Lemon Meringue Bites (gluten-free)

I split this one with Pop before dinner. It didn't spoil our appetites at all.

This time of year is the big birthday season, in our family (we have a LOT of Aries' babies, if you're into astrology). As such, the first thing on the agenda is always the birthday cake (for which I have already produced a couple, and will have another constructed, this coming Saturday) …or, in Pop's case, as you may recall, the birthday pie.

I used to enjoy the Bat's divine lemon meringue pie, myself. And then I found out I had that little problem with wheat. So Pop's favorite dessert – and mine – was no longer on my menu. Seriously. Even with the many varieties of GF flours on the market, it just didn't work, because one of us would be left unhappy.

Or so I thought.

This week, I stumbled across a recipe for gluten-free lemon squares in a King Arthur Flour's email, and realized that I could very easily adapt the nut flour shortbread crust to our "ancient family secret" pie recipe. And, since this was an experiment, and I really can't eat a whole pie by myself, I had to spend some time re-figuring the structure and time on this project.

As luck would have it, our kitchen is stocked with several different types of baking pans, among them a mini-cheesecake tin I bought for myself a couple of years ago and had thus far only used for brownie bites. It really makes removing treats from those little wells so easy!

A few things for me to consider, the next time I make these (and I will be doing so fairly frequently, now) :

1. The wells in the mini-cheesecake tin are a little over 4 centimeters deep, and this dough, while tender, is fairly sturdy. I could make the reservoir in the cookie even deeper than I did (they ended up being halfway up, or roughly 2 cm). I like the flavor of the cookie, though, and, with a strong citrus curd, it's not a bad idea to keep it almost effectively a "thumbprint tart". If I do decide to press them to accommodate more curd, I'll break out the wooden tart/tassies press instead of letting my thumbnails interfere in the process. That way, I'll easily produce 12 tartlets, instead of the nine I got this time.

2. In making the meringue, I'll add about 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice, and a little zest, too. I accidentally spilled at least a full teaspoon of juice into my egg whites (Captain Coordination strikes again!), and, rather than waste them, I gave it a whirl. The meringue tasted amazing, but, unsurprisingly, fell almost immediately after it came out of the oven, becoming gooier and a spot tougher. However, I've used a small amount of citrus juice before, in making meringue cookies, and, for three egg whites, a hint (1/4 tsp, added in near the end of beating the egg whites & before adding the sugar) is all I need as a substitute for the cream of tartar (to which I am very allergic).

3. Use a wire cheese cutter to slice butter into half-centimeter cubes before tossing them into the freezer for a really good chill.

4. It is possible to make these little bite-sized treats using only the mini-cheesecake pan, but I found that the cookie cups held up very nicely outside the pan, and took on a more attractive hue when browning the meringue. Plus, it's easier to hand-clean the pan elements if there's no meringue baked on.

5. Always make more lemon curd than you think you're going to need. Not that you'll actually need it, but who doesn't want a little custard cup of lemony heaven once in a while?

That pretty curd is Meyer lemon, this time.

Here is the recipe, as I attempted to work it today:

Lemon Meringue Bites (gluten-free)

Ingredients: 

cookie shell:
6 Tablespoons butter, diced and hard-chilled
2 cups blanched almond flour (or fine-ground almond meal)
6 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons corn starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
finely grated zest of 1 small lemon

filling: 
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
grated zest of 1 small lemon
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons corn starch
pinch salt
1 1/4 cups boiling water


meringue:

3 egg whites
6 Tablespoons sugar
zest of 1 small lemon
pinch salt



Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Lightly butter the wells of your baking tin.

Make the shortbread cookie shells: In a small mixing bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the cookie shell except the butter. When your dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed, add in the mostly-frozen butter cubes and work into dough using a pastry blender or your fingers. Don't overwork it, but be sure that there are no large clumps of butter in the mixture. It will resemble coarse, moist sand when it is ready.

Fill each cup in the baking tin with the loose mixture, then proceed to press it against the sides and bottom of the cup (yay! building sand castles in the kitchen!).

Place in oven, bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Remove from oven, allow to cool completely in the pan on a cooling rack.

When the cups are cooled, remove them carefully from the pan, place on a cookie sheet or another baking dish.

While the cookies are cooling, make the filling and the meringue.


