Key Lime Squares

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Summer and citrus desserts just seem to go together. When I saw that Helen, of Tartlette fame and my personal pastry hero, was hosting Sugar High Friday Citrus, I knew I wanted to join in! I decided to make key lime squares. When I googled a recipe, guess who's turned up? Helen's! So of course I had to make them, and they're superb! They have the perfect balance of sweet and tart with a buttery, delicious crust. I did add a little ground ginger to the crust because I like that hint of ginger with the key lime.
Thanks Helen for hosting Sugar High Friday's and for the great new recipe.

Crust:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground ginger
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Filling:
6 large eggs
3 cups sugar
6 tbsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tb finely grated key lime zest
3/4 cup freshly squeezed key lime juice


Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and line a 13x9-inch square pan with parchment paper.
To make crust:Combine flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Add butter and pulse until the mixture is pebbly. Press evenly into the bottom of your prepared pan. Bake until lightly golden, about 18-20 minutes. Set aside crust.

To make filling:In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, flour and salt. Whisk in lime zest and juice until well combined. Pour over crust (it's okay if crust is still hot). Bake until filling is just set, about 15 to 18 minutes. Cool completely before serving. It's much easier to cut when chilled completetly. Dust with confectioners' sugar if desired.

Sweet Potato Curry Yeast Rolls

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This is an idea for rolls that I've been kicking around for awhile. I make sweet potato biscuits frequently and love the flavor. So I thought I'd try making sweet potato yeast rolls. To give the rolls a little kick I decided to add curry to the dough. I've had curry rolls with currants or raisins in them so I threw in some currants in as well.

I think these are a nice change from your usual yeast rolls. I love the wonderful fragrance from the curry, as well as the lovely color it gives the dough. The sweet potato in the dough gives the rolls a nice soft texture, and the currants give a bit of sweetness to the rolls.

Don't let the yeast scare you. These rolls are really quite easy to make, even if your not that comfortable making yeast doughs.

Sweet Potato Curry Rolls

Makes one dozen rolls
2 tablespoons or 2 packages active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup cooked, pureed cooked sweet potato
1/4 cup (1/2 stick), melted butter
1 tablespoon curry powder (or to taste)
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
3 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
1/3 cup currants or golden raisins
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water.
In a large bowl,(I mixed it up in my kichen-aid bowl) combine sweet potatos, oil, curry, salt, eggs and currants. Add yeast mixture to the sweet potato mixture. Add flour to the yeast/sweet potato mixture. Mix well and using the dough hook attachment, knead until smooth about 4 minutes. If not using a Kitchen aid, knead dough by hand until it's smooth. Place in a warm area free of drafts and let dough rise for 1 1/2 hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Roll out the dough and cut into 12 same-sized pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place on buttered cookie sheets far enough apart to allow rolls to double in size without touching. Let rolls rise for an hour or until doubled in bulk.
Bake rolls at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes.

Blake Bakes

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I was recently invited, along with several other distinguished bloggers, to be a guest blogger on BlakeBakes. My first post (banana cupcakes with caramel rum buttercream)is here. You can read my posts on BlakeMakes the 3rd Wednesday of every month, so check it out!

Asparagus, bacon, quiche

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I love brunch. It's the best of both breakfast and lunch so the food combinations are endless. I also like the fact that I've never heard anyone say they were going to "grab a quick brunch". Something about the idea of eating in between two meals says there's no need to hurry.

Brunch food tends to be easy to prepare, which makes it a great option when feeding a crowd. When my family gets together there's always a crowd. So for Mother's Day this year I had brunch at my house for Mom. I had some really nice asparagus so I made an asparagus, bacon, quiche. It's a quick easy crowd pleaser. Great for anytime but I love quiche is a great brunch option.

I cheated a little and asked mom to make me a recipe of her pie dough. She makes the best pie crust and can whip up a recipe in 5 minutes. Really, maybe less. So I pulled that out of the fridge and rolled it out to fit a 9 inch pie pan. If your mom isn't making your crust use your favorite Pate Brisee recipe. (Or you could use a store bought crust. *hugh collective gasp of horror*)
At this point you can prebake your crust or leave it uncooked. I've done both and really don't think it makes a huge difference. I made this quiche without prebaking the crust. I only got this one picture of the quiche because it was devoured shortly after coming out of the oven!

Method
serves 6

Preheat oven to 475 degrees

Filling
The Custard:
4 ounces bacon cut into 1 inch pieces and cooked.
10 or so spears of asparagus roasted. Roasting removes some of the moister from the asparagus and keeps it from making your quiche to soupy. I also like the flavor that roasting gives the asparagus. I then cut off the top of the spears to about three inches long. Cutting the bottoms that were left into 1/2 inch pieces.
Whisk together:
2 cups milk or cream or a combination of both
3 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
a fresh grating of nutmeg
1/2 cup of diced Swiss cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Stir in the bacon and chopped asparagus pieces and pour into prepared crust. Arrange asparagus spears in decorative pattern on the top.
Cook quiche 40-45 minutes or until center of quiche is set.

