lemon thyme

Peach, Blueberry & Lemon Thyme Galettes

07.08.2010 43 Comments

If everything goes according to plan, I’ll be home in France in two weeks. It’s been four years since I have not been back and it was not for lack of planning or trying. Just happened that way. But now, as we get closer to the date, I buzz about even faster. As B. said "now you’re like a buzzy bee on a sugar high"… There is so much to do, straighten out, finalize, revise…Things I don’t want to do while away. People to see, places to be, milestones to celebrate. Life. Family. Time. Away.

I am already thinking about all the flavors of my childhood. Lavender fields, apricot jam and cherry clafoutis, cantaloupe with a splash of port wine, nectarines, barbecues and Champagne and cassis cocktails. Picking berries on the side of the roads by the Durance river. The juice of fresh peaches trickling down my chin, and my arm, and ruining my dress. But always leaving me happy happy.

I’ve always thought my little corner of Provence has some of the best stone fruit until I tried a Southern peach here. I can’t even compare they are so different. South Carolina peaches are a treat for sure. Think about your favorite peach scented anything and there you have it. It sounds like it has magical powers doesn’t it? Well it does. Right now, it makes the perfect dessert. Breakfast. Snack. I am even tempted to call it dinner tonight.

Imagine how giddy I was this week when I found myself the recipient of over 10 pounds of just ripe, just perfect peaches. Yeah. Giddy. It did not take me long to figure out what I wanted to do with them. Instincts kicked in and once back in the kitchen I started the little dance I’d do everytime at the restaurant. I started poaching, roasting, peeling, dicing…Pots and pans filled every corner of the stove and countertops. From savory to sweet, salsa to sorbet. Truly a good day.

The first thing I made though was galettes, free form tarts. I poached four peaches in jasmine tea, let them cool completely, peeled, pitted and sliced them thin. I used half a peach per galette, some I left all peach and some had a small handful of blueberries added to them. All were sprinkled with sugar infused with lemon thyme like I did previously in these Fresh Berries Tartelettes. Simply rub herbs and sugar together, can be citrus zest too, it works wonders!

I love how packed the summer gets. I love the epic heat of a day spent outdoors followed by stormy winds and thunderstorms. Summer. When rules are bent and time extends following the sunset. And mostly, right now, I love summer because of peach galettes….

Peach and Peach Blueberry Galettes With Lemon Thyme Sugar:

Makes 8 individual galettes (we share but you don’t have to)

Notes:
– I use lemon thyme a lot this year because our one little plant is going wild. Our lemon balm and mint have suffered from the heat but you could definitely use those flavor.
Rosemary, oregano, chocolate mint and sweet basil work beautifully too. The sky is the limit!

– we are not fond of the taste of tapioca flour so I use cornstarch instead but feel free to use either or.

– If you are not baking gluten free, replace the rice, millet, sorghum flours and cornstarch with 1.5 cups of all purpose flour and omit the xanthan gum.

– you can make this as one large 9-inch galette if you want to.

For the pastry dough:
5 tablespoons (70gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 egg yolks
pinch salt
1/2 cup (80gr) superfine sweet white rice flour
1/2 cup (60gr) millet flour
1/4 cup (30gr) sorghum flour
1/4 cup (40gr) corn starch (or tapioca flour)
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup cold milk

For the fruits:
4 peaches
1 tea bag jasmine tea (or your favorite)
2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup blueberries

For the lemon thyme sugar:
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon thyme finely chopped

Prepare the fruits:
While the dough is resting, place the peaches, tea bag, sugar and enough water to cover the fruit in a large saucepan set over high heat. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and poach the peach until just fork tender. Remove from the heat and let them cool on a clean kitchen towel. Once cooled, peel and halve them, remove the pits and slice the peaches thin.

