Lemon Squares: You had me at two sticks of butter!

Lemon Squares

Hello, my name is Donna and I have a lemon square problem. It all started in a little sandwich shop in Edmond, OK that a coworker and I visited. They had a special, half a sandwich and soup or salad or dessert. Psh, that was easy. I can't even remember the other desserts that were offered, because at that first lunch I chose their Lemon Square.

Tart, sweet, buttery. You had to watch and not exhale when you took a bite or powdered sugar would go sailing onto your lunch companion. I was hooked. Since that day if a bakery offers them in the display case, I HAVE to buy one. No hesitation. Done.

A few months ago a sweet friend I have known since we both were in summer camp shared her Lemon Square recipe. I had just moved to California and a lady at church had a bumper crop of lemons that she gave to anyone who would bag them up. Both those gifts happened in the same week. That had to be a sign. I must make Lemon Squares.

The only healthy thing in this recipe might be the fresh lemon juice. The large quantities of butter and sugar pretty much take over after that and you are to enjoy the experience and not worry about it. Either cut a smaller square or run an extra lap. Your choice. The crust is what makes this recipe even better than the store bought variety. Well, there are two sticks of butter in the crust, which I am sure is what makes all the difference.

Lemon Squares
Oven temp: 350 degrees
Bake time: 25-30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter, room temperature
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 powdered sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Instructions

1. Spray a 9 X 13 baking pan, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine the butter, flour and powdered sugar until it is a bowl of small crumbly bits.
3. Press the crumblies into the prepared pan.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the crust is golden around the edges.
5. While the crust bakes beat eggs, sugar, lemon juice and baking powder together.
6. When crust is done, pour lemon mixture over the crust and return the pan to the oven
7. Bake for an additional 25-30 minutes, until the top begins to turn golden brown. (My oven runs hot so I put 2 cookie sheets under my baking pan when I returned it to the oven to prevent the bottom of the crust from burning.)
8. Cool for 10 minutes, then sprinkle with powdered sugar
9. Cool completely before slicing.
10. Store in an airtight container, if they last that long.

Initial blending of butter into dry ingredients.

The crumbly form.

Crumbles pressed into prepared baking pan.

My favorite gadget.

All the filling ingredients.

Pouring filling over hot crust.

Cook until the filling doesn’t jiggle.

Dust with powdered sugar.

Enjoy a lemon square, or two.

I love my little yellow lemon juicer gadget. It was free in a bag of lemons I purchased at least six years ago. There is probably a much nicer, sturdier version for purchase, but I will keep using mine. 

This recipe doesn’t have a ton of ingredients and is pretty straight forward and easy. I hope you give it a go! They are lovely with a spot of tea in the afternoon!

As the mixing bowl turns,

Donna ; - )

Auntie Donna’s Fried Chicken: Inspired by Great-Granny DeVault’s basic family recipe.

Fried Chicken, after the first turn.

My last conversation in June of 2001 with my Daddy Jack was about his childhood memories of his Granny DeVault’s fried chicken. He was venturing back to his early years of helping her out in her store, mid to late 1930s. He gave vivid details, recalling exactly how she fried her chicken. That must have been some kind of good for a little boy about eight years old to pay that much attention. I wrote everything down that he mentioned. However, I will not be going out back to kill, scald and pluck two medium sized chickens for this blog. Sorry, you will be coming up a bit short of my Great-Granny’s recipe's freshness. But other than that, I will share all the details with you.

He was adamant that I use a cast iron skillet with a lid. Her basic technique was to add the chicken to the hot oil and cook it for 10-minutes, then turn it, cover it with the lid, turn the heat down to low, cook another 10-minutes, take the lid off, turn the heat back up to crisp the chicken skin again and it was done! That seems like a lot of fuss, but it is a great process to follow. However, my guess is that her barnyard birds were smaller than what we are getting these days packaged up in our grocery stores. I tried that cooking style with a pre-cut up fryer from the store and my crust looked great...but the inside was still pink...cause my chicken had a lot more meat on it’s bones.

