Lemon Poppyseed Strawberry Shortcakes! (And Strawberry Picking is Cute Too!)

We're deep into Summer and baking has slowed. Instead, I find myself combatting fruit flies that have found their home in the windowsill. I hear the humming of a wasp nest being in an unreachable part of our porch. We worry about the dogs; Murphy is allergic. We have it on our to-do list for this long weekend.

Yesterday, we canoed down the Monogahela. Wine drunk, we floated and made new friends. The rain water stirred up soot and mud and I lost track of how many rocks I skipped when we stopped to swim. And we pulled out the sofa bed and threw on a black-and-white movie and fell asleep to the orchestra of heart beats and dog pants and the air conditioner whirring in the mess of sweat and fog that is 10 o'lock in Pennsylvania.

Two weeks ago, we began this process of running away from the heat in our house and embracing it more outdoors. We went strawberry picking one Sunday. It was Nolan's idea. He's more creative in this regard, having done more things in his childhood, he can recall those times and recreate them for us now. We drove out to a town called Armagh and grabbed a cardboard box for every berry we found. We laughed and forgot about time here again, too. We stayed on the familiar path and pushed the leaves away a bit deeper. We met a collie named Rudy. We left our orange flag, the indication that a row has been picked-through, and we kissed in the sunlight. We took a two hour nap that afternoon.

We've snacked on these berries, fed on them. We've given them to our chickens and put them on a cheese plate when we wanted a light dinner. We had them with oatmeal and Pimm's and this week I'll make them the last of them into a crumble. But the first dish I made with them, my favorite for every year (as seen here, here, here, and here), was to put them in a shortcake and enjoy them as they were--some sour, some sweet, some blood red and some white. 

Lemon Poppyseed Scone "Shortcake"

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 TB baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cold butter, cubed
• 1 egg + 1 yolk (for egg wash)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 TB vanilla
• Zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 2 TB poppyseeds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400*F and prepare a sheet pan with a Silpat or parchment paper
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt
3. With clean hands, roll the butter into the flour with your fingers, creating flakes. Continue to crumble butter until fat is the size of peas
4. In a measuring cup, whisk together your egg, cream, vanilla, and lemon
5. Create a well in your dry ingredients and with a wooden spoon slowly mix while you pour your wet ingredients in
6. Continue to mix until fully incorporated and a dough comes together
7. Pat out onto a floured work surface and shape into a rectangle
8. Cut into 9 pieces and transfer onto your prepared sheet
9. Make an egg wash (1 yolk + 1 TB water) and brush onto your scones
10. Sprinkle each with poppyseeds
11. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden
12. Allow to cool while you prepare your whipped topping and strawberries

Whipped topping and preparation: In a stand mixer, whisk 1/2 cup heavy cream until soft peaks form, then add 4 oz creme fraiche (I love Vermont Creamery's), 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until peaks form.

Cut a scone in half, add whipped filling and a few strawberries and enjoy!

Springtime Cupcakes!

After three weekends of plans, we finally got a day to relax! Today, we're going to try to convince Nolan's parents to come over to mow the yard (we don't have a mower yet), and then maybe go into town to put our order in for our chickens!!

This is my first recipe of the new year with lemons. These cupcakes also have a unique ingredient that I think add value and flavor to them, so don't knock it 'til you try it!

Okay, gotta go drink another cup of coffee and get ready to prep the barn! Have a great Sunday!

Lemon and Mayo Cupcakes with Toasted Meringue!

So! You might be a little grossed out with the addition of mayonnaise in this recipe, but I think it really does add a richness that is sometimes lost in plain Jane lemon cupcakes. Also, as you may have seen in my instagram story, I used a small lighter that I got from the dollar store to toast the meringue and it worked perfectly (I'm kind of scared of kitchen torches). 

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 TB unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs + 1 egg white
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 TB lemon zest
• Juice of 1 lemon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F and prepare large muffin tin (or regular sized!) with paper liners
2. Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder in a mixing bowl
3. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar
4. Add eggs. It will look slightly curdled, but that's okay!
5. Add remaining ingredients and mix until smooth and a pale yellow
6. By hand, mix in dry ingredients, a quarter cup at a time, with a rubber spatula
7. Divide evenly into your prepared cups
8. Bake for 25 minutes or until browned for large, 18-20 minutes for regular-sized cupcakes
9. Allow to cool before topping with meringue

Ingredients and Directions for Meringue: In a clean bowl of a stand mixer, whisk 2 egg whites on high and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Add a 1/3 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract. Keep beating until you get to stiff peaks. Use a piping bag (or even a regular ol' freezer bag!) and pipe onto your cooled cupcakes. Use a torch to toast meringue and serve!

Easy Cherry Lemon Poppyseed Turnovers!

We finally started to clean out the last room of our house. It's a mess right now, but it's slowly getting there. We went to Target and looked at night lights and zoo animals--for Lana or some other toddler who will run around our feet.

We found all these old documents from California. Pictures and letters and little trinkets we through in a box and called it a memory. I told Nolan it's hard to look at those things, to think that we were so different just a year ago and how we have a farm in the Ligonier Valley now. How we just ate to pass the hours and fought to fill the gaps between work and sleep. We were different then; but it makes me nervous to look at those relics and think maybe we were exactly the same.

I remember the second meal we had in California, in the northernmost part of San Diego county where we were living at the time. It was just Starbucks, nothing fancy. But it was hot out and we never got the hang of just relaxing back then, so we went for somewhere with air conditioning. I got an iced coffee and a turnover. We kept calling it a turn-up and couldn't tell why it didn't sound quite right.