Prepare the sugar:
In a small bowl, mix the sugar and lemon thyme together with your fingertips and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350F and position a rack in the center.
When the dough is nice and cold, roll it out on a lightly floured board or in between two sheets of plastic. If the dough tears while you roll, just patch it with your fingertips. Cut eight 4-inch rounds, rerolling and using the dough as you go (ig it gets too soft, just refrigerate for a few minutes as you fill the other galettes with fruit).
Arrange the slices of half a peach in the center of each round and gather the edges, pleating as you go with your fingertips (don’t worry about being even – these are free form. Imperfections are wonderful anyways…). Add blueberries on top if desired and sprinkle with some lemon thyme sugar.

Place all the galettes on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for about 30-35 minutes.

————————————————————————————-
Props:
– bike and handlebar basket: ours
– basket on bench: Dollar Store (yes…)
– wooden bowl: Star Provisions, Atlanta
– linen last picture: Cicada Studio, etsy
– wooden forks: Sprout Home
– enamel pot: ebay

Fresh Berries Tartelettes

08.06.2010 67 Comments

I love that my mother stopped asking me about the weather a month ago. My answers were fast turning into "hotter" "sticky crazy humid" "yuck". I could complain about it until the cows come home. I try not to but sometimes it just feels good to vent it out loud. Especially if you’re in line somewhere. Then it’s instant validation that you’re not exaggerating. It really feels sticky as glue out there.

Except today. Today was one of those days you just want to hug. Like Lucy hugs the snow. I wanted to hug today. It looks cuter with a toddler than a 35 year old though. But heck, if Jen is willing to give it a go during the Food And Light Photo workshop this month, maybe we can do a little "Helen hugging the gorgeous Colorado" weather photo shoot. Nah….it still is not as endearing as little Lu.

You could think that now would be the time we only eat ice cream or frozen treats. And we do. Some. Not only and not always. The only things keeping us cool are the shades and a quick dip into the ocean. As far as desserts go, we don’t really change our eating habits that much beside more salads instead of cooked vegetables and more sorbets than usual. Honeydew and peach sorbets are currently "curing" in the freezer actually.

With B’s college friends visiting these past few days I made sure that we had plenty of food to put on the grill, cold drinks to be mixed and lots of homemade ice cream to dig our spoons into. Turns out, the first thing they asked me to make was some tartelettes. Go figure. They’ve known my nickname upon ten minutes of meeting me 10 years ago.

We are extremely lucky to have bushes upon bushes of wild blackberries in the neighborhood and I seem to be the only one interested in picking them. One morning, I took my sweet time and picked about three cups worth. We ate some with creme fraiche one morning, they were sweet and juicy but remembering all the scratches I got and spiders I met on my picking expedition, I decided to freeze the precious blackberry loot.

Dear friends call for uncorking the bubbly, busting out the pretty plates and using said precious berries in simple and fragrant tartelettes.

This is pretty much my go-to recipe for fresh fruit tarts. The dough is really easy to come together and is sturdy enough to give just the right amount of crunch. I chose a mix of blackberries and raspberries from the market but you could make these with any fruit that is in season. The trick, what sets them apart, comes from the 20 minutes that the fruit spends marinating in a fragrant herb sugar.

Yep. That’s my little secret: I simply rub some sugar with one of the herbs growing in the garden for a minute and let the fruit steep in it. If it’s just us, I won’t remove the herbs at all but for guests, I’ll usually strain the sugar before sprinkling it on the berries. Right now I am on a lemon thyme or lemon balm kick but mint, lemon verbana, chamomille work quite well.

Such a simple thing to do and yet it takes the tarts from good to intriguing. Like adding another layer of goodness. One simple step. I hope you will give it a try and let your imagination or your garden lead you to discover new flavor combinations.

Fresh Berries Tartelettes:

Makes four to six 4-inch tarts

Notes: if you are not baking gluten free, replace the rice, millet, sorghum flours and cornstarch with 1.5 cups of all purpose flour and omit the xanthan gum.

I use this flour combination the most because 1/ these are the least expensive gluten free flours out there and like most of us who bake a lot, I have to pay a close eye on the budget and 2/ because their flavors combined are mild enough that non gluten free folks are not taken aback by the taste or the texture.

If you choose to make one 9-inch tart with this, you might want to double up on the berries and add more sugar to taste.