So, this version is in the ‘spirit’ of my Great-Granny’s recipe. I have had to make a few adjustments to his instructions, plus am I really to trust a memory from 66 years ago? I think not. This basic recipe has been passed along to many others since my conversation with Daddy Jack. I even spent 45-minutes with my sister-in-law, on the phone from start to finish, walking her through each step. (If only there had been iPhones in 1999.) She has now made the recipe countless times for her three boys, who call it Auntie Donna’s Fried Chicken. I kinda feel for her. She’s the one who has been making it for them all these years, and it’s still not her chicken? Oh well.

Auntie Donna’s Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken, cut into 8 pieces, 9 if you wish to cook the back (I save the back for soup stock)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk or buttermilk
• 1 TBS hot sauce
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, seasoned
• Flour Seasonings: salt, black pepper, garlic powder...is basically all you need.  But I add in ground sage, parsley flakes, oregano, cayenne, paprika, chili powder, onion powder, basically anything I want to add in the spice rack. I get in trouble from people wanting exact measurements on the seasonings...sorry I do it all by feel/look. I’d say a teaspoon of everything would be a safe way to start.

Instructions:

1. Wash and pat dry your chicken pieces with a paper towel, season on all sides with salt, black pepper, garlic. Just make sure it is not cold right out of the fridge. Adding super cold chicken to the hot oil will drop the temp and make your crust soggy.
2. Make a wet tray that consists of your eggs, beaten in with milk, salt, black pepper, garlic.
3. Make a dry tray that contains your seasoned flour.
4. Coat the chicken pieces, one at a time with the egg wash mixture.
5. Next, roll them in the seasoned flour, shaking off the excess.
6. Gently place them in a skillet of hot oil.
7. Cook pieces according to size. Put breasts, thighs together...they take the longest...legs, wings and back take the least time.
8. Add your chicken pieces gently. Don’t crowd the skillet. 4-5 pieces at a time will give all the sides room to brown up evenly. A crowded skillet brings the oil temp down and makes for soggy greasy chicken.
9. Monitor the chicken and after about 8 minutes, turn it over...that is, if the batter is the shade of golden brown you desire. If it’s too light, cook it a little longer. 
10. Once turned, cook for another 8-10 minutes.
11. I cook the breasts and thighs first, then the last round is for wings, legs.
12. I also line a cookie sheet with foil and place a wire rack inside. When the breasts and thighs are browned on both sides, I put them on a rack and into a 250 degree oven. That keeps them crisp and helps them finish cooking while I start the legs and wings.

Skillet Instructions:

• I generally use my cast iron skillet. Sometime I use the lid technique, sometimes I don’t. In the case of these chicken legs pictured, I did not.
• Fill your skillet half full of vegetable oil. Turn your heat up to medium. Make sure your oil is fully hot when you start adding the chicken. If it isn’t sizzling when the chicken is added, you will get greasy soggy crust. Test the oil by putting the tip of a fork in the egg wash, then put the eggy tips down in the hot oil. If it immediately starts cooking and forming little beads, then the oil is ready. If not, wait a while longer and/or turn your heat up a bit.

Frying Station: Egg, flour, into the skillet!

Coating with seasoned egg wash mixture.

Rolling in seasoned flour.

Oil on medium heat.

Auntie Donna’s Fried Chicken

Common Mistakes:

• Medium hot oil is what you want to achieve...not oil heated on High. All you will have is the best looking golden brown crust and raw chicken in the middle. Consistent heat is the key.
• Adjustments are easily made to the process. If your chicken pieces seem pretty hefty, then cook them each a little longer. If it looks like a scrawny little chicken, then cook it less. If the oil seems too hot and the batter is browning too fast, turn the heat down a little. If it isn’t sizzling like in my photo, then turn the heat up. 

Don’t get scared away by all the steps and over abundance of instructions. Fried Chicken is pretty easy and it’s a quick way to have a protein ready for any meal. 

