WHEN LIFE HANDS YOU LEMONS………..MAKE ANY OF THESE RECIPES.

Nothing impresses after a rich dinner like a tangy, sweet but sour, LEMON or LIME flavored dessert.Here is a collection that will have your guests raving about you and calling your name when they get that recollection of your sweet and sour pucker power in the middle of the night.

LEMON CLOUD DESSERT

3 Lemons, the zest of same and only ½ cup juice. Use rest of juice for lemonade don’t waste it.

8 tbsp unsalt. Butter, cut into 8 pcs

l cup sugar plus two tbsp sugar for the whipped cream

4 lg eggs,

l cup whipping cream,

l tsp pure vanilla

Take rind off lemons, squeeze juice, remove seeds. Put Zest, juice, butter and l cup of the sugar in top of a double boiler, stir until dissolved, hot.

IN SEPARATE bowl, beat eggs, pour thru strainer into top of double boiler with rest of ingred, stir while it thickens, about l0 min. Remove and stir the curd occasionally while it cools so that no skin forms. When you can touch pan, cover curd w. wax paper or plastic wrap, let cool to room temp. Once cool, fridge til ready to use. BEAT whipped cream until it starts to thicken, add remaining 2 tbspons sugar, beat until peaks form. Add vanilla, blend well. FOLD 1 ½ cups of the lemon curd into the whipped cream. There may be more but save it as it saves well.
 

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WORLD'S BEST LEMON PIE FILLING

TAKE: 2/3 cup sugar 2 tbsp finely chopped or grated lemon peel and stick in a food processor. The trick is taking the already grated rind, throwing it into the sugar, in a food processor, pulsing until rind really breaks down, vaporizing those citric oils. Combine these two until sugar is yellow. GET A BAIN MARIE (water boils in bottom level,) or improvise one with a STEEL BOWL. Put lemon & sugar in there. Add3 lg eggs and 4 egg yolks in heatproof bowl and whisk to distribute sugar so there's no premature coagulation. Place bowl over simmering water and immediately begin whisking continuously 15 seconds until sugar dissolves. Add 1/4 cup fresh lime juice and 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice. Whisking 5 minutes. Curd is done when it's like sour cream, a temp of 160 degrees. Transfer to clean bowl. Add 4 tbspons unsalt. butter, a half a stick,in pcs, whisk by hand. If not ready to add to pastries, cover w. plastic wrap so no skin forms. Refrig it if you want, lasts a week if covered. Makes 2 cups. But I’d get this baby into a crisp pie shell and cover it with a slathering of whipped cream and send your guests to heaven . 

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LEMON PUDDING CAKE

Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 1 1/2 hr

2 large lemons

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Rounded 1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

3 large eggs, separated

1 1/3 cups whole milk

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Finely grate 1 tablespoon zest from lemons, then squeeze 1/4 cup plus 2

tablespoons juice.

Whisk together flour, salt, and 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar in a

large bowl. Whisk together yolks, milk, zest, and juice in a small bowl

and add to flour mixture, whisking until just combined.

Beat whites in another large bowl with an electric mixer until they hold

soft peaks. Beat in remaining 1/4 cup sugar, a little at a time, and

continue to beat until whites hold stiff, glossy peaks. Whisk about one

fourth of whites into batter to lighten, then fold in remaining whites

gently but thoroughly (batter will be thin).

Pour into a buttered 1 1/2-quart ceramic gratin or other shallow baking

dish and bake in a hot water bath until puffed and golden, 45 to 50 minutes.

Transfer to a rack. IN ITS PAN! Serve warm or at room temperature.

MISS GEER'S LEMON BARS:- IF LIFE HANDS YOU LEMONS (or YOU HAVE A LEMON TREE) make LEMON BARS. INGREDIENTS: 2 1/4 cup sifted flour, 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar, 1 cup butter, 8 eggs, 3 1/2 cups sugar, 1 cup lemon juice, 4 tsp lemon zest, l tsp bk powder, 1 tbsp UNsifted flour. METHOD: Sift flour, pow. sugar, cut in butter until it resembles crumbs. Pat into bottom of 13 x 9 baking pan, bake 350 deg. until brown. Beat eggs with gran. sugar, stir in juice, zest, bk powder, unsifted flour, mix well, pour over crust, bake 350 for 45 min. Cut into 32 bars. This recipe came from the daughter of Will Geer, that old man on the Walton Family, who was not only a good socialist, who knew about Poverty and the Great Depression 1st hand but who created a great outdoor theatre, the BOTANICUM, in TOPANGA CANYON and it has lived on for summer nite amusement in Los Angeles area.

PINATAS- These are little paper wrapped collections of sweets which you store in a jar in fridge. Each colored paper cone is filled with ribbon-chopped or blender minced dried cherries, apricots, peaches, raisins, and my all time favorite, dried pears, always having lots of LEMON RIND and LEMON JUICE dropped into the blender to blend it to paste, and adding home-blanched almonds. You can also make peanut brittle. Make hand-dipped chocolates (use a fruit center, for instance a red whole seedless grape..) all made w. no sugar. (Use brown sugar loafs and rice bran syrup to create a high Vitamin B brittle, or rice bran syrup in your dipping chocolate) You can also stuff larger dried fruits like dates, figs with nuts or homemade marzipan, (below) set in paper cups.

