layer which is then topped with a light lemony layer.  It's not quite as thick as lemon curd, more akin to a lemon filling.  Finally, it's all topped off with a layer of whipped cream.  Sweet, tart and delicious.

When scouring lemon recipes, I found several that looked yummy, but ultimately I went with this one from Jen over at Beantown Baker simply because I could freeze them! (Plus, I've never failed with one of Jen's recipes).  Since I was trying to do as much work in advance of the shower as possible, this recipe made a lot of sense to me.  I only made one adjustment to the recipe and that was to include the zest of one lemon in the whipped cream topping.  If you've followed me for a while, you're familiar with my trials (and failures) of lemon flavor.  I figured the added lemon zest would secure the pop of lemon I wanted to achieve, and it totally worked. You could certainly leave it out, or decrease it, but I like the way the topping continues the lemon flavor from the filling.  And as far as the freezing part, I was thrilled with how they turned out.  I let them sit for the recommended time, they cut perfectly and because they were still chilled, the bars maintained their shape and the structure of the topping despite sitting on the dessert table for a little while.

Easy Lemon Cookies

You may remember last year I had quite the time making a lemon cookie I was happy with.  I started with the Soft Lemonade Cookies that didn't quite turn out, but that I salvaged into something else. Then I reworked the recipe and created the Glazed Lemonade Cookies that were better, but still not what I was going for.  Recognizing my plight, my dear friend Mere came to my rescue and sent me this recipe.  While I was still so frustrated with lemon last year, after my success with Lemon Bars this past spring, I thought I'd try Mere's version this cookie season.  I'm so glad I did.  These cookies pack a great lemon flavor without being tart.  They are soft and chewy and care finally the lemon cookie I was looking for.

Mere's recipe is crazy-easy to make.  I didn't change a thing and as you know I'm not too proud to use a prepackaged mix as the base for my cookies.  These cookies work any time of year, so keep them in mind for spring and summer.

Lemon Bars

Finally, I'm claiming victorious over lemon.  I officially win the battle with these bars, which are amazing.  Never having made lemon bars, I wasn't sure how these would turn out, but I was determined.  And I so won.  These were delicious.  Tart and tangy without being overly sweet or sour.  The crust was the perfect base for the soft lemon curd.

I made these for a Memorial Day cook-out/birthday baking for a friend.  Everyone loved them, and the birthday recipient even texted me the next day all excited because she forgot she had them in the fridge, so it was a surprise when she found them.  The recipe comes from the Brown Eyed Baker, who I must say I am enjoying.  She really does a good job finding recipes, explaining them and putting together fun flavors.  I didn't do anything different to these. (Unless you count forgetting to sprinkle extra powdered sugar on the top for decoration.  No one noticed.)  Although, I will admit that my conquering of the lemon may be because although I followed directions to zest 2 large lemons, it resulted in slightly more than 2 teaspoons of zest.

Lemon Whoopie Pies

In perusing the breadth of lemony treats I've posted, I've come to the realization that lemon may be the bain of my existence.  There has been something wrong with literally every lemon recipe I've made.  Allow me to recap:

Stained-Glass Flower Lollipops: the candy wasn't right the first time, so I had to replace the Dum-dums with Jolly Ranchers
Cherry-Lemon Meringue Mini Pies: got stuck in the pan so I had to finished them off in the pan and give the whole pan to Cindy (minus the one that I tried to get out, broke, and subsequently ate)
Glazed Lemonade (aka Revamped Soft Lemonade): ok, these weren't a fail, but they were the corrected version of my super fail...
Soft Lemonade: which failed to taste lemony.  But as least I could salvage them into lemon macaroons for Soft Lemonade--Salvaged

Stained-Glass Flower Lollipops

These may be one of my favorite cookie and candy combos and surprisingly were not complicated to make.  Well, I made them more complicated at first, but now I've simplified the process for you so now they'll be relatively easy!

My niece turns 5 on Saturday and her party is a  tea party theme, so she and her friends will enjoy these cookies, perfect for little girls.  The recipe, from the Barnes & Noble published Cookies by Pamela Clark, originally called for doing these with round cutters (perfect for little boys too).  I don't have graduating round cutters, so I though the flowers would be a good alternative. 

