It wouldn’t be Easter if I didn’t make some variation on the Hot Cross Bun. Everyone has their own, there are literally thousands of styles, combinations and variations. This year, I went for the somewhat rustic Cranberry Walnut Whole Wheat Sourdough Hot Cross Buns version. It’s an enriched sweet (but not too sweet) sourdough brioche dough, fruit and nuts added. Eat with sweet jam or honey or make into a bacon sandwich. nom nom nom.
Me, and Crumble Bars, eh? Yep. thought I would make some more – these are Yuzu Lemon Shortbread Crumble Bars – and even though they aren’t exactly Easter-y, they are bright and tart and delicious. Never heard of Yuzu? Well, nor I had I until I tried some juice while at an Asian restaurant a while back. Yuzu is sometimes called a Japanese Lemon. Sometimes called a Korean Tangerine and has roughly been described to me as a mashup between a lemon, grapefruit and a mandarin, round, but lemon yellow. I’ve never had a fresh one, but the jam, extract and syrups are amazing.These crumble bars would be a great addition to an Easter dessert spread.
Switching gears…. Easter is really early this year. Or at least it feels earlier than normal. I don’t recall it usually being this close to St. Patrick’s Day. At any rate, as with so many holidays, I feel the need to make something. As if I ever need an excuse, right? So this year’s Easter season is starting off with these Cardamom Carrot Cake Oatmeal Nut Cookies. They might be healthy, if it weren’t for the 3 sticks of butter and the almond candies. They are delicious and the nests actually turned out quite cute.
I was a little apprehensive about making these. I love goat cheese and fried cheese in general is a good thing, but somehow I was both intrigued and nervous about these. Turns out, that nervousness was unfounded because OMG are these delicious. They are tart and salty, crunchy and silky and the honey really puts them over the top. Do not skip the freezing step otherwise the goat cheese will be too soft and will melt while you are frying. Also, really only make as many as you think that you will need because they aren’t as good when they cool to room temperature and you definitely don’t want to microwave to reheat, unless you like cleaning goat cheese from the inside of your microwave. Just saying.
Well, a couple of days late and likely a few dollars short for Valentines Day, but here is the next thing for “Citrus week” — Lemon Mini-Heart Cakelettes. I had actually planned to make them with a raspberry swirl in the frosting, but that didn’t work out as planned. The whole reason for these was actually trying out my new “heartlet” plan. I found it at the local ACE hardware, but they are available off Amazon too. I was actually afraid that the little tarts wouldn’t release well from the cast iron, but turned out well. I’ll have to try mini-mini pies next.