lemon / key lime bars

I live in a strange place. A place with a spectacular landscape, a brilliant array of things to do...and so many Range Rovers that you can't walk from the parking lot to your office without tripping over one. (Seriously, if Range Rover Guy across the hall doesn't stop parking on the sidewalk....) Yes, in most respects, this place is a world apart from where I grew up. On any given day -- whether at work or at the grocery store -- you see women wearing diamonds the size of doorknobs and carrying purses that cost more than the average person's weekly income.

Sometimes this all just seems crazy. Where are all the combines that clog up traffic? Or the Super Wal-Marts and Dollar Tree stores? Not here, that's for sure. But that's OK. The new people and places are exciting, and I can count on all those familiar things from back home still being there when I return.

Thankfully, some things don't change. Like my father's love of rock-hard cookies (which he dunks in water) and lemon meringue pie. Unfortunately for him, I don't particularly enjoy making either of those items...except on special just-for-dad occasions. So when his birthday rolled around last week, I was delighted to mail off an edible gift. Lemon meringue pie would surely have arrived at his doorstep as lemon meringue mush, so I opted to send lemon bars instead. And since mom's birthday was last month and she swoons over all things key lime, I mailed off a variation for her, too. Citrus celebration in a box!

[Postscript: Everyone decided that these bars were just too sweet, so I'll have to keep searching for a standby recipe.]

Lemon / Key Lime Bars
A recipe from Mary at alpineberry
I adapted the lemon bars to fit a 13" x 9" dish, but I apparently didn't do the world's greatest job because my bars turned out a little too runny (which made them annoyingly unphotogenic at 5:00 a.m. when I was trying to take the picture). The key lime bars in an 8" x 8" faired better, so those are the proportions I've included below.

Crust
1 cup flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Filling
2 eggs
1 cup superfine or baker's sugar*
2 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon/key lime zest
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon/key lime juice**

To make the crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and line an 8" x 8" pan with parchment paper. (If you've never done this before, it should look like this. The parchment only needs to hang over two sides so you can easily remove the bars.)

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 and bake until lightly golden, about 18-20 minutes. Set aside.

To make the filling:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, flour, and salt. Whisk in zest and juice until well combined. Pour over crust (it doesn't matter if the crust is still hot) and bake until filling is just set, about 15-18 minutes. Cool completely before serving. Dust with confectioners' sugar if desired.

* Regular granulated sugar would probably make the bars grainy

** Do not use bottled lemon juice (unless maybe it is Meyer lemon juice). Seriously. It doesn't take that long to squeeze a few lemons by hand and there is a huge difference in taste (FYI, you'll be able to squeeze out more juice if you warm them in a microwave for about 10 seconds first). I did, however, use bottled Nellie & Joe's key lime juice because key limes are tiny and I have not yet received this cool juicer for Christmas. I don't know if I've ever even had anything made with freshly squeezed key lime since it's never my dessert of choice, so I can't tell you if there is a difference.

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spinach and orzo with gruyére

I have an addiction. Not one of those I-can't-live-without-it substance abuse kinds, but an I-want-to-and-there's-no-one-here-to-stop-me kind. So what indulgent behavior am I referring to? Sleeping -- on the floor.

Yes, almost every night I fall asleep on the floor. Often right next to the empty bowl of whatever I ate for dinner. It's a bad habit, really -- one that upends my sleep cycle and usually leaves me wandering around my apartment at 3 or 4am, not sure what to do since I'm wide awake -- and I can't particularly explain it. This behavior is especially baffling if you know that I recently purchased a fabulous mattress that is, without a doubt, the most comfortable thing I have ever slept on. I'd like to think that this silliness will stop when I purchase a sofa, but it's not true. When a sofa arrives, I'll just fall asleep there instead.

Anyway, last night I fell asleep next to an empty bowl of spinach and orzo with gruyére. I've tried this dish a few times with various kinds of cheese and it seems to taste best with feta, which is what the original recipe recommends in the first place. My only additional note is that this recipe requires a hefty dose of salt in order keep it from being unappealingly bland. Consider giving this a try the next time you are in the mood for a simple pasta, but do yourself a favor and begin your food-induced coma somewhere other than the floor.

Spinach and Orzo with (Insert Your Favorite Salty Cheese Here)
Adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
Serves 4 as a side

1/2 pound orzo
1 pound spinach, trimmed*
1/2 - 1 cup feta (or salty cheese of choice), crumbled or grated
1 tablespoon olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

In a large pot of boiling, salted water, prepare the orzo according to the package directions. Drop in the spinach and stir until wilted. Drain the water from the pot and then add the olive oil, lemon juice, and cheese. Stir until all the ingredients are well combined. Salt and pepper to taste.