I used a combination of butter and leaf lard (more info on this here) but feel free to use all butter or half shortening – half butter which keeps the crust nice and flaky. Lard also has less saturated fat than butter.

For the crust:
5 tablespoons (70gr) unsalted butter, at room temperature (I used half butter and half leaf lard I got at the market this time)
3 egg yolks
pinch salt
1/2 cup (80gr) superfine sweet white rice flour
1/2 cup (60gr) millet flour
1/4 cup (30gr) sorghum flour
1/4 cup (40gr) corn starch (or tapioca flour)
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup cold milk

For the filling:
1 pint blackberries
1 pint raspberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 chopped tablespoon lemon thyme (or your favorite herb)

Prepare the crust:
In a mixer, whip the butter on medium speed until light and airy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time and beating well after each addition. Mix until incorporated. Add the salt, and all the different flours, and the xantham gum and mix briefly. Add enough milk to moisten it. Dump the whole mixture onto a lightly floured (use more rice flour) board and gather the dough into a smooth ball. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
Preheat oven to 350F and position a rack in the center.
When the dough is nice and cold, roll it out on a lightly floured board or in between two sheets of plastic to fit your prefered pie pan. If the dough tears while you roll or/and transfer into the pan, just patch it with your fingertips. Line the dough with a piece of parchment paper, fill with pie weights or dy beans and par bake for 10-15 minutes until almost completely baked. Remove the weights and parchment paper. At this point you can refrigerate the baked crust for up to 3 days before using. Roll some extra dough to form lattice pattern on top if desired. You can also freeze the extra raw dough for up to three months.

For the filling:
Place the berries in a non reactive bowl. Rub the sugar and thyme together and sprinkle over the fruit. Gently mix with a spatula. Let the fruit marinate for about 20 minutes.

Assemble:
Divide the berries among the tart shells, top with lattice if desired and bake 20 minutes. Let the tarts cool completely before eating. Depending on the water content in the fruits, some may release more juice than others so be aware when you eat…it might drip.

———————————————————————————–

Tartelettes Aux Fruits Rouges:

Pour 4 a 6 tartelettes

Pour la pate:
70gr beurre mou, non sale (j’ai utilise moitie beurre et moitie panne)
3 jaunes d’oeuf
pincee de sel
80gr farine de riz
60gr farine de millet
30gr farine de sorghum
40gr de maizena
(ou de 210gr de farine blanche)
1/2 cc de gomme de xanthan
2 a 4 cc de lait

Pour la garniture:
215 gr de mures
215 gr de framboises
100 gr de sucre
1 cc de thym citron

Preparer la pate:
Dans le bol d’un mixer, battez le beurre pendant 1 minute. Ajoutez les jaunes d’oeufs un a un, tout en melangeant bien apres chaque jaune. Ajoutez le sel et les farines sans gluten, le sel et la gomme de xantham. Ajoutez assez de lait pour humidifier la pate. Melangez brievement et verzes le contenu sur un plan de travail. Ramassez en boule et metter au refrigerateur pendant une heure.
Prechauffez le four a 180C et positionnez une plaque au milieu.
Etalez la pate sur un plan de travail legerement farine (farine sans gluten de preference), ou entre deux feuilles de papier sulfurise. Foncez en un plat a tarte, mettre une feuille de papier sulfurise dans le fond, et des pois/riz. Faire pre-cuire 10-15 minutes. Sortez la tarte du four et laissez refroidir. Roulez des bandes supplementaires de pate pour faire le motif du dessous si desire.

Pour la garniture:
Placer les fruits dans un bol non reactif. Melanger du bout des doigt le sucre avec le thym citron. Verser en pluie sur les fruits et melanger delicatement avec une spatule. Laizzer macerer 20 minutes.

Assembler:
Repartir les fruits rouges au fond des tartes, ajoutez les bandes de pate si desire et cuire 20 minutes at 180C.

