Lemon Buttermilk Bars

It is about time baked something apart from cupcakes.

I still love cupcakes, however it cannot be the only thing I bake all the time ;)

I've always been intrigued by lemon bars, having read them constantly in baking blogs from America / Canada.

Then one night during my pre-bedtime reading ritual, I stumbled upon a book I bought a year ago, Williams-Sonoma's baking "FoodMadeFast" which is the perfect book for baking for the part time baker with a tight schedule. The book is separated into 3 sections - 30 minutes from start to finish; 15 minutes hands-on time; Make more to store! Just select the recipe that suits your time frame and off you go. It's a brilliant book!

So coincidentally lemon buttermilk bars were featured suddenly all the lights came on in my head. This is absolutely the recipe to try this weekend, bonus point being that it supposedly takes only 15 minutes to make!

So how was my first attempt at bars? Frankly, more difficult than I thought! The pastry needed to be baked beforehand and cooled totally before pouring the lemon buttermilk filling and to bake for a further 15-20 minutes.

The results:
















































It took longer than 15 minutes in the kitchen, and to be fair the recipe did say it is 15 minutes hands-on time, excluding preparation work. Still, it was a pretty quick recipe to make. I'm beginning to love the sour sweet combination of flavours. Watch this space, I'll definitely be making more lemon bars in the future.

Lemon Buttermilk Bars
from Williams-Sonoma baking

Ingredients:
Unsalted butter 90g at room temperature
Granulated sugar - 60g plus 155g
Flour - 90g plus 2 tbsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
2 eggs
1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
Lemon juice - 80ml
Buttermilk - 125ml
Icing sugar for dusting

Instructions:
Crust
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Butter bottom and sides of 8 inch square pan
2. In a large bowl, use electric mixer on medium speed, beat together butter and 60g granulated sugar until creamy. Add 90g flour and salt and mix on low speed until blended.
3. Spoon the dough into pan and press evenly in pan bottom. Bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown.


Filling
4. In a large bowl, use electric mixer on medium speed, beat eggs and 155g sugar until blended. Add 2 tbsp flour, lemon zest and juice, buttermilk and beat until smooth.
5. Pour into baked crust and bake for 20-25 minutes, until top of filling is set.
6. Let it cool completely in pan and cut into bars. Dust top with icing sugar.

Healthy Nut Blueberry Muffin

There was a box of blueberries sitting in my refrigerator for more than 1 1/2 weeks, it was about time I made good use of it before it shrivelled up.

So this weekend I decided to whip up a healthy treat. My family is generally health conscious, opting for less sugar and less fattening desserts. So I looked up the internet quickly for a healthy blueberry muffin recipe from allrecipes.com. The link is here, though I made variations to the recipe.

I baked it in time for tea on this lazy Sunday afternoon and it was so easy to make! no mixing involved, amazingly, no butter is used and only 1 egg serves to bind everything together.

I had in mind huge muffin tops for mini muffins (so cute!) so i intentionally filled up the trays right up to the brim instead of the usual 2/3 to the top. It rose very high but very few overflowed to create the mushroom-like head which was the picture in my mind. One or two looked pretty close to it though!


Taste wise, it was pretty doughy and chewy, probably due to the lack of butter, oil, eggs, but otherwise, quite tasty. Sugar content is high too, I'd like to try honey one day as a healthier alternative to sugar.

What I love most is the bursting blueberries when you bite into them, and fresh out of the oven, it is moist and warm... mmm. Helps that it is bite size too, so one muffin really is never enough!
Try it out, if you are looking for a healthy alternative to the usual butter-rich muffins.

Recipe (my variation):

185g self raising flour
170g sugar
40g instant oats
235ml buttermilk
1 egg
15 ml vegetable oil
5ml vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 banana, mashed
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 punnet blueberries

Instructions:
1. Mix flour, sugar, oats, baking powder, baking soda in a bowl.Gently stir in the blueberries and walnuts.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together the mashed banana, buttermilk, egg, oil and vanilla.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix just until blended. Spoon into muffin cups, filling all the way to the top.
4. Bake at 175 C for about 10 minutes (for mini muffins), or until toothpick comes out clean.
5. Enjoy!