Make the lemon curd: Prepare a double boiler (or, if you don't have one, improvise one by resting a heat-proof bowl over a saucepan with about an inch of room for the water beneath it). In a medium mixing bowl, beat egg yolks thoroughly by hand. Add in all other ingredients except the water. Mix completely.

Add in the boiling water, pour the mixture into the top of the double boiler, and stir over simmering water until it begins to thicken. Allow to cook another 10 minutes, until completely thick.

Fill each cookie cup with curd. If there is any left over, pour (or scoop, as the case may be) into a custard cup, and save that for later misconduct.

Prepare the meringue: If you were energy-conscious and turned your oven off while the cookies were cooling, re-heat the oven to 350º F.

In a small mixing bowl which has been cleaned thoroughly to make sure there is no residual oil in it, beat egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks begin to form. Add in lemon juice while the mixer is still running, then gradually add in the sugar. When the eggs become glossy and medium-soft peaks can be formed, fold in the lemon zest. At this point, you can scoop the meringue into a pastry bag and form pretty designs on top of your cups, or you can go random with a spoon, the way I prefer.

Meringue in dollops. Lots of dollops.

Waste not, want not. Leftover lemon curd is fine alone, or with a pretty leftover meringue topping.

Bake at 350º F for 15 minutes, or until golden-browned.

Remove from oven, allow to cool completely (cover & chill overnight if you think you can leave them alone that long).

Ain't misbehavin'. Savin' my curd for lunch.

Sorry about the color. Kitchen table lighting doesn't do the warm golden meringue tips justice, especially on a green dish. But it was what was at hand as the crowd started arriving.

Sourdough, from the Seventies

 From 1971, weekend food magazine section of the Chicago Tribune. The Bat clipped this article & it's been in her scrapbook for a while.

Last week, she… started... the starter… as instructed. Her final result, following this recipe, was a long loaf plus a nice little round loaf, the latter of which was halfway eaten by the time I got downstairs with my camera (okay, it's a smart phone with a decent camera app.), so this is what I got.

 As always, click any image for an embiggened version.

SUNKIST LEMONS bring out the Flavor! A cooking booklet from 1939

 Here's another booklet I got from auction, with every intention of trying at least half the recipes, just because lemons are my favorite of all nature's candies.

The Bat seems to think I'm a little screwy.

Not about this, though. She just knows me pretty well by now.

Cover

Fairly unassuming, isn't it?

Introduction; Table of Contents; Sunkist Lemon Garnishes (1)

And then it starts getting fancy.

pp. Two, Three. Appetizers: Lemons with Shellfish: Cocktail Sauce for Shellfish; Seafood Cocktail; Lemon Cup Appetizer; Iced Consommé

pp. Four, Five. Appetizers (cont'd): Lemon with Fruit Juice; Lemon Fruit Cocktail Sauce; Lemon Cocktail Punch; Pied Piper Fruit Cup; Melon A La Hollywood. Buffet Appetizers: Anchovy and Caviar Canapés; Shrimp Canapés; Seafood Canapés; Malibu Teaser; Stuffed Celery; Potato, Corn, or Crupoo Chips. Canapé And Sandwich Spreads: Lemon Sandwich Butter; Lemon Butter Piquant; Cheese Spreads; Avocado Spread; Shrimp Butter; Tuna or Salmon Salad Spread

Lemon, melon. They even have the same letters. It's a natural thing. But what the heck is "crupoo"? Seriously. I tried Googling it, and that gave me a whole lot of nothing.

pp. Six, Seven. Fish and Meat: Lemon with Fish: Baked Fish with Lemon; Broiled or Fried Fish. Lemons with Meat: Lemon Smothered Chops; Lemon Mint Sauce; Lemon Butter for Meats

Come on…you know lemons and fish are best friends in the kitchen.

pp. Eight, Nine: Fish in Lemon Aspic; Lemon Tartare Sauce; Vegetables with Lemon; Spinach A La Sunkist

Spinach? What would Popeye think of this?

pp. Ten, Eleven: Vegetables: Lemon Celery Victor; Lemon Buttered Cabbage; Harvard Beets; Lemon Butter for Vegetables; Lemon Hollandaise Sauce; Asparagus in Lemon Rings; Cole Slaw with Lemon Dressing; Artichokes; New Potatoes; Pickled Beets

I confess, I really like lemon butter on my broccoli, asparagus, or green beans.

