Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Blue Ribbon Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Blue Heron Kitchen, adapted from Melissa Clark

If you don’t have coconut oil in your larder, this is one good reason to go get some. The original recipe required extra virgin olive oil, the dominatrix of olive oils. When baking with oil, it’s generally not my fat of choice. Olive oil cakes (Mediterranean/Italian) rock. But leave the olive oil out of this one (sorry, Melissa.) If you can, purchase virgin and organic coconut oil. It's high-end, sweet and white (and pricey). Trader Joe's is a good resource in the U.S. I watch for sales. "Spectrum" brand is highly recommended. When it goes on sale, snag one! You'll be eating it out of the jar.

Everything else about Clark’s recipe is great (I tweaked the glaze and added some lemon oil. It removed that corn-starchy taste and added a nice depth.)

The viscosity of coconut oil is slightly heavier than refined oils; and I didn’t want a lemon poppy piña colada loaf, so I combined coconut and canola oils and the result was stunning.

Make sure your poppy seeds are fresh because when left out, they turn rancid pretty quickly. Once opened, store them in the freezer. Truc: Penzey’s Spices is an excellent resource. They’ve been opening shops all over the U.S. or you can order online. Their spice quality is high end, and customer service is excellent. 

Another online spice source is My Spice Sage.

You’ll need 3 to 4 lemons, depending on size and juiciness. I think it’s best to use organic lemons.

Boyajian lemon oil is a great staple to have in your fridge.

You can buy a set of three citrus oils from King Arthur Flour. Keep them in the fridge and they’ll last forever. These little bottles, when used correctly, are fantastic flavor enhancers; and they’re natural! The addition of a few drops of lemon oil removes the “cornstarch chalk”, adds depth; and makes it go “zing!”. You need the smallest amount. Order those oils now. And while you’re online at King Arthur Flour, order the fiori di sicilia too. Add it to pound cake and your pound cake will taste like a slice of harmony.

This lemon poppy seed cake will win you a blue ribbon at your county fair. The snow (in the U.S.) will end and county fairs will return. And we will rejoice!

Dairy-Free Truc: To make dairy- free "buttermilk", mix equal parts of vegan sour cream (Tofutti makes it) and water. 

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

INGREDIENTS:

Oil and flour, for greasing and flouring pan

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour,

Zest of 2 lemons, plus 1 to 2 more lemons for juice

1 c. granulated sugar

½ c. buttermilk (if you can find Kate’s, it’s fantastic!)

3 Tbsp. + 3-4 additional tsp. lemon juice for the glaze

3 eggs, size large, room temperature, slightly beaten

1 ½  tsp. baking powder

¼  tsp. baking soda

¼  tsp. Kosher salt

1/3 c. canola oil

1/3 c. coconut oil

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

½  c. confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Optional, but recommended: Boyajian pure lemon oil for glaze

Procedure:

1.Preheat oven to 350º F. Oil and flour an 8-inch loaf pan.

2. In a bowl (if using Kitchen Aid or electric mixer, use the mixer’s bowl), combine lemon zest and sugar and rub with your fingers until it looks like wet sand. Whisk in (or use paddle attachment/beater blade) buttermilk, 3 tablespoons lemon juice and eggs.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4. Whisk dry ingredients into the batter, then whisk in oil and poppy seeds.

4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean, about 1 hour. Let cool in pan until warm to the touch, then turn out onto a baking rack set over a rimmed baking sheet. Turn cake right side up.

5.Whisk together remaining 4 teaspoons lemon and the confectioners’ sugar. Add just enough lemon juice to achieve desired glaze consistency. Add lemon oil, drop by drop, until desired taste is achieved. The lemon oil will mask the cornstarch taste of the confectioner’s sugar and will add a round and wonderful lemon taste to the glaze. Put a piece of waxed paper under the rack to catch drips and our the glaze over the top in thin rows. It will spread as it dissolves. Or, you can use a pastry brush to spread glaze evenly over top and sides of cake. Use an offset spatula to scoop up drippings and adhere them to sides and missed areas of the loaf.

Cool before slicing.

YIELD 8 servings (if it makes it out of the kitchen)

When life brings you poppy seeds, squeeze lemons!

peace and love,

jane

Lemon Poppy Seed Dolphins

Port Washington has an independent book store called The Dolphin Book Shop. According to a sign in an empty, prime location on Main Street, The Dolphin Book Shop is moving from its you hardly know its there current location to its new home smack in the center of town, on the water - a really great location.

While they're busy scraping the David Yurman logo off the window and readying our new beautiful book store, I've been busy developing what I think are "Mommy, can we go to the dolphin cookie store now?" cookies for their new location.

I assumed the shop would be actively seeking out a signature cookie for their new home.

Unless someone wants to come over and cut out these buggers or order me a custom dolphin die cut cookie cutter template, this is going no further than this post.

I did create a great variation of Grandma Rae's Möhn Kichel. It uses whole wheat pastry flour, (remember this was intended for venue where people read about things. And whole wheat flour was never mean to you, was it?) some organic lemon rind and lemon extract.

You can use a cookie cutter or a pizza cutter, crimped or not crimped.

Don't limit yourself to dolphins.  If you have a turtle shape, use it and call them Lemon Oil Spill Cookies.

