I'm a foodie. The dictionary defines foodie as, "an epicure: a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment (especially good food and drink)". I like the way Slash/Food defines it more. I like food, I like learning about food, and of course, eat the food. The main focus of this blog will be to showcase all my foodilicious encounters and creations.
Why name this blog "Endearing Morsels"? Well, aside from food, I like all things cute. I would have named this blog "Cute Tasty Bites", but it really didn't have a ring to it. After lots of synonym searching, I finally decided on my blog name. I even made my own Header image. Hooray!
This inaugural post includes a recipe. Hollahh! It was initially a disaster turned into a bright success story.
It began with a simple desire to make some lemon bars for coworkers. I love lemon and citrus based desserts. My coworker also has a love for lemon desserts. We had a hankering for some mouth-puckering, lusciously lemony sweets. I've made successful lemon bars before, so I was quite open to tinkling with some recipes.
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Lemon Bars with Cream Cheese Shortbread Base
(adapted from All Recipes: Lemon Bars I )
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Shortbread Base
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
3/8 cup (6 tbls) cold butter
1/4 cup cold cream cheese
1/8 tsp salt
Lemoney Innards
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup white sugar
3 eggs (I originally used 2)
3 lemons, zested and juiced
1) Grease and lightly flour an 8"x8" pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C)
2) Cut the cold butter and cream cheese into little 1" cubes
3) In a food processor, pulse the butter and cream cheese along with the sugar, salt, and flour until it resembles little coarse peas
4) Save 1/2 cup of the mixture (loosely packed) for later. Put it in the fridge!
5) Press the remaining portion of the mixture into the pan flatly and evenly. It should clump together. Take care of the corners especially.
6) Prick the dough allover with a fork to create steam vents
7) Bake the crust for 15-20 min.
8) While the crust is baking, assemble the Lemoney Innards by mixing the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar together
9) Beat the eggs together and add into the above mixture, stirring well.
10) Mix in all the lemon zest and juice
11) Pour over the bottom layer and bake for another 40 min.
12) Sprinkle the rest of the shortbread base mixture (from step4) over the lemoney layer. Bake until golden brown (apprx. 10-15 min).
Then what about the initial 'Disastahh' I mentioned? Yah, there was just so much lemon juice that the filling didn't really set and I improvised to achieve the above recipe...but it was still runny and extremely too tart. What to do?
I added it into a cake as 'streusel'. Streusel is a crumbly topping or filling made from fat, sugar, and flour. The super lemon tart had all those things and the lemoney curd can mellow as it mixes in with the cake batter. Perfect!
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Lemon Streudel Crunch Orange Cake
(adapted from All Recipes: Grandma's Cranberry Orange Cake )
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2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup white sugar
1/3 cup orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (or 1 tbsp vinegar with enough milk to make 1 cup)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons grated orange zest
**I used the juice and zest of one orange
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch tube pan.
2) Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
3) In a large bowl, mix together 1 cup of white sugar, orange juice, eggs, buttermilk, zest, and vegetable oil using an electric mixer (or whisk).
4) Add the dry ingredients and mix just until moistened. Pour half batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.
**5) Mash up the Lemon Bar until the lemon curd is mixed in with the crumbly topping to resemble large crumbs. Sprinkle into the cake batter in the pan; swirl the mixture around the batter like when one is making a marble cake
6) Pour the remaining batter into the pan and spread evenly
7) Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan set over a wire rack for 15 to 20 minutes.
I also tried sprinkling some streusel topping over the top of the cake before baking, but because of the high fat content (butter + cream cheese!), some of the bits were a little burnt. You could definitely try sprinkling the streusel on top and tenting the cake with foil right at the beginning to prevent any burned bits, though. I just picked off small bits of burnt streusel and it was fine. There weren't too many affected areas so the cake still looked great. :)
The result was a moist and flavourful orange cake with bits of melted-in lemon bar. The cake itself was sturdy enough to withstand the streusel filling. It was lightly sweet, almost like a muffin or coffee cake. The once too sour lemon curd melded into the sweeter cake batter so that each bite you take of the streusel marbled cake had an explosion of bright, sunny, citrusy flavour that wasn't too sweet or sour. This is by far the best accidental discovery I have ever made.