pp. Twelve, Thirteen. Salads: Pacific Coast Fish Salad; Lemon Gelatine Ring Salad; Celebration Salad; Lemon Juice, a Natural Dressing

pp. Fourteen, Fifteen. Salads: Lemon French Dressing; Roquefort Dressing; Lorenzo Dressing; Golden State Dressing; Lemon Mayonnaise; Thousand Island Dressing; Magic Lemon Mayonnaise; Cottage Cheese Dressing

pp. Sixteen, Seventeen. 10 PIES, All Lemon!: Lemon Meringue Pie; Sunkist Meringue; Sunkist Pastry; Lemon Coconut Pie; Chiffon Pudding Pie; Lemon Soufflé Pie; Lemon Angel Pie

You had me at "PIES".

pp. Eighteen, Nineteen. More pies: Lemon Pie Unique; Lemon Gelatine Chiffon Pie; Golden West Lemon Pie; Unbaked Crumb Crusts; Lemon Frozen Cream Pie; Banbury Turnovers, Tarts

Gonna need a very thick drool bib, I think…

pp. Twenty, Twenty-one. Other Desserts: Dainty Lemon Layer Cake; Lemon Cream Filling; Seven Minute Lemon Frosting; Lemon Refrigerator Cake

And a stack of toothbrushes…

pp. Twenty-two, Twenty-three. More Desserts: Celestine Lemon Tapioca; Lemon Frozen Cream; Lemon Sherbet; Lemon Chiffon Pudding; Lemon Clear Sauce; Lemon Hard Sauce; Baked Bananas with Lemon Sauce; Lemon-Chocolate Tea Cakes; Lemon-Coconut cake;  Lemon Sherbet Surprise; Fruits Cooked with Lemon

Getting a bit giddy, now…

pp. Twenty-four, Twenty-five. Lemons Add Flavor in Surprising Ways! : Lemon Mincemeat; Lemon Maple Dumplings; Lemon Clover Rolls; Surprise Spread for Waffles

Lemon Mincemeat? Hmmmm… they may have lost me on that one.

pp. Twenty-six, Twenty-seven. More Surprises: Lemon Honey Jelly; English Lemon Cheese; Sunshine Lemon Marmalade.    Beverages : Sunkist Lemonade; Lemon Fizz; Lemon Shake; Hot Lemonade for a Cold; Lemon Beverage Garnishes

Oh, well, a drink will solve some of that trouble.

pp. Twenty-eight, Twenty-nine. More Beverages : Lemon Ginger Flip; Golden Gate Punch; Lemon with Tea.  Lemons for Health

Cleanup in aisle four!

pp. Thirty, Thirty-one. Lemons Are Versatile (nonfood uses)

pp. Thirty-two, Thirty-three. Index. How to Buy Lemons.

Fun and games from 1937: Jack and Mary's JELL-O Recipe Book (minus a couple of pages)

So, this little gem came from a flat of ephemera I bought a couple of years ago, when I was still spending my Sundays at the local auction house (now defunct, alas). I went wild and spent a dollar or so (actually, I think this was a bonus, along with something else I spent real money on…you know, upwards of three dollars, to make the perfect gift for somebody).

There were, I am certain, more little product-promoting recipe booklets as part of this purchase, but, how much more American can one get, than to present a collection of JELL-O  recipes and cartoon pages featuring Jack Benny and Mary Livingstone touting the product?

For the record, these pages are almost as old as The Bat. (Hi, Mom! Hugs!)

(Click any image to embiggen it)

Cover (pp. 1, 24)

pp. 2, 3.  Comic strip

pp. 4, 5. Clear and Fruited Desserts: Apricot & Lime Dessert; Autumn Glow; Pineapple Banana Dessert; Fresh Pear & Grape Dessert; Cardinal Pear Mold; Layered Peach & Raspberry Mold; Strawberry Festival Mold; Layered Cherries and Bananas; Fruit Symphony; Amber Russet

pp. 6, 7. Clever Tricks with Jell-O: Jell-O Flakes; Jell-O Fantasy; Jell-O Cubes, Self-Layering Jell-O Molds; Jell-O Fruit Cocktail; Fruited Jell-O; Jell-O Whip; Jell-O A La Mode; Strawberry Jell-O Tarts; Jell-O Mounds

pp. 8, 9. Whips & Creams: Crested Jell-O Whips; Creamy Fig Pudding; Fresh Plum Snow; Strawberry Whip; Marmalade Bavarian; Prune Whip; Fresh Raspberry Bavarian Cream;