Design*Sponge Feature: In The Kitchen With

14.05.2010 40 Comments

Thanks for the birthday wishes, emails, ecards and presents you sent. You made my day – week – month! It’s been a week full of work which suits me just fine since I don’t really know how to relax and take it easy. Seems like I am playing a game of "Catch me if you can" this summer and you know what? I am loving it. I am loving the work, the pressure and the adventures. I’ve never felt this alive and this happy . Our household depends on it too. It’s not just for the fun ya’ll. Although… hot dang, this much fun on the job should be illegal!

What’s even more fun is to do a little feature for the gals of Design*Sponge. Grace and Kristina are always so thorough and dedicated to their craft that it’s always a pleasure to work for them. Kristina asked if I wanted to do something gluten free this time and I had no problem coming up with a few items making the best use of some of my favorite seasonal fruits.

For some reason we have been hooked on vanilla and coconut ice cream lately and as soon as the first strawberries showed up at the market we started having ice cream and lemon-thyme marinated strawberries almost every other night for dessert. That alone satisfies my better half just fine. I, on the other hand, always desire something else to sink my teeth into so I usually make a quick batch of gluten free shortbread cookies but with my crazy habit to load up on rhubarb at the market, I decided to use some of the poached one I prepared for the panna cotta and tart and use it in financiers.

Financiers, or friands in some parts of the world, have to be one of the easiest tea cakes to adapt gluten free and pretty hard to mess up too. And who can resist the addictive smell of browned butter? Obviously not us because these did not last long once all the shots were in the box. Maybe five minutes because we had to drink the ice cream first it was melting so fast?!

Our lemon-thyme and lemon balm plants have been growing wildly and we try our best to include them in most of the foods we eat this Spring. Salads, berries, spring rolls, marinades, etc… and we have been throwing whole stems in homemade lemonade a lot lately for a little extra flavor boost. Lemon thyme is milder than regular thyme and obviously on the citrus-y side which makes it a good substitute, replacement, change from mint. Hope you can give it a try one day!

Head over to Design*Sponge for the recipes and more pictures and say "hello" if you can!

Strawberry Vanilla Ice Cream & Strawberry Thyme Shortbreads

24.02.2009 105 Comments

We have a winner! Beside the winning combination of Strawberry Ice Cream and Strawberry Thyme Shortbreads Cookies, I am happy to announce that Maryann from Finding La Dolce Vita is the winner of The Baker’s Odyssey! Congrats Maryann! Shoot me an email with your address and the book is on it way!

I realized last evening when someone called to hire B’s band at the last minute for today that it was Mardi Gras! Ah! As a kid it was one of my favorite celebration in the year because I’d get to dress up and I loved to play dress up…ask my mother. I think I just about drove her crazy most years but she knew how much I loved becoming someone completely different even for just a day. So "Bon Mardis Gras" to anybody celebrating!

This past weekend I had the opportunity to play dress up. A different kind though. I played the adult, hardcore. I held the hand of a person in pain and massaged her back. I read her stories and cooked dinner. I did someone else’s laundry and folded someone else’s socks and underwear. For a weekend, I was mother, sister, friend and everything in between. I was the cold cloth girl, the cook, the story teller. We spent the weekend with friends who needed us for one last round of chemo aftermath. Hear that…last one…Hooray! Go life!!

M. was not up to much fun but she was a trooper and when she saw me unpack the groceries for the weekend, she got that little twinkle in her eyes. "Did you bring dessert? I wonder if I’ll have enough of an appetite for it…". Yes, I had brought dessert, a freshly made batch of strawberry and vanilla bean ice cream and planned to bake some cookies at their house. Yes, one more strawberry post but when they are this fresh and this gorgeous in their shiny red coat, I can’t help it…I am weak. What better combination than fresh vanilla, cream and strawberry?

I know how much they like a good cookie with their ice cream and I had planned to make shortbread cookies but the idea was still in progress in my head though. Sometimes, if you leave me too think to long, it ends up in a little frenzy. This time however, everything came together in a very fun way, blending and talking, chopping and talking.

