ICOOT Quickfire Challenge: Something Sweet (1/31)

[Analyst]

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Lemon Cake with Blueberry Ice Cream

This has many components each of which are really god separately. Pretty basic and can be made ahead.


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Breaking news (for me, at least) - Mrs. Utah returns! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[edfurlong]

BAN MRS. UTAH <font color="white">Not really though.</font>

[Mermade]

Buttered Brioche w/ Meyer Lemon-Blood Orange Marmalade

2 Meyer Lemons
8 Blood Oranges
1 cup water + some additional water
1/2 box of fruit pectin
4 3/4 cups of sugar


Rinse lemons and oranges. Using a vegetable peeler, cut colored part only from 2 of the lemons and 3 of the oranges. Cut into very thin strips. Put peels and 1 cup of water in a non-reactive pan.



Cut and discard remaining peel and membrane from the 2 lemons and 3 oranges which were peeled. Cut up the fruit and remove seeds. Place cut up lemons and oranges in a food processor. Process lemons and oranges into a smooth purée. Pour purée into pan.



Squeeze juice from remaining oranges into pan. Cook until peels are tender. Maybe 10 minutes. You want a total of 3 1/2 cups of liquid. If you are short, make up the remaining fluid volume with water. Stir in 1/2 box of fruit pectin.

Bring the liquid to a full rolling boil. While the liquid is heating mesure the EXACT amount of sugar. I was tempted to use considerably less sugar, but straight from the pectin package "REDUCING SUGAR OF USING SUGAR SUBSTITUTES WILL RESULT IN SET FAILURES. Try Sure-Jell for Less or No Sugar Needed REcipes Fruit Pectin for no-sugar jams and jellies."

Stir in sugar quickly. Return to a full rolling boil and boil for exactly 4 minutes stirring constantly. Remove from heat.



Continue to stir for an additional 5 minutes. This is to prevent the peel from just floating on the top and instead distributing it evenly. Skim off any foam with a metal spoon.

Here you can jar your marmalade if you wish. Use standard canning procedures. Otherwise, transfer marmalade into whatever serving receptacle you wish. Let marmalade cool at room temperature overnight and then refigerate.



Cut brioche into 1/2 inch slices, butter and brown under the broiler. Spread generously with homemade marmalade. Yum!

[Mermade]

Royal Mandarin Julius

3-4 Royal Mandarins
1 cup milk
2 egg whites (use pasteurized eggs)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup granulated sugar (or more if that is to your taste)
1 heaping cup ice crushed

You can do this in a blender. I did it with a hand mixer, because I don't have a blender (although a quality blender is on my wish list). Juice the mandarins. Hopefully, you will have approx 1 cup of juice give or take. Add this with the other ingredients



Blend for 1 minute.



Pour and serve.



It's frothy, creamy, and delicious.

[Mermade]

Meyer Lemon Pound Cake w/ Meyer Lemon-Blood Orange Sorbet

Meyer Lemon Pound Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup sugar, plus 1/3 cup
4 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Grated rind of 1 Meyer lemon
1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice, plus 1/3 cup more

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a loaf pan and line it with waxed paper. (I've never done this before, but it was something suggested by Food Network. It helped the pound cake pop right out of the pan.)



Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium-sized bowl.



With a mixer, cream the butter and 1 cup of the sugar. With the mixer running on low, add the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla.

Alternate between adding the flour mixture and the 1/4 cup of Meyer lemon juice making sure to mix between each addition. Mix until smooth. Add zest and combine.

Pour into the prepared pan.



Bake until raised in the center and a tester inserted into the center comes out dry and clean approx 60 minutes, but keep an eye on it. It could take a little more or less time.

Meanwhile, make the glaze: In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 1/3 cup sugar and the remaining 1/3 cup lemon juice until the sugar is dissolved.

When the cake is done, let cool in the pan 15 minutes so that it is not hot but still warm.



Run a knife around the sides of the pan. Lift out pound cake and remove the waxed paper.

Spread glaze all over the top and sides of the cake and let soak in. Use up all the glaze. Let cool at room temperature.



Meyer Lemon-Blood Orange Sorbet

I did this the fun way, to get my son involved--you'll see.

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
4-5 blood oranges
juice from 1/2 Meyer lemon



Peel the blood oranges and stir the peels, sugar and water in a pan over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves.



Increase heat and boil a minute or two. Add the juice of the blood oranges and the Meyer lemon to the sugar syrup.
Let cool and remove the peel with a slotted spoon or with a sieve.



Now, at this point I actually realized I had no time to do this and put the mixture after it had cooled to room temp in the fridge and left it for a couple of days. No problem. I made the sorbet when I made the Meyer lemon pound cake 2 days later.

When ready to turn into sorbet, either follow the instructions on your ice cream maker if you are so lucky as to have one, do the baggy method, OR....

Place mixture into an ice cream making ball. Fill other end with ice and 6 tablespoons of salt. Roll ball until the sorbet clings to the sides, about 10 minutes or so.



Open ball and use a spatula to push the sorbet down.



Roll some more. 10 more minutes or until the fun wears off.

Place a scoop of sorbet on a slice of pound cake and enjoy.



Edited to remove my hand out of one of the pics.

[Mermade]

Welcome back Mrs. Utah. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Mermade]

Mrs. Utah--

I'm glad you drizzled the blueberry puree over the curd. If you hadn't, there would have been insufficient contrast to see that there was sauce on the plate. The cookie gives a dramatic height to the dessert giving a more homey-dish (lemon cake and ice cream) flair. Great work as always.

I failed to give any of my dishes any glam again. They were absolutely delicious though. Too bad this is an internet competition. The marmalade made about 5 1/2 cups certainly enough to give most of the contributors a little jar to take home.

[octopi]

I had plans, big plans, for the blood oranges I bought, but they fell flat when I failed to find all the bits and pieces for the ice cream maker [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Instead I made a blood orange mousse which is setting in the fridge right now. Probably won't be ready in time for midnight, but on first finger dip, it takes like Orange Julius gone wild and has a gorgeous pinkish hue.

I'm glad so many people used blood oranges, I adore them.

[SamIAm]

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blood orange mousse which is setting in the fridge right now. Probably won't be ready in time for midnight

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Octopi, were you planning on plating it tonight or tomorrow? I'd be totally fine with pushing back the end-time a bit, if it means another entry. What does everybody think about extending the deadline for a couple hours?

If people don't want to get into the habit of push-over restraints, or octopi thinks the mousse won't be ready soon, then we can just see the pictures later.
-Sam

[SamIAm]

Ron, that plating is really cool. I definitely dig the tuna-can. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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strain the liquid through a nut milk bag

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I know you can use cheesecloth, but what is a "nut milk bag"?
-Sam