Blue Cayenne

Lemon-Buttermilk Pound Cake

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Ingredients

Cake
• 2 3/4 C. cake flour
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. kosher salt
• 3/4 C. buttermilk
• 3 T. lemon juice
• 5 large eggs (room temperature and separated)
• 2 C. plus 3 T. white sugar
• 2 T. grated lemon zest
• 13 T.(1 1/2 sticks plus 1 T.) (room temperature and divided-I used unsalted butter with a generous pinch of kosher salt)
Glaze
• 1 C. powdered sugar
• 1 or 2 T. lemon juice (to your taste)
• Coconut milk to thin the glaze to the consistency you want

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. and thoroughly grease a bundt pan with 1 T. of softened butter. (Use a pastry brush to help grease your pan by brushing the softened butter into the crevices on the pan.) Adjust the baking rack in your oven to a middle position.
2. Whisk flour, baking soda and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Combine buttermilk and lemon juice. Set aside.
4. Using the whisk attachment on your stand mixer, whisk room temperature egg whites at medium speed for about a minute. You want the whites to be light and foamy. Keep the mixer running and slowly sprinkle 3 T. of sugar into the whites. Continue to whisk until the mixture turns thick and glossy and will hold soft peaks. This will take about 1 minute. Gently scoop out the egg white mixture and put it into a bowl and set aside.
5. Change the tool on your mixer to the paddle attachment. Put 2 C. sugar and lemon zest into the stand mixer bowl. Mix the sugar and the lemon zest for about 1 minute. You want to thoroughly mix in the zest and you want the mixture to begin to clump. Add the remaining 12 T. of room temperature butter and continue to mix until the ingredients are well-combined and begins to form around the paddle attachment. You should be using a medium-low setting on your mixer. Next, raise the speed of your mixer to medium-high and beat the mixture until it turns pale and is a bit fluffy. This will take 3-4 minutes.
6. Lower mixer speed to low and add egg yolks one by one, mixing and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Once the egg yolks are well-incorporated into the batter, slowly add about 1/3 of the flour mixture. Mix on low. Add 1/2 of the buttermilk mixture. Mix on low. Repeat ending with the last of the flour mixture.
7. Fold 1/3 of the whipped egg whites into the batter, mixing thoroughly. Then, add the rest of the whipped egg whites folding the whites carefully into the batter to keep from losing too much of the air in the whipped whites. Do not over mix. You only want the whites to be lightly mixed with the batter in this last step.
8. Pour the batter into your prepared bundt pan. Level the top of the batter with a spatula. Bake at 325 degrees F. for 50 to 60 minutes. Halfway through the baking, rotate the bundt pan in your oven to allow for more even baking.
9. When the cake is done (it should be firm when pressed and should spring back when pressed), remove it from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. Next, run a knife around the outside of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Also, run the knife around the center tube of the bundt pan to loosen it from that part of the pan. Invert the cake onto a serving plate.
10. Prepare the glaze by combining powdered sugar, lemon juice and coconut milk. Drizzle with lemon glaze.
11. Cool cake completely before serving.

Lemon-Poppy Seed Cake

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Ingredients

Cake
• 3 large eggs
• 1 C. plus 2 T. granulated sugar
• 1/2 C. heavy cream
• 5 T. unsalted butter (cubed)
• 1 T. poppy seeds
• Finely grated zest of 3 lemons (about 1 T.)
• 1 1/3 C. all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 t. baking powder
• 1/4 t. salt
Glaze
• 3/4 C. powdered sugar (sifted)
• 2 T. lemon juice

Instructions

1. Grease a loaf pan and line it with parchment paper. Use a piece of parchment larger than your pan so that you will have paper handles hanging over the long sides of the pan to help you ease the cake out of the pan.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Using the paddle attachment in your stand mixer, beat eggs and sugar together until they are well-mixed and frothy. This should take about 2 minutes. Add the heavy cream to the egg/sugar mixture and continue beating for an additional 2 minutes. You want the mixture to thicken a bit.
4. While the egg mixture is mixing, melt butter in a small saucepan. Remove from the heat and add poppy seeds and lemon zest. Set aside.
5. In a medium-sized bowl, sift the flour, salt and baking powder together. Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture using a rubber spatula.
6. Add the butter/lemon zest/poppy seed mixture to the batter and fold into the batter.
7. Pour batter into your loaf pan. It should come about 3/4 up the side of the pan. Bake in a 350 degree F. oven for about 50 minutes or until a skewer stuck into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
8. To make the glaze, whisk powdered sugar and lemon juice together. Drizzle the glaze over the hot cake just as it comes out of the oven.
9. You should leave the cake on your counter to cool for about 30 minutes before removing it from the pan.
10. Serve at room temperature.

When The Going Gets Really Tough: Lasagna and an iPhone

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Ingredients

For the Sauce
• 2 T. olive oil
• 1 large yellow onion (finely chopped)
• 4 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 T. Tomato paste
• 1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes
• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
• 2 C. water
For the Assembly
• 1 1/2 pounds fresh mozzarella (grated or shredded)
• 16 ounces (2 C.) whole-milk ricotta
• 1 C. coarsely-grated (or shredded) parmesan (plus more for topping the assembled lasagna)
• 1/4 C. heavy cream
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Chopped cooked spinach
• Finely-sliced mushrooms
• 1 pound dried lasagna noodles
• Olive oil (for drizzling)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. To prepare the sauce, heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Continue cooking until the onion is soft and translucent. Stir occasionally. This should take 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Add tomato paste and cook and stir until the tomato paste begins to turn a dark red color. This should take about 2 minutes.
4. Crush the can of peeled whole tomatoes with your hands and add tomatoes and their juices to the pot along with the can of already crushed tomatoes. Add 2 cups of water. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens.You want a nice thick sauce for this lasagna so that your final dish will not be too watery. This will take about 35 to 45 minutes.
5. To prepare the lasagna filling, combine mozzarella (except for 1 C. that you set aside to sprinkle over the lasagna at the end) and the ricotta, parmesan and cream. Season filling with salt and pepper. Set aside.
6. Heat large pot of salted water to boiling. Cook the lasagna noodles in the boiling water until the noodles are just al dente. This will take 4 to 5 minutes. Drain noodles.Separate noodles. Drizzle noodles with a bit of olive oil. Lay the noodles out on paper towels to dry a bit.
7. Spread some sauce on the bottom of a 3-quart rectangular baking dish. Top the sauce with a layer of noodles.Spread about 1 1/4 C. sauce over the noodles. Top sauced noodles with dollops of the cheese filling--about 1/4 of the cheese mixture. Top this with another layer of noodles, sauce, cheese. (I added a layer of cooked and chopped spinach and a layer of butter-sauteed mushrooms during the layering process.) Do this for several layers to fill your baking dish. You want the final layer to be noodles covered by sauce. Top with the reserved 1 C. of mozzarella and additional parmesan.
8. Cover lasagna with aluminum foil. Set the pan of lasagna on a foil-lined baking sheet to protect your oven from drips. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. After the initial baking, remove the foil and continue baking until the lasagna is golden brown. This will take another 35 to 45 minutes. Your lasagna, when done, should be a pretty golden brown on top and the sauce should be hot and bubbling up from around the edges of the lasagna.
9. Remove lasagna from the oven and let cool a bit before slicing. Garnish with chopped parsley and additional sauce (optional).

Nutrition

Calories

5341 cal

Fat

291 g

Carbs

367 g

Protein

258 g

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