I just did not want they plain and that is when I decided to dry some strawberry slices and add them to the dough along with some fresh chopped thyme. Yep, thyme. If rosemary and plums can be so good together, why not thyme and strawberries? It was perfect with the tart bits of the strawberries and the crumbly, sweet dough and it was delicious with the ice cream. Makes me want to try them with some lemon thyme once I get my herbs growing again. Strawberry heaven….Now I think I am done for a while with them…or am I?

Strawberry Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe:

Kitchen Notes: I made one batch with all the juices and the ice cream turned a very pretty pink but there were virtually no swirl left after trying to get the perfect scoop for a photo op!
I made another batch where I just used diced strawberries thrown in the vanilla ice cream base. Plenty of vanilla color to go around this time! (used in the pics here)

4 egg yolks
1/2 cup (100gr) + 2 tablespoons (25gr) sugar
2 cups half and half
1 vanilla bean, split open
1 cup strawberries, hulled and quartered

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and one cup of sugar until pale and thick. In a saucepan set over medium heat, bring the half and half and vanilla bean to a simmer, without letting it come to a full boil. Slowly pour the hot cream over the egg yolks mixture while whisking to temper the egg yolks. Pour the whole mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the cream coats the back of spoon. It should register 170F on a candy thermometer. At this point you have made a custard sauce, also known as "creme anglaise". Let cool completely, strain and refrigerate until cold.
While the custard cool, prepare the strawberries. Place the quartered strawberries and the remaining measurement of sugar into a small heavy saucepan over medium heat and cook just long enough for the strawberries to soften and to release some juice. Remove from the heat and let cool. Once both the fruit and the custard are cold, process the custard first according to your ice cream maker manufacturer’s instructions and toward the end of the churning period, throw in the strawberries.

Dried Strawberries and Thyme Shortbread Cookies Recipe:

Makes about 2 dozen cookies, depending on the size of your cutters.

1 cup strawberries, hulled and thinly sliced
1 stick butter (113gr) butter at room temperature
1/4 cup (50gr) sugar
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups (188gr) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons fresh chopped thyme
pinch of salt
1/2 tablespoon of milk

Preheat your oven to 250F.
Place the strawberry slices in one single layer on a parchment paper line baking sheet and let them dry in the oven for about one hour. Let them cool completely. Chop the dried slices in small pieces and set aside.
Turn the oven to 350F.
In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour, thyme, dried strawberries, pinch of salt and the milk and beat until the ingredients are just started to come together. Stop the mixer and finish mixing the dough with yout hands on a work surface. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out cookies with your desired cookie cutter and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before baking the cookies for 8-10 minutes or until just golden brown around the edges.

Strawberry Lemon Thyme Shortcakes Inspired By "Comfort Food", A Novel

06.06.2008 46 Comments

Early last month, the lovely Cath from A Blithe Palate and Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness contacted me to see if I wanted to be part of a foodie book club they were creating, The Edible World. The premise: about twice a year, the book club readers would get a copy of a food related novel with the mission (to read it!), pick a dish mentioned in the book, find a recipe for it, make it and blog about it. Guess what I told them?! Count me in!!! I always need something to read on the treadmill and what better way to exorcise demons and calories than read about them, right?!!

Comfort Food written by Kate Jacobs, relates the adventures in cooking and paths of self exploration of a 50 year-old tv cooking show host, Gus, whose ratings are suffering and who finds herself paired with a vibrant young Miss Spain turned culinary school graduate whose claim to fame are cooking snippets on youtube. Gus lost her husband early, taking care of her 2 daughters by opening a sandwich shop without prior culinary experience and discovered by chance by a tv cooking show producer. Gus grew to become a meticulous, detail bordering maniac loving woman, known for her fierce sense of business, suffocating her entourage by what she believes to be the "right thing".

