Meyer Lemon Bars

Lemon lemon. I just love them. I have a huge lemon tree at my backyard but the lemon is not that juicy as for my little meyer lemon plant, it’s not producing any fruits this year. Not sure why. My good friend Maria gave me some Meyer Lemons from her backyard and she told me she love lemon bars. So lemon bars it is. So I made some to share it with her and Linda. I prefer meyer lemons as they are more juicy and less tart. Hopefully my meyer plant will give me some fruits next year but if not I can always get some from Maria.

I used Ina Garter recipe but the next time I make this again I will cut down a bit of the flour for the filling as I like the filling to be softer. For the sugar I cut it down to 2 cups as meyer lemons are not that tangy so needed less sugar.

Lemon Blueberry Butter Cake

Someone at home is complaining that I hardly bake anything for him anymore. Poor guy I actually do bake but mostly for sale. I hardly bake anything for our own consumptions. My take on this is I don’t bake I don’t eat as this way I can control myself. Anyway, I gave in and bake this blueberry cake when Zue came for visit few weeks ago. We also can have it for tea and breakfast. Blueberry is in season now so I bought quite a bit of it for freezing and used some in our juice and baking.

Blueberry Sweet Rolls with Mascarpone Lemon Glaze

I’ve been slacking a lot in updating my blog lately. I hope there are still people dropping by my blog. A lot of things happened for the past 2-3 months and it kind of took priority of my time. I too cut down a lot on my baking and cooking so hopefully I can get my blogging mojo back and continue to share my recipes here regularly. Anyway, I baked these rolls a few months ago and finally get to sit down to type out the recipe today.

I still have a lot of frozen blueberry in my freezer so I am trying to finish them up so I can get some fresh ones during this summer so decided to use some to make some rolls. These decadent buns turns out soft, fluffy, bursting with juicy blueberries and covered in sweet mascarpone lemon glaze. It was so great to have it for breakfast with a cup of coffee.

Persimmon and Banana Muffins

I am a big fan of persimmon and the last season my backyard persimmon tree gave me quite a few fruits compare to the previous year. Carlos is not a fan of it and I’ve been eating it a lot and giving some away too. The persimmon is the Fuyu kind which is round and crisp and I like eating it as it is but there were a few sitting on the kitchen counter and they were getting soft and over-ripe. I decided to dice them up and used it in the muffins and since I have a couple of blacken bananas I decided to add them into the mix as well. By the way, persimmons are wonderfully good for you. They are full of fiber, vitamins A, C, antioxidants and iron. So next time if you see these nice orange fruits at the farmers market or supermarket do pick up a few.

Lime Cake

Carlos has been away for business every week, so I have some time on my hand and so I decided to do some cleaning and organizing our computer room. I have so many cookery books from Tesco lying around the shelves and table. It took me nearly 3 hours to arrange them accordingly so it will be easier for me if I need to look at certain recipe. So happen, I found a hand written notebook in a pile and while flipping through it, I found a cake recipe using lime. I have a lot of limes in my fridge given by Nini's and decided to try it out. It turns out really good, soft and moist and with fine crumbs. This cake goes really well with a cup of tea or coffee.

Fruity Butter Cake

I booked marked this recipe from Ann’s blog a long time ago and finally try them out during summer when there were plenty of berries in my fridge. I baked them into cupcakes and gave them to two of my ex-colleagues. They like it a lot and told me that their family ate them all in no time. I am glad that they like it and thanks Ann for sharing the recipe.

Simple Apple Cake

Autumn is here and apples are on sale everywhere. It gets as low as $0.59 a pound and as usual I will load them up. I am not a huge fan of eating them as it is so I usually add it into my juice or bake with it. I will make tarts , add it into banana bread and make cake out of it. This is just a simple butter cake with the addition of apples in it. Great for afternoon tea or have it with or morning coffee.

Fresh Fig Yogurt Cake

This season my fig tree didn’t produce too many fruits and the squirrels got some of it too but it is still enough for me to eat it fresh and reserved some to make this cake. This moist cake is studded with fresh figs. The flavor and texture is similar to a pound cake: buttery, vanilla scented, and just a little dense. The plain yogurt adds a subtle tang to it and it is great to have it with a cup of strong coffee.

Sweet Blueberry Focaccia

When I was in Vancouver I tried out blueberry focaccia from one of the famous bakery and they were really good. They made it into small individual serving size but they were not cheap though. A piece with tax cost around $4.00. This bakery is also famous for their grape focaccia. Since it is summer and there are plenty of blueberries around I thought tried to replica this at home. Can you imagine the smell in the house when I was baking this?

Man, it turns out so good if I should say so myself. The focaccia was soft on the inside and with the crunchy sweet sugary topping, I was hooked. I gave a few away and my friends love it too. I am planning to bake this again but it will be with grapes. I think this would be perfect to serve for brunch, cocktail party with some cheese and wine or like me enjoyed it for breakfast with my morning coffee.

Homemade Mixed Berries Jam

Come summer I look forward to all the berries that I can get from the farmer’s market or supermarket. I will buy loads of them when the price it right. It will be the time that I make jam out of it. I prefer homemade jam than the store bought kind as I find them way too sweet. I still put quite a bit of sugar in my jam but not as much as the store bought kind. Well, jam is a way to preserve fruit with sugar so please doesn’t ask me how to make it sugar free or low sugar as I don’t know how but I did use organic sugar here. So I would like to think it is much healthier ha ha..Anyway, you should consume anything in moderation.

I normally just made 2-3 jars at a time to last us for 2 -3 months but this time I made a bit more since I got a very good bargain on the fruits from the vendor. I gave a few jars away to close friends. This is refrigerator jam and not intended to be sealed and stored in the pantry. So make sure you refrigerate it.

