When life gives you lemons…

It’s that time of year when Lemon trees around New Zealand are producing lots of yummy fruit.  Sure, you could make lemonade or a gin and tonic, but I say when life gives you lemons GET BAKING!  Why not try out one of these delish recipes:

Dirk's Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon meringue pies look tricky.  Trust me, they're not.  So simple in fact, that this is now quite often our go to dessert to make if we are in a rush and off to someone’s house for dinner.

Lemon Bars

These are super yummy.  This is a fave recipe which I really need to get around to making and photographing again as this picture doesn’t do it justice.

Lemon Loaf

Again, this is another beautiful recipe that I need to remake and photograph as the picture is rubbish.  Trust me, the loaf it not :)

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

These are delicious and impressive.  Fill them with your own home made Lemon Curd to really be fancy.

Lemon Poppyseed Cake  and Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

I love the texture that the poppy seeds give to these two recipes.  The cupcakes are particularly divine – really moist and a nice flavour.

Lemon Tart

This lemon tart is just beautiful.  If you really want to go for gold, you can make your own short crust pastry too (however, store bought stuff will work just as well).

Lemon Tea Muffins

How cute are these?  They are almost too darling to eat.  Almost.

Lemon Whoopie Pies

So far, this is my fave whoopie pie recipe.  They have a lovely lemon flavour, but it is not too overpowering.

Sour Cream Lemon Cake

This cake is beautifully moist.  Who could resist tucking into that with a side or cream or yoghurt?

Here’s a couple of recipes to help you add a little something special to your baking:

Lemon Curd

Candied Lemon Peel

Hopefully that gives you a few ideas on how to use your lemons up :)

How to make Candied Lemon Peel

Making candied lemon peel is pretty easy.  Adjust the quantities below depending on how much you want to make.  I halved the ingredients listed below to make the candied peel to go on top of my Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins and I still had a reasonable amount left over.  You could use this recipe to candy the peel of other citrus fruits too.

You will need:
3 lemons
2 cups water
2 cups white sugar, or as needed

Remove the rind from the fruit.  There are two ways of doing this:

1. Cut lemons into slices and remove the fruit pulp. Scrape off as much of the white inner layer as you can, this part is bitter. A spoon or butter knife will work well.  This results in the circles of rind you can see in the picture above.

2. Use a vegetable peeler and peel off the skin, then cut it into thin strips.  This method is a lot quicker and the strips still have a pretty curl to them once they have been candied. 

Bring water to a boil in a small pan and add lemon peels.  Boil for about 5 minutes, until tender.  Remove peels from water and stir in sugar. Return to a boil, add peels and boil for about 15-20 minutes until the peels translucent.  Stir regularly as the mixture can burn.  Taste a piece of the peel – if it is bitter tasting, change the water and sugar so you have a fresh pot and re-boil the peel.  Continue to do this until you are satisfied with the flavour.  Drain and allow to dry before storing.  Liquid may be reserved and used as lemon simple syrup.

I sprinkled a little bit of sugar on my candied peels before using them to top my Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins.