Meyer Lemon Creme Brulee w. Raspberries & Blueberries

I was recently gifted a bounty of gorgeous meyer lemons from LA baking maven and lover of all things bundt Mary (aka The Food Librarian). The beautiful fruit came right off of trees in the backyard of Mary's dad --- Thank you Mary and Poppa Food Librarian!!! I knew I couldn't use all of this precious fruit right away, so I prepared most of them for the freezer.

I zested,

halved the zested lemons,

then did some serious juice squeezing.

I used snack size zip top bags to store the zest (the zest of 3 lemons in each bag),

and portioned the juice into 1/2 cup packages in sandwich bags. After marking the bags with a sharpie, they go into a large freezer bag and into the deep freeze. Now, I can enjoy fresh meyer lemon juice any time of the year!

I did set aside a handful of fruit for some immediate meyer lemon gratification. I've been reading through Karen DeMasco's book, The Craft of Baking, and her recipe for Lemon Raspberry Creme Brulee was calling my name.

The recipe calls for steeping the cream with lemon zest, cooling the mixture in an ice bath, adding lemon juice and salt, then resting the mixture overnight in the fridge.

Instead of tempering the eggs with the hot cream mixture (as I'm accustomed to), the eggs are whisked in to the cold lemon infused cream. The mixture is strained, and ready for the ramekins.

A handful of raspberries are scattered in each ramekin (I also added a few blueberries), and the custard mixture is poured into the prepared dishes.

These babies are ready for the oven.

Once the custard is set, it is chilled in the fridge overnight. Now, my favorite part - the brulee! After sprinkling some sugar on top,

the top is torched to melt the sugar and to create that scrumptious crunchy top.

My favorite part of this dessert is cracking the crunchy top, which yields to the creamy goodness underneath.

The custard delivers a nice refreshing tang from the meyer lemon, and has a wonderfully soft texture, which is a great contrast to the crunchy sugar top. The berries are soft and jammy, and provides a wonderful complement to the lemon flavor.

If you're a lover of all things lemon, I highly recommend that you take this recipe for a spin!

Meyer Lemon Creme Brulee w. Raspberries & Blueberries

adapted from The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco

Serves 6

2 C. heavy cream

1/4 c. plus 2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

finely grated zest of 4 meyer lemons

1/2 c. strained fresh meyer lemon juice

1/2 tsp kosher salt

4 large egg yolks

1 c. raspberries

1 c. blueberries

additional sugar

Prepare an ice bath in a large bowl.

In a medium saucepan, bring the cream, sugar, vanilla and meyer lemon zest just to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the mixture ino a medium bowl. Set the bowl into the ice bath and stir until the mixture has cooled. Once cooled, removed the bowl from the ice bath, and whisk in the lemon juice and salt. Cover, and refrigerate overnight.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Pour about one third of the chilled cream mixture into the yolks, and whisk together well. Add the remaining cream mixture and whisk to combine. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl.

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 300F.

Place 6 ramekins in 9x13x2 baking pan. scatter the raspberries and blueberries in a single layer in each ramekin. Divide the custard mixture among the ramekins. Place the prepared baking pan in the oven, and carefully pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the ramekins. Be careful not to dilute the custard mixture with the hot water.

Bake in the water bath for 30 minutes, or until just set.

Let the custards cool to room temperature, then chill until they are ready to be served.

Just before serving, sprinkle sugar evenly over the tops of each custad and caramelize with a torch or under a broiler. Serve immediately.

Honey-Wheat Cookies (TWD)

With all of the chocolate-centric recipes baked this month, this week's Tuesday's With Dorie selection, Honey-Wheat Cookies, was a welcome change of pace to my baking agenda. With a healthy amount of wheat germ and honey, as well as a touch of lemon zest, you could almost consider these cookies a healthy snack - just ignore the stick of butter that is part of the ingredient list.

I may be in the minority, but I really enjoy the nutty flavor and crunchy texture of wheat germ. Its a great topping for my morning oatmeal or yogurt, and if I'm feeling particularly health conscious, I'll substitute a portion of flour with wheat germ in my muffin recipes.

I'm still in detox mode (one more friggin' week to go), so I'll have to defer to all of you on taste. I have some cookie dough sitting in the freezer and I look forward to sampling this once this cleanse chapter comes to a close.

I just pictured myself making a meal of all of the recipes from the past three weeks --- I may have to start another detox in order to recover from that sugar binge...NOT!

You can find the complete recipe for these Honey-Wheat Cookies at Michelle's blog, Flourchild. To find out what the TWD bakers thought of this cookie recipe, please make sure to peruse the TWD Blogroll.

Buttery Jam Cookies (TWD rewind)

I've been meaning to write about this cookie eons ago, as this recipe for Buttery Jam Cookies was a Tuesdays With Dorie selection back in December 2008. Can we say that I'm just slightly overdue?

It is a pretty simple and straightforward butter drop cookie with a bit of jam mixed into the dough. I always have several open jars of jams and preserves sitting in the fridge (what can I say, I enjoy variety with my morning toast), so this is a perfect cookie to bake in a moment's notice. For my first try, I went with apricot jam. Next time, I will have to try strawberry-rhubarb.

I really enjoyed this cookie - soft, buttery with slight hint of jammy sweetness. This is not one of the those rich, decadent in-your-face kinda cookies. The flavors are subtle, and it is the perfect accompaniament with an afternoon cup of tea.

For the complete recipe, please visit Heather's blog, Randomosity And The Girl.