See where I am going with this? Indeed, conflicting visions of Paula Deen and Martha Stewart were doing their mambo-jumbo during the first few chapters settling Gus into characters. Paula, divorced with two boys started a sandwich delivery enterprise to survive and was given a chance later by the FoodNetwork. Martha, divorced also with a daughter, becoming head of a multimedia enterprise and worldly known for her style and meticulously marketed lifestyle. I did not like the book at first for this very reason…I could not shake their faces and personal stories from my head and it made me mad at the writer for not being a little more creative. Then I realised that it was maybe due to the fact that these were so well known of the American public that it would be easier to cross Paula and Martha, add a little touch of Ina and voila! Gus was born and the story could move on…

And what a novel indeed, with rivalry, motherly love gone wrong, friendships blooming in the most unexpected places, people finding their voice, etc…All the characters of the novel growing with the heroine to be the people they really ought to be. All drawn by the same love for food and sharing food with others. The story lines are sometimes obvious and telegraphed but the dialogues are so fresh and surprising at times with a great sense of irony and humor that the book becomes like a good friend. The more you read, the less you want to reach the end…like when I go home for Christmas and all the family in all its neurosis comes together at the dinner table and I never want tomorrow to come.

The book is filled with dozens of tempting savory dishes and a few Indian desserts did catch my eyes but I ran out of time to focus on those before the family came to visit and when they were here one of their requests was to try a popular American dessert, the Strawberry Shortcakes mentioned in the book became an obvious choice. I find the excerpt where they are mentioned the perfect metaphor to thank Cath and Stephanie for including me in The Edible World and to thank you all for following Tartelette’s adventures!

"Gather round, friends," Alan was saying, as the sky grew dark and the guests were contentedly tired, full of watermelon and punch and Gus’s fresh strawberry shortcake piled high with vanilla-flavored whipped cream. Amid all the hubbub, the Eat Drink and Be tea had managed to sneak in a live so of Oliver showing Troy ho to grill fruit and make a sweet yogurt and honey dipping sauce, Gus mixing cake in the kitchen, and Carmen explaining the wonderful spiciness of chorizo, interspersed with real time action from the party. The crew had been delighted to have their loves ones finally see what it is they actually did on set, and the lightheartedness of the cast had made the episode a joy to film.

Strawberry Lemon Thyme Shortcakes:

Serves 6
Printable Recipe

Shortcakes:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1/4 cup sugar + 1 Tb
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tb chilled, unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup + 1 Tb half and half
zest of one lemon

Preheat oven to 400F. In a large bol, mix together the flours, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Add the butter and cut the butter into pea sized beads with a pastry blender, two knives or your fingertips. Add the half and half and quickly gather the mass into a ball. Do not overknead. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, it will be easier to roll out.
Roll the dough out onto a floured surface to about 1/2 inch thick. With a 3 1/2 inch round biscuit cutter, cut as many shortcakes as you can in the dough. Re-roll the scraps and cut out the remaining dough until you get 6 shortcakes. Brush them with the remaining tablespoon of cream and sprinkle with one Tb of sugar.
Bake for 15-17 minutes until golden brown. Let cool completely before filling them.

Lemon Thyme Strawberries: (you may wish to start your prep with those if you want some natural juice from the fruit)
1 pound strawberries
2 Tb sugar
2 Tb fresh chopped lemon thyme (optional)

Hull and chop the strawberries, mix them with the sugar and the lemon thyme in a large bowl and refrigerate until ready to use

Whipped cream:
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp lemon zest

In an electric mixer, using the whisk attachement or balloon beaters, beat the cream on medium low speed for 30 seconds, add the sugar and zest and continue beating, increasing the speed to medium high until you reach soft peaks. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Assemble:
Using a serrated knife, cut the shortcakes in half. Divide the strawberries among the bottom halves, evenly top with whipped cream and cover each shortcake with its cap.

Ultimate Lemon Pound Cake and Lemon Thyme Strawberries

09.05.2008 49 Comments

First of all I would like to thank all of you for leaving such kind comments and sending emails after my last post. I surely did not mean to bring your spirits down and I forwarded each piece of advice and kind notes to M. Like me, she is deeply touched by your thoughts and prayers and was truly amazed by the generosity of bloggers and anonymous alike. I tell you, you guys rock!!