HOMEMADE LEMON JUNGLE MARZIPAN-(Grind dates, walnuts, blanched almonds, lemon juice, lemon rind, dried figs and fresh grated coconut in blender, add almond extract.) Scoop into balls, wrap in square of plastic wrap, twist neck and tie. Or roll in sugar, put in fluted cups in a box.

SESAME LEMON ORANGE COOKIES- Cream l stick butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar and l egg. Add almond flavoring or vanilla, spices, pumpkin pie spice is good, and 4 tbsp of pan-toasted litely browned sesame seeds, 1 tbsp orange or lemon rind. Add 3/4 to 1 cup brown flour or whole wheat flour that is sifted (takes out the bran) or unbleached whole wheat w. a little *NON-aluminum baking powder, (only avail at HFS) salt, stir, add little liquid, (l tbsp, can be lemon or orange juice or milk) Raisins, oatmeal, dates, nuts would make them even better. Bake, being careful not to burn raisins which require low temp oven. (*note: Aluminum bk. powder may cause Alzheimers). Cool well before you cover w. plastic or cellophane. Store in tins or give away on a thrift store plate with cellophane.

LEMON FRUIT CAKE- I can never decide which cake is my favorite, lemon, coconut, fruit cake or almond marzipan, so I have all FOUR COMBINED. Is this greedy or schizophrenic? INGREDIENTS: 3 cups whole grain or unbleached flour, 2 cups Succanet sugar or real sugar, 2 cubes room temp butter, or 1 cup cold clarified butter which is called ghee, 4 or 5 eggs depending on size, a can of coconut milk, extracts, spices, nuts, dried fruit of high quality, from healthfood store, or now the unsulphured dried cranberries, unsulph cherries, dates, figs are avail at reg. Markets.

TO START: RINSE then SOAK all pieces of your dried fruit in lemon juice /rind to reconstitute and jazz up the flavor.

NEXT: Cream 2 cubes butter, four yolks, (reserve whites to make a meringue to help 'lift' the cake.) Sugar or Succanet to taste (actually, this IS real sugar with all the vitamins), add your extracts: coconut, almond or vanilla flavoring, plus plenty of orange & lemon zest, beat until creamy. To make a birthday type cake, I use canned or real coconut milk as liquid in the cake along w. liquid fruit is soaked in. To make a FRUITCAKE style, I use orange juice and milk as liquids.

SIFT DRY INGREDIENTS. We are going to slowly add them to butter, ALTERNATING with the liquid. You need 2-3 cups sifted whole grain flour (throw away the bran) or Kamut flour but mix first with 3 tsp aluminum free baking powder. WHEN YOU put flour in, add a dose of flour followed by a dose of the liquids. You will now take the LIQUID THAT DRIED FRUIT WAS Re-CONSTITUTED IN, and add orange juice or milk or coconut milk straight out of coconut or can. Add liquid, stir a little bit, then another 1/2 cup dry ingred, then another dose of the juice/lemon/coconut milk liquids, stirring until batter feels right. For a light cake, the minimum of flour is used. If you feel it's OK at 2 cups dry ingred, quit there.

SEPARATELY, BEAT EGG WHITES TO peaks. Fold stiff whites into the cake batter, then put a lot of pecans in batter using a dusting of flour on them.THEN ADD DRIED FRUIT/NUTS: (Now, take that batter and add all dried fruit that you soaked in lemon juice several hours before but to do this, pat fruit dry, flour lightly) and fold into the batter. We used the juice they were soaked in, in the LIQUID section of the cake. BAKE: Turn into buttered, floured or paper lined pans, (cupcake best for gifts, or fruitcake tins) put in very hot oven for the initial 4 minutes. It solidifies from the heat. But this is too fast an oven to cook the thing through so then you open door slightly, turn oven down to 325, finish to deep golden brown color, turn off oven, remove gently. COOL.FROST- with 1/2 cube butter beaten with a lot of lemon rind, then a whole box of powdered sugar added 1/3 at a time with lemon juice after each dry addition. As we want several different but clear flavors, we will put real almond paste between the layers, either the imported kind or homemade.

ALMOND PASTE: grind a 1/2 lb of blanched almonds (boiling water, one minute, dry, then peel) with some boiled sugar syrup and almond extract. I use it right away. Most recipes say let it cure a month.

The third, clear flavor is coconut. Cover entire exterior frosted cake with shredded sweetened coconut. Soak more dried pineapple in lemon juice, decorate outside of cake with these pieces. OPTION: At Xmas I fill the same cake batter with unsulphured dried fruit, dates, raisins, dried pineapple, dried cranberries, dried natural cherries, pecans, walnuts. I bake in loaf pan, no frosting. Wrap it in cheesecloth soaked in brandy and then foil or plastic. Mail them to pals. Thrift stores have baskets, paint these w. spray paint, also METAL COOKIE CANS, CLAY cookie jars, all kinds of old stylish nostalgia things you can use for fresh baked cookies which when cool are best air tight. GOURMET COOKING Stores have bon bon papers, fluted baking cups. 

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