Sunday, July 1, 2012

Ello Lemonie Puppy!!

Hey There Jean!

Things are getting pretty settled around here since Dave's been home. Just been cooking and baking and traveling around while he's got some time off work, and I thought, hey let's make this blog thing happen. So here is my attempt to finish what we started. Errr, rather, START what we started! 

lemon brownie

Summer's been quite a new concept for me now that I'm living in Texas! Summer here means planning your day around being inside and hiding from the triple digit weather. It means starting the car 15 minutes before you wanna leave the house so that the a/c cools the car enough to put the baby in. It means figuring out ways to not feel like a hermit when you look outside and it *looks* inviting and nice but really it just wants to lure you out and suck the sweat from your soul! Ha.

To me, this means cooking like it's summer (a San Diego summer, not a central Texas summer). A summer where friends are picnicking and BBQing. What better summer dessert to bring to these imaginary parties than lemon 'brownies' or Lemonies as Rita's Recipes so dubbed them! I got this recipe from Meriel. She made them awhile back and they looked so delish, plus the hubs enjoys him some lemon flavored treats! So I made, we ate devoured, we fell in love. The taste was more intense than say, a lemon pound cake. And the consistency is definitely more like that of a brownie. In natural me fashion though, I couldn't stick to the entire recipe verbatim. I had to have some part that was ME. Something that I could say was my addition, subtraction, complement, correction, etc. You get the idea. So for this, I swapped out the lemon glaze for a lemon blueberry sauce. It's the little things that make me feel creative. Ha!


The ingredients are as simple as can be: flour, sugar, butter, eggs, a little salt, and of course lemon!!


Mix sugar, flour, and salt with room temperature butter in a medium-large bowl.


Oh hey look.. there's my little sous chef! He's ready to combine the eggs with the lemon juice and zest in a smaller bowl! He really does enjoy watching momma cook and bake.


Then mix mix mix.... are you surprised at all that my hand mixer is orange?


Spread in greased or buttered...mmmm buttered... 8x8 pan, and place in a preheated 350º oven.


Ta-da. These we great. They've got a slightly buttery taste that compliments the lemony goodness! Meriel did give me the warning that a little lemon goes a long way..... so I made sure to adhere to the 1Tbls of lemon juice, and it was perfect! 


Viola! Now then next time I make these, I won't put the sauce on top until serving. It's just not that pretty seeing as it doesn't actually 'glaze' over but rather seeps into the brownies. Not a bad thing, still taste amazing. I just think I'd keep the sauce separate until serving, and then cut and drizzle. Oh and the addition of the fresh blueberries when serving, just made it that much more dynamic.
  

And there you have it!!


LEMONIES
3/4 C flour
3/4 C sugar
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup (one stick) room temperature butter
2 eggs
1 Tbls fresh lemon juice (half of a large lemon)
zest from 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 350º
 In the larger of two mixing bowls, mix together flour, sugar, and salt with the room temp butter.
In smaller bowl which the eggs with the lemon juice and lemon zest.
Add lemon-egg mixture to larger bowl and mix until thoroughly combined. 
Pour mixture into a greased or buttered 8x8 brownie or cake pan.
Bake for about 25 minutes.
Let cool completely.

LEMON BLUEBERRY SAUCE
1 Tbls lemon juice (now you've got use for that other half!)
1/2 cup confectioners (powdered) sugar
1/2 Tbls hot water (help break down the powdered sugar)
7-8 fresh blueberries mashed

Add the lemon juice, hot water, and confectioners juice and whisk. When all the sugar has dissolved into the liquids, and in the mashed blueberries.
(i thought about adding cornstarch to thicken the sauce but opted not to... feel free though depending on how your sauce/glaze turns out)

I hope you enjoy making, but mostly eating these. and I sincerely hope that you have a better time beating New York heat than I have hiding from the Texas sun!!

Cheers,
Geneva



3 comments:

  1. Hi, So happy you liked my recipe! Your pictures are great and I love the topping. Great luck with your blog. You'll have so much fun and learn more about computers thru blogging than you realize.
    Cheers! Rita May

    tip: I would recommend that you unable word verification for more comments

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  2. Hurry up and post more!!!!!

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  3. Amy Blankenstein MoogJuly 1, 2012 at 11:34 PM

    Yay for the blog! This is so exciting. I heart good food.

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