In our house one of our favorite flavors is lemon. Whether it's a savory dish like Chicken Piccata, BBQ citrus chicken or desserts like lemon bars, and lemon cake with chocolate frosting (which happens to be an all-time favorite of mine), lemon is a staple flavor in our house. Citrus can really brighten up a dish with its tartness & sweetness. I like how different varieties of lemon have different flavor profiles. We have tasted lemons that were as sour as Warhead candies (remember those?), or so sweet and light in flavor that you want to eat the lemon whole. Meyer lemons are our favorite to cook with but can be pricy at times. When we are lucky family members who have lemon trees or bushes (you know who you are) share some of them with us, or our neighbor who has a massive lemon tree will let us have bags of them too. Thankfully when we get loads of lemons we zest them, then juice them and freeze the juice in ice cube trays, then bag them up and keep in the freezer, and the zest we freeze as well for use as needed. No, the zest doesn't lose flavor, texture, or freshness when we do this. I love when we have lemon juice ice cubes because I can add them to my cup of tea easily and it cools it down slightly. After our neighbor gives us our fill of lemons during the beginning of summer, we make a big container of fresh lemonade for the kids to drink as a treat for summer.
This week I'm sharing the recipes for dairy-free lemon curd and lemon bars. While making the first batch of lemon curd I "accidently" over whipped it while it was on the double boiler (whipping too much air into the mixture), creating a light & airy mouse like consistency. It was a "Happy Little Accident" (thanks Bob Ross for the saying) that turned out to lead to a new recipe! We decided to freeze the whipped lemon curd in an allergen friendly graham crust for an ice box style pie. With freezing it, it kept that lighter than air consistency with almost a cheesecake l like texture. Adam made an Italian Meringue to Brulé on top of it, and a new dessert was made. After the meringue was made and toasted, we placed the pie in a cake carrier and put it back in the freezer to chill. The meringue held up and didn't change in consistency or flavor from being in the freezer, which means we now know we can freeze it and still have it taste fresh. We are calling it Lemon Cloud Pie, because it's the only way we could describe it. Pictures of the pie are on our Facebook group with the same name as the blog.
One of the great things about the lemon curd recipe I'm sharing is that you can replace the lemon juice and zest with oranges (blood oranges are amazing for this), pineapple (minus the zest part), or even berries (be sure to strain any berry curd to get out the seeds). It's something you can make your own varying it with different seasonal fruits. Just remember when you're making your curd that, even if you think it's not turning out right, it could lead to a happy accident that tastes amazing.
Kim
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