I paid $4 for a pastry I could have made at home. But now, now I am different. I make things myself. I save money where I can. I do it myself and make it at home. I don't want to run away to other places as much anymore.

Cherry Lemon Poppyseed Turnovers!

Ingredients:

• 2 sheets puff pastry (10" x 10"
• 8 oz cherry pie filling
• 1 vanilla bean, scraped (or sub 1 TB pure vanilla extract)
• Zest of 2 lemons, separated
• Juice of 2 lemons, separated
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 TB melted butter
• 1 TB heavy cream
• 2 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 TB poppyseeds

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400*F and prepare 2 half sheets with parchment paper
2. Cut puff pastry into 8 equal squares (4 per sheet at 2.5")
3. Mix cherry pie filling, zest, vanilla, juice of one lemon, white sugar, and salt together and mix with a wooden spoon
4. Equally arrange your 8 squares on your prepared sheets
5. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of filling into the center of each square
6. Brush all edges with butter and turn each pastry on a diagonal
7. Crimp edges with a fork to seal (obviously, I did not do this step too well as mine opened up...but it was prettier this way!)
8. Repeat with remaining
9. Brush all with butter on top as well
10. Pierce with a fork to vent out a bit of air
11. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and puffed
12. Allow to cool. While cooling, mix together remaining lemon juice and zest, cream, and confectioners sugar to create a thin icing
13. Pour over your turnovers and sprinkle with poppyseeds and enjoy!

Lemon-Almond Cake with Toasted Coconut

I drove for the first time all week on Friday. Stopped at the gas station, bought a pack of Camels. More out of habit than craving. More to mindlessly let the cherry eat up the filter until the tips of my fingers were burnt a gentle blush of pink. The window rolled down when it was raining and the hair on my knuckle matted, I thought of nothing else that morning. I kept my windows down and my sunglasses off, my ears rattling with the whistle of the valley air. I go 80 on the turns and 65 on the back roads. I stopped once to see a fox lying dead on the side of the road. Orange as a hyacinth, its coat matted in enameled blood and the kind of thistles my cousin calls “pricklers”.

Small black feet that used to dance on uneven creek rock. I knew this fox. And while I don’t think orange has ever been a color for royalty, he was beautiful in a way I was not.

I swerved thinking of something my mother had said that morning, distracted by my own Prodigal anger at her. How casually she’s forgotten so much about me. How she whispers certain words in grocery stores. How she leaves out the best parts of a story if it’s at her expense. People have a way of forgetting and I remember a lot more moving back than I thought I would.

I drove for the first time all week, saw a fox on the side of the road, bought a pack of cigarettes and sat outside for a while. Thought about where I want to live, and how I consolidate those dreams when I am still paying off two degrees and a year of law school I never pulled the trigger to just get it over with and finish.  I went inside and baked a cake when it was 90 degrees in the kitchen. I ran out of containers, so I keep my almond meal in an old Maxwell House coffee canister for right now. I used some sun-warmed lemons and made it simple. Because, above all else, I can’t forget that’s the reason I moved back home. Because people have a way of forgetting.

Lemon-Almond Cake with Toasted Coconut

Ingredients for Cake:

• 2 cup AP flour
• 2/3 cup almond meal (fine, my preferred is Bob’s Red Meal)
• 1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 ½ cup white sugar
• 1 cup crème fraiche (can substitute sour cream or ricotta here as well)
• ½ cup olive oil
• 1 TB vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoon almond extract
• Juice from one lemon
• Zest from two lemons
• 4 tablespoons butter, extremely softened
• 2 eggs + 1 yolk, room temperature
• 1 TB white vinega

Ingredients for buttercream:

• ½ cup vegetable shortening, softened
• 2 tb butter, softened
• ½ TB vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cup confectioner’s sugar
• 3 TB whole mil

Directions for Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F
2. Prepare an 8-inch springform pan with butter and parchment paper
3. Into the bowl or your stand mixer (or, if you prefer, you can do this by hand), sift together flour, almond meal, baking soda, and salt. Repeat twice more (this step isn’t necessarily, but I really believe in getting the almond meal as light and aerated as possible here)
4. In a separate measuring cup, vigorously whisk together crème fraiche, oil, extracts, lemon, butter, eggs, and vinegar. It will be clumpy even when fully mixed
5. Create a well in your dry ingredients with a wooden spoon and, while slowly mixing by hand, pour in your wet ingredients in a lumpy, gentle stream
6. Now, with the paddle attachment, beat batter on medium-high for about 20-30 seconds until thin and pale yellow ribbons form
7. Pour batter into your prepared pan
8. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until top is golden brown and edges are separating from the side of the pan
9. Allow to cool completely before adding buttercream and coconu

Directions for buttercream:

1. Vigorously whisk fats, extract, and confectioner’s sugar together until you have a dry paste
2. Add as much milk and whisk until it is thin, but not runny
3. Set aside. This will be a very small amount to just do a crumb coat on the cake for the coconut to stick t

Ingredients and Directions for coconut:

In a large, dry skillet, heat on medium for about a minute to get warm. Add 1 ½ - 2 cups of sweetened, finely cut coconut to the pan and continuously stir (allowing to sit for a few seconds between stirs to warm up) until nutty and beginning to brown on the edges. Remove from heat and dump into a bowl to cool

To Assemble

Place cake on plate and, using an angled spatula or butter knife, cover cake in buttercream. This will be a thin, thin layer and will resemble a crumb coat or “naked cake”. Now, grab a handful of coconut and lightly press into the cake. Repeat until fully covered. Grate a little more lemon zest over cake and maybe a little confectioner’s sugar because why not. Eat immediately. Ideal with hot coffee and can keep for up to three days (maybe even four or five if you are careful and it is airtight)