You can use this same recipe on boneless skinless chicken breasts or chicken tenders. It’s best to let the chicken soak in milk seasoned with a couple of shakes of hot sauce for at least 20-minutes. Then the egg and flour steps will hang on a bit better...and you will have a nice crust.

Let me know how it goes! I’m anxious to hear if this 90-something-year-old recipe will be passed along in your family, too!

As the mixing bowl turns...or in this case, as the skillet sizzles,

Donna ; - )

Caramel Macchiato Coffee Cake: Should have thought of this years ago!

Caramel Macchiato Coffee Cake

Some people love candy. Not me. I’ll take a good piece of cake anytime. I’ll actually take a dry piece of cake. I love cake. Lately, I’m into caramel, vanilla, buttery flavors. A few days ago I woke up around 4 o’clock; couldn’t get back to sleep. And when I can’t sleep, I think about what is in my pantry and my fridge that I can combine to make something yummy and different. Yeah, that may not be normal, but it’s my normal. Anyway, all that thinking made me hungry. By 5:30 a.m. this cake was ready. It was still hot when I took that first slice out. Oh, it was SO good with that pot of strong coffee I had made.

Two things:  1) If you don’t want to make it from scratch, just get a “butter” yellow cake mix and add the cinnamon and praline liqueur. 2) You don’t have to use the praline liqueur, you could use butter flavoring, a nut flavoring, extra vanilla, or absolutely no extra flavoring at all. I just love my little bottle of praline liqueur and try to find any way I can to sneak it into a recipe. I honestly just like to smell it. If you get some, you will totally understand. I’m not crazy.

The first name I came up with was way too long, and later on I was at Starbucks drinking a Caramel Macchiato and it hit me...this kinda tastes like the glaze I made on my cake! So, thus, the cake is now named for my Starbucks obsession. Not very original, but it lets you know what flavors you will be enjoying.

Caramel Macchiato Coffee Cake

Oven:  350 degrees
Time:  40-45 minutes

The cake is a standard 1-2-3-4 Butter Cake recipe, older than any of us reading this blog. My additions are the cinnamon and praline liqueur. For those that are into the salted caramel craze, you could sprinkle  some coarse salt or sea salt on top for that flavor punch.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup butter, room temperature
2. 2 cups sugar
3. 3 cups all-purpose flour
4. 4 eggs
5. 3 tsp baking powder
6. 1 tsp cinnamon
7. 1 cup milk
8. 1 tsp vanilla
9. 1 TBS praline liqueur

Instructions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating each in thoroughly.
3. Add dry ingredients, alternately with milk and flavorings.
4. Bake in greased/floured bundt pan, 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
5. Let set for a couple of minutes in bundt pan, then turn onto cake plate to cool while you mix up the glaze.

Caramel Macchiato Glaze

Ingredients:

• 1/2 box powdered sugar
• 2 heaping TBS of caramel sauce (like you use on ice cream)
• 1 TBS melted butter
• 1/4 cup strong coffee, set aside

Instructions:

1. In a medium size bowl, place powdered sugar, caramel sauce, melted butter.
2. Slowly add in coffee and mix well. Add more or less coffee until you achieve the thickness you desire of your glaze. If it gets too thin, just add a more powdered sugar.

Caramel Macchiato Coffee Cake

This cake is rich in flavor, moist and became an family favorite immediately! This would be perfect to take to a potluck or an early morning meeting at work to share. However, the three of us are content to keep this one all to ourselves.

I make most every cake in bundt form these days, just because it is easier for my family to access. You could definitely make this a two layer cake. You would just need to cut the cooking time down to 25-30 minutes and make a little more glaze....maybe make it thicker, more like an icing.

Note regarding the glaze:  My daughter and I like really strong coffee, so I have started buying a can of espresso grind coffee and mixing it with either French roast or Columbian roast (whichever happens to be on sale that week). So my coffee is really strong and you can easily taste that rich flavor in my glaze. If you don’t like a real coffee hit, then your regular strength coffee will give you a hint of that flavor.

I hope you give this cake a try and please send me a photo! Or send me one of your recipes to try!

As the mixing bowl turns,

Donna ; - )