The recipe also called for sugar-free lollipops, but I beg to differ.  I started using Dum-dum pops, but there were two issues.  The first is that there are so many flavors in a bag of Dum-dums, you'll be hard pressed to find enough of one flavor to fill more than one cookie.  The other is that despite crushing, the candy didn't melt thoroughly enough to create the colored glass effect.  Luckily I figured this out early enough and was able to run out and get a bag of Jolly Ranchers which crushed and melted perfectly.  I couldn't be happier with the end product.  I picked up the popsicle sticks and treat bags from Michael's and individually wrapped the cookies as favors for the girls.  The cookie is very tasty and the lemon peel helps bridge the gap between cookie and candy.  They froze fine and will be perfect for the party.

Stained-Glass Flower Lollipops

Ingredients

1 stick butter, softened
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest (I used the Lemon Peel from Penzey's and reconstituted it myself)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 2/3 cups flour
1 egg white
nonpareils or rainbow sprinkles
popsicle sticks
1 bag individually wrapped Jolly Ranchers



Cream butter with an electric mixer and then add lemon zest, almond extract, sugar and egg, beating until combined.  Stir in sifted flour in two batches (I used the paddle attachment on my stand mixer to slowly incorporate the flour).

Knead dough on floured surface (or dough mat) until smooth.

Divide dough in half and between sheets of parchment, roll to 1/4 inch thickness.  Transfer to baking sheet, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, using a rolling pin or meat mallet, crush candies while still wrapped.  Unwrap into small bowls separated by color.

Remove dough from fridge and transfer to dough mat or clean counter/table.  Using your largest (or 4 inch) cutter, cut dough and transfer to parchment or Silpat lined cookie sheet.

Then, take your next graduating cutters (3 inch, 2 inch and 1 inch) and cut concentric shapes in the 4 inch piece.

Remove dough between the 2 and 3 inch cutters and the 1 inch center.  Repeat with remaining dough.

Note: My cutters didn't have enough graduation to do 4 concentric flower shapes, so I did three and just removed the middle flower.  Then I used that flower to create a smaller lollipop. This eliminated a lot of rerolling.

Slide a popsicle stick under each cookie, being sure to go all the way to the center.

Brush half the cookies with egg white and sprinkle with nonpareils.

Bake at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes.  Turn baking sheet 180 degrees halfway through. If using more than one sheet at a time, rotate positions in the oven for more even baking.  Remove from oven and fill the gaps with crushed candies.

Bake for another 5 minutes.  Cool on cookie sheets.

This shows the difference between the crushed Dum-dums and the Jolly Ranchers. These are both post-baking.  See how clear the Jolly Ranchers (above) are?  The Dum-dums didn't get nearly that melted.

Note: Using the Silpat, it was very easy to peel the cooled candy off the pan.  At minimum, use parchment paper, otherwise you will wait a very long time for the pan to cool and run the risk of breaking the candy or the whole lollipop.

When completely cooled (I allowed them to sit a bit longer on racks), place each lollipop in a treat bag and tie with a bow.

Makes 12 large and 12 small lollipops.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

Cherry-Lemon Meringue Mini Pies

Aren't they adorable?  Yes, and the second time around was much better.  Allow me to explain.

On Monday, my dear friend Cindy had a birthday, so I had to bake for her  Since she is my friend who can respect chocolate but would much rather have something fruity, particularly lemon, it was quite fortuitous when the April 2011 issue of Food Network Magazine arrived last week bearing this recipe from Sandra Lee.  Now, this is the second Sandra Lee recipe that didn't quite turn out the way I wanted it to (see White Peppermint Snowballs), but I'll take the blame on this one.  When reading the recipe, I thought to use my silicone muffin pan to make sure I could get the pie "crusts" out without breakage. However, when I actually made the recipe, I forgot until they were already in the oven.  In my stoneware muffin pan.  Not the most flexible or forgiving of cookware.

Only one of them completely crumbled.  The other two I took out were "reparable."

So instead of presenting the pies in a pretty little container, I just handed Cindy the whole stone pan full of them (which she confessed to eating right out of the pan, a "few" at a time). 

Oddly, this recipe yielded the perfect amount of crust for 12 mini pies, but twice as much filling.  Even more strange, the package of meringue cookies I bought at Trader Joe's was enough to make two batches of crust.  Clearly, the stars were aligning so I could try these again using the right tools.  The recipe below will yield 24 mini pies. I doubled the original recipe's crust quantities, but left the filling the same.  Let me know if it doesn't work for you and/or you did something different!

And as far as tastiness, they are quite refreshing.  I found them very lemony, but the crust was nice and firm (good pie-librium) with a good contrast in flavor and texture.