pp. 10, 11. Puddings & Pastries: Frozen Strawberry Dessert; Jell-O Plum Pudding; Jell-O Chiffon Pie; Fresh Cherry Jell-O Tarts; Pineapple Pie

pp. 14, 15. Vegetable Salads & Entrees: Cucumber Pineapple Salad; Horse-Radish Relish; Supper Salad Ring; Carrot and Cabbage Salad; Spiced Relish and Cold Meat Plate, Grapefruit Olivia Salad; Cucumber Relish

pp. 16, 17. (more) Vegetable Salads & Entrees: Creamy Pimiento Ring; Chicken Salad Mold; Salmon Mold; Beet Luncheon Salad; Crested Tomato Salad; Celery and Carrot Salad

pp. 18, 19. (more) Vegetable Salads & Entrees: Tart Cranberry Salad; Cabbage and Apple Salad.   Jell-O Ices, a Grand New Idea: Jell-O Fruit Ices; Jell-) Milk Ices

pp. 20, 21. Jell-O pointers

pp. 22, 23. How Jack Benny made such luscious ice cream (Jell-O Ice Cream Powder); other products

Not A Bad Way To Loaf: Coconut Flour Bread

Under normal circumstances, some things don't really go together. For example, I had a great honkin' canister of coconut flour on my counter, and a deep and abiding need for a slice of bread and butter. Generally, when I say I want bread and butter, it means I crave a slice of yeasty perfection – something I had thought I needed to give up when I cut wheat out of my diet a couple of years back. The dry-ish coconut flour was nowhere in the vicinity of meeting that need.

After all, the best bread in the world involves ooey, gooey stretchy gluten, right?

I really have tried a number of different blends of flours, and pretty much all the mixes on the market for baking a sandwich loaf, and, while they are (most of them) quite sufficiently tasty and firm for making a BLT, toasted or not, none of the ones I tried held my interest when treated to a coating of plain, simple butter. They just didn't measure up to Great-Aunt Helen's fresh farm-baked bread at the forefront of my memories. Well, that should come as no surprise. Helen's bread had the magical element of love. But that's beside the point. Her clean, simple recipe is pretty much impossible to imitate without the exact same ingredients. And I shouldn't have been trying.

I needed a small slab of something above and beyond merely "acceptable", upon which to spread my butter.  So I gave up on the not-so-cheap copies, and went back to the search. I found this recipe.

In my 1.5 quart pyrex loaf pan, the batter was dwarfed, producing a loaf approximately 1 inch high at the center of the rise. While that's not a terrible shape for biscotti, either I was going to have to go buy a new, smaller loaf pan, or I was going to have to adjust the recipe upward to make a loaf, not a rectangular pancake.

My budget helped me decide, so I opted for the latter.

Besides, I was expecting company for dinner at the end of the week, so, why not make enough to share (if I absolutely have to)?

It took a couple of tries to get it right, though, (my first large loaf was underdone in the center) so I'm glad I didn't wait until the last minute to learn.

What I ended up with was still not a great domed loaf of fluffy, puffy, yeasty, crusty farm bread, but it holds its moisture, and it holds a nice layer of butter…plus, it uses some of that great honkin' canister of coconut flour I wasn't sure I'd ever find good use for.*

And it tastes pretty good with a couple of slices of bacon, some lettuce, and a slice of vine-ripened tomato. Hold the mayo.

Coconut Flour Bread (large-ish loaf)

Ingredients:

110 grams (1 cup sifted) coconut flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
8 large eggs
3 Tablespoons honey
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
3/4 teaspoon salt


Directions:

With rack in middle of the oven, preheat to 325º F.

Grease loaf pan (I like to use real butter for this, but you can use the spray stuff, if you absolutely must).

In a small bowl, sift together coconut flour and baking powder. Set aside.

Using the paddle attachment (not the dough hook) for your stand mixer, combine eggs, honey, butter, coconut oil, and salt. (If you don't have a stand mixer, just use regular beaters of your hand-held mixer.)

When they are thoroughly mixed, gradually add in the dry ingredients and mix well. Your dough should look a lot like thick cornbread batter.

Spread dough in the loaf pan, smoothing top with lightly moistened spatula or lightly wetted fingers. Place in center of oven, bake 60-70 minutes, until top has begun to brown.

Remove from oven and from baking pan, allow to cool completely on rack.




*This is to regular yeast bread what pound cake is to angel food cake: greater density, but still a tasty option.