Life goes on and she is fully committed to enjoy the time she has and do the things she has been postponing for too long like coming to Pilates with me or dragging me out of bed to go strawberry picking this morning…I know she enjoyed bugging me after the ab torture I made her go through yesterday!! We got caught by the rain, but like many times in May around our parts, it pours ocean for 5 minutes and then the sun shines through as if nothing happened. We picked about 10 pounds of juicy red strawberries, so flavorful I feel the urge to put my nose in the basket every couple of hours. The house has taken on the delicious smell of strawberry jam, strawberry-rhubarb cake and macerated strawberries.

Everybody who knows me a little knows that I do not have a green thumb, and that is putting it mildly since I even killed silk plants one year (a blow torch was involved, …don’t ask). However, I have been tending to mint and oregano with good results in the past month, growing stronger and bigger everytime I cut them down a bit. I am also growing salad, parsley and baby’s breath (thank you Barbara for the seeds) and we are passed the sprout stage. Yipee! Last week at the farmer’s market I picked up a lavender plant as I terribly miss the scent of my childhood in Provence, and also a lemon-thyme plant….my new addiction. I don’t know why this time around I seem to get it. B. thinks my nurturing instincts are kicking in at 30-something since we can’t have kids, and that I need to make something else grow and thrive. A little far fetched although there is truth to it. First there was Tippy the dog, then Elliot the fish…both doing very well, and now seeds, sprouts and plants.

Back to the lemon-thyme, shall we?!! It looks like lemon and citrus are going to be frequent visitors to this site during May, and not only because of SHF. Lemon-thyme is a great complement to fresh fruit salad, simple cakes like pound cakes and yogurt ones. It is does not taste like thyme at all which is not unheard of in cakes but which would be a little harder to pass on when serving dessert, it is fragrant with lemon and lime tones at the same time. I made this dessert this afternoon to take to my neighbor C. for our usual get together on Friday afternoons for tea and dessert and talk about the plans for the weekend, although we realize there can’t be a plan with the husbands and the kids adding to the pot! We almost finished the bowl of lemon thyme strawberries, happily scooping with our spoons (forget plates), while noshing on the cake at the same time. Happy happy!! What a needed moment after the weird week we’ve had (I can’t say bad because I know some have it worse).

Ok, ok…I hear you…the recipe!!! Just a couple of words (yes, more!). The pound cake is my favorite ones this year, full of lemon, soaked in lemon and yet light on the palate. We eat it as a snack, I use cut slices for trifles or plated desserts, and some of you have emailed me lately that it is also one of your new favorites. I adapted it slightly from this book (from which I have been baking a lot from lately) and you can definitely halve the recipe if you don’t want to be stuck with a big cake around the house, keep it well wrapped in the fridge for a week, or freeze it for up to a month also well wrapped.

Ultimate Lemon Pound Cake With Lemon Thyme Strawberries:

Printable Recipe

For the Cake:
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 TB lemon zest
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 300F. Butter and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.Cream the butter and 1 3/4 cups sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce the speed and add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir in the lemon zest.Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Poke holes all over the cake with a wooden skewer.
Meanwhile, bring the lemon juice and remaining sugar to a boil over medium high heat in a small saucepan, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Invert the cake onto a rack, positioned over a baking sheet and slowly pour the syrup over the cake, it will seep through the holes and into the cake. Let cool to room temp.

For the lemon thyme strawberries:
4 cups sliced strawberries
1/2 cup chopped lemon thyme
2 Tb lemon juice
2 Tb sugar (that is plenty to release the strawberry juices and the cake being sweet you don’t really need much more)

Mix all the ingredients together and let macerate at room temperature for 30 minutes. Refrigerate until ready to use. Bring back to room temp before serving.

Update on conversions:
1 stick of butter is about 112-115 gr.
For weight, volume, cups, etc…click here.

Fresh, clean, sweet but not overwhelming and no need for whipped cream!

I may not be around this weekend but wanted to wish all moms out there a very very Happy Mothers' Day! My mom will have to wait for May 25th (French date for Mothers' Day) to have a her own special post, but I wanted to tell you all celebrating on Sunday that I admire your love, dedication and energy. Have I told you lately you rocked?!! Well, you do!