*I was lazy and didn't trim the spinach. The stems will get stringy and gooey when it wilts, so don't skip this step if that will bother you.

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red wine cupcakes - maiden voyage

Ta-dah! After 9 months I've finally turned Dulcedo from an idea floating in my head to something visible on my computer screen. But why now--why October? Did I have more time this month than usual? No, not really. Did my desire to chronicle my culinary endeavors finally give me some forward momentum? Well, sort of. The blog is finally up and running because someone set a deadline - a Cupcake Roundup deadline, to be exact.

After oohing and aahing over all the creations submitted for the last roundup - hosted by Garrett at Vanilla Garlic and Cheryl at the Cupcake Bakeshop - I just couldn't resist participating in the next go around. The theme this time is "reinvention." Not wanting to simply reinvent my favorite dessert (not that I'd ever be able to chose anyway), I decided to pry myself out of the box and try to come up with an appetizing entry that not only fit the theme, but also utilized traditional fall flavors and was worthy of being included in my first official blog post.

It didn't take me long to cross many of my own favorite foods off the list of possibilities. (Rare tuna in cupcake form? No, thank you.) I could, however, turn a favorite fall memory into a cupcake. With lots of hayride and s'more-making adventures to choose from, I could probably put together a whole cookbook on this basis alone. But in the interest of time and my own sanity, I settled upon the most recent memory in my mental file: a comforting evening of good conversation, restorative glasses of red wine, and dark, buttery squares of Fran's Gray Salt Caramel.

For being a very experimental recipe, I'm really quite happy with how the cake turned out. The crumb is soft and tight, but not dense, and the red wine gives the chocolate an interesting depth. However, I think next time I will make these in souffle cups rather than cupcake papers so the caramel can also be used as a filling. I wanted a flat-topped cupcake, so my cakes were too shallow to accommodate the caramel any other way.

So, here it is: Blog Recipe #1 at long last. Champagne may be the typical celebratory libation, but I'll christen my blog with red wine...in cupcake form.

Red Wine Cupcakes with Chocolate Glaze and Salted Caramel Dollops
Yield: 30 shallow cakes

Cupcakes
Adapted from Cooking With Wine by Anne Willan, via Bon Appétit October 2001
2 cups flour
1 scant cup unsweetened cocoa
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups red wine*

Chocolate Glaze
2 cups (6 ounces) semi or bittersweet chocolate, chopped**
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Caramel Dollops
1 cup cream
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup water
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon butter
Fleur de sel (sea salt) for garnish

To make the cakes:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds after each. Mix in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the red wine and beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until thoroughly incorporated (because you don't want any white, buttery chunks in your dark batter).

Bake in your cupcake containers of choice for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes or so, and then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.

To make the glaze:
Heat the chocolate, butter, and corn syrup in a small saucepan over very low heat until shiny and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Spoon over cupcakes.

To make the caramel:
Warm the cream in the microwave or a small saucepan until heated through, but not boiling.

In a separate pot with very high sides (this is important!), heat the sugar and water over high heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. When the sugar has dissolved, stop stirring and allow the mixture to come to a boil. When it reaches a medium brown shade, remove it from the burner. (The mixture will continue to cook after you remove it from the heat, so if you wait to see the dark amber color while it is still on the stove, you will run the risk of burning it.) Wearing oven mitts for protection, CAREFULLY and SLOWLY pour in the cream, whisking constantly. The cream will cause the mixture to seize and bubble up violently, so don't just dump it all in at once! Return the pot to the burner, add in the butter and salt, and continue to whisk over low heat until smooth.

Allow the caramel to cool and then refrigerate or freeze until it is thick enough to drop by dollops onto the glazed cupcakes. Sprinkle with fleur de sel. (Any remaining caramel will keep in the refrigerator for two weeks. It's delicious over ice cream...or straight from the bowl with a spoon.)


*I used a local wine by The Magnificent Wine Company called "House Wine," which is a blend of primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. No matter what you choose, I would think you would want a wine with some noticeable tannins (so maybe not a Pinot).

** Better chocolate = better glaze, so you might want to consider picking out some nice bars rather than just melting down your Tollhouse chips. But more importantly, choose a chocolate that you like; don't just buy and expensive bar for the sake of buying an expensive bar. I used Valrhona...because it's so new at my local QFC that they didn't have it priced yet and gave it to me at $2.99 a bar. (Hey, I was honest and pointed out how it would normally be priced compared to the other bars on their shelf. The clerk told me to consider it a deal because the real price would come in within a few days, so I did...and bought half their stock.)

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