Cherry-Lemon Meringue Mini Pies

Ingredients
For the crust

10 ounces vanilla meringue cookies
12 tablespoons cake flour
2 sticks unsalted butter, melted

For the filling
1 box (4-serving package) lemon pudding and pie filling mix
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups prepared lemonade
2 large egg yolks
1 can prepared cherry pie filling

Combine the meringue cookies and flour in a food processor and process until mixture is fine crumbs. 

Add the melted butter and pulse until combined.

Spray muffin cups with cooking spray.  I have both a silicone muffin pan and these little individual silicone muffin cups. 

I ended up using the individual cups, which made for a nice presentation without risking breakage to the crusts.  If I would have made all 24 at once, I would have used both the silicone pan and the individual cups.  If you only have access to 12 silicone cups, make them in batches.  I would not suggest doing this in either metal or stone bakeware.

Spoon about 2 Tablespoons of the mixture into each of the prepared muffin cups.  I actually used a scantly filled medium cookie scoop. 

Using the back of a measuring spoon or a small spatula, press the mixture firmly into the bottom and sides of the cups.

Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 8-10 minutes, or until just starting to brown.  Remove from oven and immediately press each cup with the back of the tablespoon (you want to make a well for your filling).  Cool the cups in the pan on a rack.

Combine the pudding mix and sugar in a medium saucepan.

Whisk in the lemonade and egg yolks. Continue to whisk over medium-high heat until the mixture comes to a boil. 

Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes.

Spoon 1-2 Tablespoons of the lemon filling into each cooled meringue cup.  Top each with about 1 Tablespoon of cherry pie filling (I picked out just the cherries, not the goo). 

Sorry--I apparently stopped taking pictures of the new version at this point.  Whoops.

Chill for about 2 hours, or until the filling is set.

Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Makes 24 mini pies.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

Glazed Lemonade (aka Revamped Soft Lemonade)

 Now this is what I was going for.  It didn't take me long to figure out that the lemonade concentrate wasn't enough flavor for these cookies.  I needed to up the ante with lemon extract and lemon peel.  And just for fun (and to make them a little prettier), I decided a little lemon glaze would be the (literal) icing on the cookie.

The lemon peel is something I picked up from Penzeys Spices on a whim.  I'm glad I did because I usually don't have lemons in the house and would have probably wasted the unused portion.  I mixed the lemon peel with water and added it to the batter and the flavor was just as good as a fresh lemon. I'm looking forward to seeing what else I can use it in.

I was not disappointed.  A nice light but noticeable lemon flavor, a soft cookie, and a hint of sweetness from the glaze.  Hope these make up for the flop I posted earlier!


Glazed Lemonade

Ingredients (for cookies)

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1/4 teaspoon dried lemon peel, reconstituted
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
8 ounces frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition.  Add lemon extract and lemon peel; mix well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.  Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with lemonade concentrate, mixing well after each addition.

On a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet, drop by spoonfuls (I use a small cookie scoop) about 2 inches apart.  Bake in a 400 degree F oven for 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.  Turn baking sheet 180 degrees halfway through. If using more than one sheet at a time, rotate positions in the oven for more even baking.  Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then move to complete cooling on rack.

Ingredients (for glaze)
 
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon lemon extract

In small bowl, stir all frosting ingredients together until smooth.  Place a piece of parchment or a silicone mat under a cooking rack.  Using the back of a spoon, spread glaze onto the center of the cookie (it will spread to the edges), and allow to set on cooling rack.  Any glaze that drips off the edges will  fall onto the parchment and not your table or counter, making for easy clean up.  Sprinkle with colored sugar if desired.

For storage, allow glaze to set before packing into airtight containers. If you are going to layer the cookies, I suggest putting one layer in the container and popping it in the freezer for 5 minutes. Then place a piece of wax paper on top and repeat layers.


Makes 6 dozen.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

Soft Lemonade--Salvaged

What do you do when life hands you disappointing lemon cookies?  Make macaroons!

These turned out to be the perfect way to salvage the cookies.  Frosting always makes me happy, and the flavor really brought the lemon punch I was looking for.  It also softened the cookie a bit, making it not as dry.

I still decided to revamp the recipe, but at least this saved me from wasting a bunch of cookies.

Soft Lemonade Macaroons

Ingredients:

1 container prepared white icing
2 teaspoons lemon extract

Mix extract into prepared frosting and whip thoroughly.

Pair Soft Lemonade cookies of similar size. Pipe or spread frosting onto the bottom of one cookie. Top with matching pair to create a sandwich.

If you like a lot of frosting, you could use a lot a roll in sprinkles or colored sugar.  Allow frosting to set before storing in an airtight container.

Makes about 3 dozen.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess