Monday, February 15, 2010

Lemon Poundcake

Stole this from my college roomie's blog. She is a ninja with the baked-good.

Cake
16 Tbs (8 oz) unsalted butter, plus 1 tbs, softened, for pan
1 ½ c (6 oz) cake flour, plus 1 tbs for pan
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ¼ c (8 ¾ oz) sugar
2 tbs zest plus 2 tsp juice from 2 lemons
4 eggs
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

Glaze
½ c (3 ½ oz) sugar
¼ c fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350F.

Spray 9x5” loaf pan with Pam with Flour.

In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Melt butter

In food processor, process sugar and zest until combined. Add lemon juice, eggs, and vanilla; process until combined. With machine running, add melted butter through feed tube in steady stream. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Sift flour mixture over eggs in three steps, whisking gently after each addition until just combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 15 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 325F and bake until deep golden brown and skewer inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

Combine lemon juice and sugar in small saucepan, bring to boil stirring occasionally, simmer until thickened slightly, about 2 minutes.

Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto wire rack, poke all over with skewer, then brush on glaze

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Butternut squash lasagna

When we were being inundated with autumn squash this past fall, I needed to find creative ways to prep it. I don't remember where I heard of this idea or how I came up with it, but I made it last week and decided it was blog-worth.

Ingredients

Sauce
1 medium butternut squash - pealed, seeded, and cubed
milk
salt
pepper

Filling
Part skim ricotta (1 medium container)
1 egg
bacon - chopped, cooked, and drained
1 teaspoon rubbed dried sage
salt and pepper to taste

Nuts and bolts
No boil lasagna noodles
Smoked gouda cheese-shredded

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375 F
2. Prep sauce: Steam squash until soft - about 15 minutes, whir in blender with milk, salt and pepper adding enough milk to make smooth
3. Fry bacon, drain
4. Mix ricotta, bacon, egg, salt, pepper, and sage
5. Construct lasagna in large baking dish: sauce, no boil noodles, then ricotta, repeat
6. Top with shredded gouda
7. Bake until bubbly - about 45 minutes