This is my submission to this month's In the Bag. Asparagus, eggs and Parmesan are the ingredients In the Bag. In the Bag, a seasonal food blogging event, is hosted this month by The Real Epicurean.

Cardamom scented Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp

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Oh joy, the rhubarb is ready to be pulled at the farm! It's really gorgeous this year, and I could hardly wait until it was finally mature. I came home with a large bunch a couple of days ago and have been debating on what to make. I decided to make a crisp, and naturally use some of our strawberries as well. I had seen Dorie Greenspan's recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Double Crisp, in Baking with Dorie. I loved her idea of using some of the topping from the crisp as a crust hence the "double crisp". Cause that's the best part!! She uses crystallized ginger in her recipe which I didn't have on hand, but sounds great. I did have cardamom and wanted to try it in the crumble. I also thought that orange zest in the filling would be good. Lately I have been attempting to try baking with different flavor combos than just the ones I grew up eating. I don't know that using cardamom in rhubarb crisp is really going out on a limb, but it's a little different for me.
I used Dorie's recipe a a guide but made a few changes.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
Pinch of cardamom
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the Filling:
1 pound (4-5 medium stalks) rhubarb, trimmed and peeled
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 cup cold water
3 cups strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon orange zest

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350ºF. Put a nonreactive 9-inch square baking pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicon mat. I made half of the crisp in individual ramekins and put the rest into a small baking dish. Be sure to put them on the baking sheet because the crisp will cook out onto your oven!

Put the flour, brown sugar, oats, ground ginger, salt, and cinnamon in a large bowl and sift the ingredients through your fingers to blend them, be on the lookout for lumps in the brown sugar. Mix in the nuts and then pour over the melted butter. Using a fork, stir the ingredients until they are thoroughly moistened. Spoon half the mixture into the pan and pat it down lightly to form a thick crust. Set the remainder aside for the topping.

For the filling: Slice the rhubarb into 1/2-inch wide pieces and scatter them over the pressed in base. Dissolve the cornstarch in the cold water; set aside. Put the strawberries, sugar, and ginger in a medium saucepan and, with a fork, pastry blender, or potato masher, crush the berries. Place the pan over medium heat and, stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to a full boil. Pour the dissolved cornstarch into the pan and, stirring with a whisk, bring everything back to a boil. Keep cooking and stirring until the strawberry filling is thick and no longer cloudy, about 3 minutes. Pull the pan from the heat, and pour the filling over the rhubarb. Scatter the remaining crisp mix over the filling.

Slide the crisp into the oven and bake for 60 minutes for the large crisp, or about 35 for the individual ramekins, or until the topping is golden and the strawberry jam is bubbling up all around the edges. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool until only just warm or at room temperature. Serve with freshly whipped cream or your favorite ice cream.

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

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I've never tried to make frozen yogurt before. It's probably because I associate frozen yogurt with the late 80's frozen yogurt craze. When frozen yogurt places were cropping up everywhere. It was touted as healthier because it was yogurt, not ice cream. However, the end product had so little to do with actual yogurt that many of frozen yogurt places had to take the word yogurt out of their advertising. I never liked it. It was so sweet and gummy. The store bought varieties weren't much better. I never found one that I really enjoyed. I think it has something to do with the texture. So I haven't even eaten any frozen yogurt in quite a while. While trying to find a recipe for strawberry sorbet, I came across David Lebovitz's strawberry Frozen yogurt. I was intrigued. He description of French frozen yogurt made me want to give this recipe a try. David Lebovitz's book The Perfect Scoop has hundreds of wonderful recipes and tips for making all kinds of ice creams.
With an abundance of strawberries at the farm right now I decided to give frozen yogurt another chance.
This recipe is super easy and unbelievably delicious, I foresee making this all the time. It's so good that you won't believe it's got about half the fat of ice cream. I can't wait to try making it with our fresh blueberries when they're in season!

David Lebovitz's Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

About 1 quart (1 liter)

"French yogurt is astoundingly good and I suggest you use a good-quality, locally-produced yogurt for similar results."

1 pound (450 g) strawberries, rinsed and hulled
2/3 cup (130 g) sugar
optional: 2 teaspoons vodka or kirsch (I used vodka)
1 cup (240 g) plain, whole milk yogurt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Slice the strawberries into small pieces. Toss in a bowl with the sugar and vodka or kirsch (if using) until the sugar begins to dissolve. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours, stirring every so often.

Transfer the strawberries and their juice to a blender or food processor. Add the yogurt and fresh lemon juice. Pulse the machine until the mixture is almost smooth. If you wish, press mixture through a mesh strainer to remove any seeds.

Chill for 1 hour, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Happy May Day

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