lemon

Lemon Love

16 Comments

A rainy Sunday lead me directly into the kitchen for a little baking and catching up on The Splendid Table.

Spring has come so early (wait, did we even have a winter?) to Central Virginia this year that I wanted to savor what may be my last opportunity to use the oven until pumpkin season.  Soon enough even the top burners will cause me to break a sweat and I will be relegated to salads and grilling.

But yesterday was dark and stormy and perfect for baking.

Yet Spring was still on my brain as cherry blossoms fluttered through the air, snowing down on the yard as the rain gently pulled them off the branches.

So I compromised and made a very Spring-inspired muffin while spending a winter-like morning in the kitchen.

I’m calling them muffins but they could easily be transformed into cupcakes with a little icing.

Coconut Lemon Muffins

Gluten free, grain free, refined sugar free

Makes 6

Prep time: Less than 15 minutes Bake time: 50-60 minutes

Preheat the oven to 350*

[These babies take a long time to bake so I highly recommend doubling up on your oven and throwing some potatoes/tofu/kale chips/lasagna/whathaveyou in there as well for more energy efficiency]

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup coconut flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/3 cup plain yogurt
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • zest and juice from 1 lemon
  • 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 Meyer lemon, thinly sliced (optional*)
  1. whisk first three ingredients (the dry) together.
  2. stir in the wet, except the eggs
  3. add eggs and Meyer lemon if using (pictured below)
  4. stir until batter is smooth and even
  5. butter or coconut oil six muffin cups
  6. divide batter evenly between cups and put on top rake in the oven
  7. start checking after about 45 minutes, muffins are done when edges are brown but not black
  8. let cool in the muffin tin for about 10 minutes before removing and finishing cooling on a rack

Without gluten to hold them together these muffins are a little more delicate than most but they are moist and very reminiscent to cheesecake, thanks to the combo of lemon and vanilla.

*The Meyer lemon adds an extra burst of citrus and a nice little texture to the muffins but it is bitter with the peel and all so if that doesn’t appeal to you leave it out.

If you want to run with the cheesecake theme I fully support whipping up a cream cheese frosting. 🙂

Time to go plan my dance class! #iwillmovetoday

Salt Thyme

10 Comments

I used to take salt for granted.

I’ve always been a fan but you’d never hear me list salt among my favorite seasonings.  Smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, rosemary, or ginger, yes.  But salt?  A pinch of salt is a given, right?  Totally taken for granted…until I discovered herb salt.

A new world opened up.

Himalayan Pink.  Fleur de Sel.  Celtic Gray. ‘Real’.   Black.  Smoked….smoked salt rocks my world.

Each salt really does taste unique and add it’s own texture to food.

Another obsession of mine is lemon zest.  So good.

When I saw this little jar of lemon salt flakes at The Meadow, a specialty salt shop in Portland, I knew I’d love it.

 

 

The Meadow allows you to taste each of their 50-billion salts and just as I suspected, I loved it.  I loved it enough to pay the price.  Yes, gourmet salt can be spendy but a little goes a long way…which is a good thing because it’s a little jar!

 

 

In the true DIY spirit that often overtakes me I got busy creating my own lemon salt.

 

 

If you have an awesome zester it would probably work better than peeling the lemon.  I need an awesome zester.  I think I’ll go buy one today.  But at the time I used a peeler.

 

 

The lemon peels went in the oven at 200* until they were almost dry…20 minutes?  Towards the end I added a few sprigs of thyme straight from the garden.

 

 

My herb garden is full of thyme but I never quite know what to do with it, aside from adding it to cocktails and stuffing salt.  Thyme and lemon is a thing though, right?

 

 

I had some Red Alaea Sea Salt on hand (thank you Whole Foods salt bar!) and thought the combo of red and yellow would be perfect.

 

 

I love to crunch into crystals so I left the red salt pretty coarse, adding it to the mortar only after the lemon and thyme was all but pulverized.

The flavor is intense and creates little bursts of citrus when you least expect it.

As usual my mind is swimming with possibilities…could I just douse salt with lemon then dry it in the oven?  How about just throwing some lemon zest into salt without drying it?  Could orange zest salt be a thing?   Mmmmm, how about lemon lavender?   Good thing I use a lot of lemon!