So, rather than sweat the small stuff, my new dream is to write a cookbook:
365 Ways to Bake Möhn Kichel. 

Lemon Poppy Seed Dolphins

Lemon Poppy Seed Dolphins

Blue Heron Kitchen

Ingredients: 

3 eggs, size large, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. lemon zest (organic lemon preferred)

1 cup canola oil

1 tsp. lemon extract

¼ cup room temperature water

1 Tbsp. baking powder

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1.25 oz poppy seeds

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350º F., line 4 cookie sheets with parchment or Silpat.

In a bowl, whisk together the baking powder and flours and set aside.

In a separate bowl, mix the lemon zest into the cup of sugar and set aside.(The oils from the zest will flavor the sugar.)

In the bowl of a Kitchen Aid, fit with a paddle attachment (get a beater blade - you'll never stop beating it), beat the eggs, oil and lemon zested sugar until thick.  Add the lemon extract and mix. Add the water, mix, and then, the poppy seeds. Mix.

Add the dry ingredients and blend on low speed.  Finish mixing by hand.  You can flatten the dough on a lightly floured board and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until you are ready to roll and cut.

On a flour coated surface, roll out between 1/8”-1/2” thick and cut, with a cookie cutter or pizza cutter(or a knife!)into squares or rectangles.

Place on parchment lined cookie sheets and “bake until golden brown”, about 10-15 minutes.

Yield varies depending on size of cookie. 

peace, love and smooth sailing,

jane 

Möhn Kichel

Möhn Kichel

Möhn or "Moon" are poppy seeds, and kichel are little cakes, crackers or cookies.  My Grandma Rae made these.  Often.  Grandma's cooking was, well, very basic.  She wasn't an adventurous or even fabulous cook, but she knew how to make a few things extraordinarily well.  These cookies were one of those things.  Grandma Rae was simple, loving, and if you didn't eat enough, she was simultaneously insulted and forlorn.  Kind of a cliché, but she was my cliché. Her fingers, gnarled by arthritis, were forever shoveling homemade (greasy) noodles, latkes and applesauce, chicken fricasee, the best matzo brei, Passover nutcake, sponge cake and other Eastern European Jewish delicacies into my little mouth. If it wasn't open, she'd pry it open. All the while, my Grandpa Julie would be sitting in 'his' armchair smoking his cigar (he called them "Smell-o-mile-o's"), oblivious to everything except whatever ball was being played with on the television set.  I grew up loving the Bronx, the smell of incinerators and the Jewish cooking smells of tenement buildings. My Grandma Rae died over 14 years ago, and I miss her all the time.  I can still hear her voice.  And now, for my confession:


I had dinner with a friend the other night, and I think I freaked him out.  I told him that I had, in my freezer, cookies, möhn kichel, that my Grandma Rae had baked, probably more than 25 years ago.  I've simply kept them.  And I take them with me wherever I move (and I move often).  I whisper, "Come on Grandma, we're moving to ______".  And I stick those cookies in my pocket book, and off we go!  


Now, you may think this is sick stuff.  And it may well be.  But, it's no different than keeping other stuff from dead people.  Kind of like her ashes. They just happen to be perishable and rather then being stored in say, a Folger's can, they need to be kept in the freezer. I'll write about my cinnamon sugar and my other Grandma - Bessie - another time. Maybe.


Here is her recipe for möhn kichel.  I use corn oil, because she did.  It says on the label that there's zero trans fat.  I believe them. Corn oil is so lovely and sweet. Her recipe calls for "a box" of poppy seeds, so I looked in the market at what McCormick considers a small container (no more boxes - now they have round plastic containers) of poppy seeds, and it's 1.25 oz.  You can buy one of those.


I buy my poppy seeds from Penzey's.  You can buy all kinds of great stuff from them, mail order(they have the absolute best storage jars at the absolute best price). They have stores too - one is in the Grand Central Terminal Market.  There's another on Rte. 110 in Huntington, LI. FREEZE those seeds after you've opened them.  Poppy seeds turn rancid very quickly.


These are very simple cookies.  Don't expect the moon.  They're peasant cookies ... and they are addictive.  I just had about 3 dozen for my dinner.


Happy Chanukah, y'all!


peace and love,
jane

Möhn Kichel

Blue Heron Kitchen

Ingredients:

3 eggs, size large, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup corn oil

¼ cup tepid water

1 Tbsp. baking powder

4 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1.25 oz poppy seeds

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350º F., line 4 cookie sheets with parchment or Silpat

In the bowl of a Kitchen Aid, fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the eggs, oil and sugar until thick.  Add the water, mix, and then, the poppy seeds. Mix.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the baking powder and flour. 

Add dry to wet ingredients. Mix until incorporated.

On a flour coated surface, with a floured rolling pin, roll dough out between 1/8”-1/4” thick and cut, with a pizza cutter into squares or rectangles. (In the true Grandma Rae tradition, no two should be alike.)

Place on parchment lined cookie sheets and as Grandma Rae wrote: “bake until brown”, about 10-15 minutes.

Yield: abut 10-12 dozen 1”-2” squarish/rectanglish cookies

Store in tins. 

These will keep for weeks, or in my twisted case, for decades, in the freezer ;-)