Cinnamon Christmas Stars, aka Zimtsterne

This is one of those recipes which is not outrageously expensive, and yet is outrageously tasty and outrageously easy to make – the latter especially so, if you have a young'un or two around the house who happen to be willing to help out with the cutting and slathering with icing. But even without my having assistance of Ilex, 

this Christmas treat is one I'll be making regularly…possibly even outside the holiday season. It's that good. Plus, it's gluten-free by its original design, so there is that, as well. I don't have to worry about remembering to adapt my freezer-full of flours to meet the current needs.

I do recommend bringing out your most accurate kitchen scales before you get started, too. Not only is it what the original recipe called for, but I find that – as professional bakers have assured me – dry ingredients may vary wildly in their density from one milling to the next, so one cup of something one day may be 10% heavier than the next day, so you'll have less predictable results.

However, I will need to study further, to see if they can be made with alternative sweeteners, for my other friends who are on low- or no-sugar-added diets. But, as a certain non-German woman once said, "I'll think about that tomorrow." I'll finish eating giving away these, first.

Heh.

Meanwhile, here's what we have: starting with this recipe, and adapting slightly to our kitchen. 

Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars)

Ingredients:

3 egg whites
250 grams powdered sugar
360 grams finely ground almonds or almond flour (I used non-blanched for this batch)
2 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Fresh, finely-grated zest of 2 small lemons (about 2 Tablespoons)
Pinch of salt

Directions:

Make sure your mixer bowl and whisk attachment are completely clean and free from any oils before you start. (I recommend washing, drying, and then taking a paper towel or cloth moistened with cider vinegar to wipe it clean again, to be doubly sure.)

In that bowl of your stand mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat egg whites until they become foamy.

Begin adding the powdered sugar in small batches (a few tablespoons at a time) while the mixer is running. Beat on high until the meringue is very shiny, but before very stiff peaks form. This may take ten minutes or more, so be patient.

Remove 50 g of the meringue (about 1/3 – 1/2 cup) to a small bowl, cover and refrigerate.

Next, in a medium bowl, whisk together the ground almonds (or almond flour), cinnamon, lemon zest and salt. 

Fold dry ingredients into the remaining meringue mixture until just evenly distributed, and no more. (If it feels really thick and dense, don't worry. This recipe bakes up light, almost airy cookies, despite its feeling like you're stirring nearly-hardened concrete.)

Tip the contents out onto a large sheet of parchment paper sprinkled with powdered sugar. Sprinkle the top of the mixture with some more powdered sugar and top with another sheet of parchment paper. Roll out the dough to just under 1 centimeter thick. Refrigerate 1/2 hour to an 1 hour, to help firm up dough and reduce its stickiness.

Once sufficiently chilled, remove from refrigerator, peel off the top sheet of parchment and sprinkle again with a bit of powdered sugar.  Coat your star cookie cutter with nonstick spray and wipe excess away. Then, dipping your cutter into powdered sugar each time, cut out the stars and place fairly close together on a parchment-covered cookie sheet (they don't expand very much). Continue to collect the dough into a bowl and roll out until all is used up.

Preheat the oven to 300° F., or 150º C.

Using an offset spatula or a knife (I use a tapered icing spatula, for more precise application on the star points)  spread the remaining meringue mixture evenly across all stars, making sure it doesn’t drip down the sides. Place in oven and bake for 8-10 minutes. Keep an eye on them --  you don't want the meringue to brown, just cook and crisp up a little.

Let cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Allow to completely cool. Store in an airtight container for up to a few weeks.

Makes about 50-75 6cm (roughly 2 inch) 2-bite stars. Larger cookie cutters will, obviously, make fewer cookies, and be slightly less challenging to get unstuck from the pointy parts of the cutter. 


Update: I've given a try to substituting an artificial sweetener for another batch (1 cup Splenda instead of the sugar). The flavor is as good, and the cookies are as tender as the regular ones (if a wee tad drier on the tongue), but it seems that the Splenda-based meringue topping, when left to sit in the refrigerator for a while, tends to curdle. This may mean I over-beat the eggs (easy enough to do when you're whipping eggs without sugar), but I think I'd like to give a try to separating out one egg white in advance – or measure out prepackaged egg white – and whipping that up with sweetener, only after I've allowed the dough to chill, and I'm ready to cut the stars.

They're not as pretty as the real sugar version, but I'll have no qualms about noshing on them, or sharing with others…if I have to.