Blueberry Streusel Scones

I always have a soft spot for scones. It reminds me of home Malaysia where I baked them so often when my two sisters come over to my apartment and we will have English high tea together. I will prepare a few types of finger sandwiches, cakes and scones. They love having English high tea especially Angela. The last time we had high tea together was in Ontario Canada. I miss them a lot.

Now I baked them to share it with very special friend Bonnie. She just loves scones. What special about these scones is the streusel topping. The cinnamon crunchy topping compliments the mild-sweetness from blueberries and it is so hard to resist over eating it. If you have no self control with bake goods, then I have a perfect solution for you. Send some to your family or friends like I did. They will love you for it.

Mixed Fruits Frangipane Tart

I always have weakness for cute and dainty little fruit tarts. I just love baking them when I have overload of berries or stone fruits in my fridge. I usually buy a lot of them during summer and toward end of the week they don’t look too good anymore so I will usually incorporate them into my bake goods like these tarts.

These tarts not only pretty they taste really good too. With the flaky buttery pastry, sweet and nuttiness of the filling and the fruits provides a slight tartness to the tarts. They were just prefect to have it with a cup of coffee or tea after a meal.

Mini Apple Tartlets

I often have to remind myself not to buy too many apples but I still get carried away and overstocked them. I usually used them in juice but my doctor advised me to cut back on that as it is better to eat them than juicing it. Since I still have a big bag in the fridge and I need to clear them up before I fly back to Malaysia I decided to peel them all and cook it down. With 10 large apples I managed to cook it down to 4 cups. This recipe makes about 20 medium size tartlets and I share them with my zumba buddies. These mini tartlets are the perfect little dessert.

Easy Mango Sorbet

I made this last summer and only get a chance to post it now. Mangoes were so cheap a few months ago and I bought a whole case of it. A case of 13-15 fruits cost less than $7.00. Carlos is not a fan of mango so I have to eat it all by myself and I gave some to my neighbor. I ate some fresh and used some of it to make mango sorbet. This sorbet is creamier than other fruit sorbet because it has less water content in the fruits. It is light, refreshing and full of mango flavor. This is a beautiful dessert to serve after a heavy meal.

Citrus Chiffon Cake

I will never get tired of baking or eating chiffon cake. There’s something extremely satisfying about baking this cake especially when you watch it rise to a beautiful height. This cake is light, fluffy, moist and with delicate citrus flavor. I will normally eat it plain but you can always frost it with icing.

Ingredients:

(A)
1 3/4 cups Flour
1/4 tsp of salt
1 tsp baking powder

Shrimp with Pomelo and Mango Salad

I love Thai food. There is something about their food that is so addictive. I think it is the taste of sweet, sour, spicy and salty of their dishes and not forgetting all the fresh herbs they used in their cooking. One particular dish that I will order is their salad. It can either be green mango, papaya or their pomelo salad. I’ve visited Thailand countless time and there was once I tasted their green mango and pomelo salad at a buffet restaurant and they were so good. Till today I still think of this particular dish and I am recreating it in my kitchen so I can submit it for the AFF event hosted by Lena of Frozen Wings. This salad with the addition of grill shrimps makes a terrific lunch or even as starter to any Thai or Asian-style meal. You'll find it very unique and refreshing, and so will your guests. ENJOY!

Pear Tarts

One of my neighbors gave us some pear a few weeks ago. Carlos is not a fan of pears and as for me I am just too lazy to chew on apple or pear. In order not to let it go to waste I used it for baking. I used some for making these tarts and some for cakes (will post the recipe up later) I am not a fan of soggy filling so I cooked down the pear first. We just love these tarts especially the flaky pastry and not so sweet pear filling. The tart is delicious with a dollop of whipped cream or you can even serve it warm with some vanilla ice-cream.

 

 

Ingredients for Filling:

3 pound of pears (I used Asian pears but you can use any type)
1/2 cup brown sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tbsp butter

Loquat Butter Cake

I heard of loquat fruit but never seen or eaten one until I live in California. I’ve seen some of this fruit trees around our neighborhood here and I was so tempted to knock at their doors to ask if I can buy some from them. But I was too shy to do that ha ha… Lucky for me my work colleague gave me some from her backyard tree.

They were small and cute, tangy and slightly sweet at the same time. Unlike other fruits, they are quite small and finicky to peel or pit. It took me a while to cut and pitted them. I used half of it to make jam and the other half to make cake. I tried to Google for some recipes but can’t find much out there so I just make butter cake out of it.

Blueberry Muffins with Almond Streusel Topping

I am rushing for time nowadays so I like to prepare something easy for breakfast. It is usually a slice of bread with banana, some oats or cereal and when I am being hard working I will make some muffins like this. One of the Asian stores here is having sale on blueberries at $0.79 a packet and I bought a few of it. I freeze most of it up and used some for these muffins. I love the taste of these muffins especially the added crunchy topping. The muffin part is delicious on its own with a moist and light cake like crumb filled with blueberries. And they aren't overly sweet, which is a big plus for us.

Orange Butter Cake

I miss baking! Since started working I can hardly find time to do any baking. On my off day I have to run errands, grocery shopping, laundry, ironing and housework. It was difficult the first two weeks but now I am getting the hang of it and managed my time well and Carlos helps a lot too. I am thankful for that. I bake this plain old orange butter cake at the spur of the moment last week right after I came home from work. It is nothing fancy with just few ingredients that I can find in my pantry and fridge. The most important about butter cake is make sure you use good butter for it. This cake is rich and moist and great with my morning cup of coffee before heading out to work.