This is just about the prettiest punch you can make this holiday season.
Don’t you think?
It makes use of everything wintry and wonderful and worth celebrating: pomegranate (both the juice and the arils), mint leaves for a pop of festive color, Meyer lemons – which are seasonal and just.the.best, and champagne – a celebration in itself. Plus, it’s served in a punch bowl. Guys, this is pretty much a guaranteed good time.
For a long time, I lived a broiler-less life.
It caused me to do things like…purchase a blowtorch for browning fluffy meringue and marshmallow-topped brownies. This I see as a bonus. But – it also prevented me from making things like this chicken, which is clearly not a bonus.
They’re called “whole” lemon muffins for a reason, you know.
I’ve been intrigued by these muffins since I first saw the recipe: A whole lemon, skin – everything except the seeds – and all, goes into this muffin batter. The end result was promised to be a deeper lemon flavor, and it was. I love this idea – as a matter of fact, I’m already thinking about making whole orange muffins.
These muffins are incredibly light and fluffy, and I even opted to replace one cup of regular flour with whole wheat, making for an even “whole-r” muffin. I also love that these muffins aren’t overly sweet. You have the option to add a simple glazer of confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and a touch of vanilla, and there you can control how much sweetness you want to add. If you do opt to use this glaze, I would be sure to add enough sugar to thicken it enough, or let it sit and harden a bit before you try to use the glaze.
The recipe says it yields 12 texas-sized muffins at the top of the page, but when you read the instructions, it says to use 8 muffin cups. I’m not sure which is supposed to be correct, but I used regular-sized muffin pans and I got 18. I also had a problem in one of the pans with getting the muffins out safely after baking – not sure if it was the pan, but you may want to use muffin liners to be safe.
Head over to Tara’s blog for the complete recipe!
I had a lot of fun making this spin on the classic lemon bar for Project Pastry Queen this week.
Possibly too much fun.
Partly because champagne being a key ingredient inspired me to buy several bottles of champagne yesterday. There was breakfast pizzas all day long. There were heaping plates of prosciutto, figs, and cheese. And there was what felt like an unlimited supply of bubbly. It was a pretty fabulous day – but more on that, later.
I decided to start the bars last night, which was a great idea because – as I’ve found with many of the Pastry Queen recipes – they require a step where they need to be refrigerated for two hours or overnight. It’s a very simple recipe: all you need to do is make an easy pie crust bottom, bake it for a few, then make your lemon filling, and bake that overtop of the crust. The lemon filling is a bit more time consuming because it takes about 30 minutes to cook in total; you have to first let it thicken, then whisk in your chilled butter one tablespoon at a time – there are 12 total – and then let it thicken about 10 minutes more. The end result is a sweet, lightly lemony, pudding-like filling, with just the slightest hint of champagne.
I woke up this morning very excited, because today was the day I first got to use my new kitchen torch. I put Daniel to work on getting the butane all set up for me while I sliced my strawberries and laid them out over the dessert. I then covered them in an even layer of sugar, and got to work with the torch. I’d never used one before, and I was surprised to see that you had to really spend some time on each section of the dessert – I kind of thought one little motion would set the whole thing in flames. The sugar didn’t quite crystallize like I thought it would, and this may have been because there was too much moisture. I tried sticking them in the freezer for about 20 minutes, but there was still a layer of moisture laying on the top so I ended up just pouring it right off. The end result was a little messy – but undeniably delicious.
I then may or may not have eaten an entire vat of it for breakfast. And there may or may not have been a glass of champagne involved.
Be sure to check our Ginny’s lovely blog, Just Get Floury, for the full recipe – and see how all of the other fabulous members fared here!
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