Still zesting

A lovely friend of mine was having a birthday party for her darling one-year old daughter and I wanted to contribute a yummy baked good. Rolling along the zesting train, I came back to the lime white chocolate pound cake. (I know what I said about buttermilk and I still hold to that, but my roommate had extra buttermilk for me to use!).

Given the success of the lime white chocolate chip cookies, I had high hopes for the pound cake. The lime seemed to be a perfect way to lighten up the sweetness of the pound cake and white chocolate. Sadly, the cake didn't turn out.

The flavor of it was exactly what I hoped for, but I could. not. get. it. out. I ended up half loaves due to the bottom half of the loaf remaining in the pan. At least they looked normal when flipped over (albeit a bit short). I greased all the pans sufficiently, so I'm not sure what happened. From the holes in the pound cake, my suspicion is that the white chocolate chips couldn't withstand the sustained heat and melted, creating a sticky browned sugar/fat/cake situation on the bottom of the pan. I really liked the flavor, though, so I'm going to try this one again with modifications.

Currently with my zesting projects, I'm one for three--the lemon berry muffins were eh and these were stuck fast to the pan.

Piles of lime zest

It was my first time baking with my Kindle! It was so useful to not have to bring my laptop into the kitchen with me. All I had to do was send the recipe to my Kindle address (either as a Word doc or a pdf) and it downloaded wirelessly.

They looked fine when they came out, but as you can see, the bottoms didn't fare so well. Totally normal looking when flipped back over though.

Lime White Chocolate Pound Cake

from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody
3 cups cake flour (I used 3 cups all purpose minus 6 tbsp)
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 cup buttermilk
3 TBSP fresh lime juice
Zest of one lime
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 cup white chocolate chips coated with 2 TBSP flour

Preheat oven to 350F.

Grease a 10-4 inch bundt pan or a long loaf pan (I used 4 mini loaf pans and still had enough leftover to fill 6 muffin cups) using baking spray (next time I'll grease and flour), set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the lime juice and zest, and beat for one minute on medium-high speed.

Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.

Starting and ending with the flour, alternate adding the flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture. Mix until fully combined after each addition--five additions total (1/3 flour, 1/2 buttermilk, 1/3 flour, 1/2 buttermilk, 1/3 flour). Fold in the white chocolate chips.

Bake for 60-65 minutes, or until a wooden skewer tester or knife comes out clean.

Zesting MACHINE

I did a significant amount of baking in the last week, so be prepared for an onslaught of entries.

I had a free weeknight last week and clients coming into the office the next day, so I decided to put my zester to use again. I've had my eye on a lime-white chocolate pound cake for a while but upon looking at the ingredient list, didn't want to deal with buttermilk. I'm a big fan of making things that use ingredients I'll use again--buttermilk is not one of those things.

Since I was still on a citrus kick, I settled on a cookie version of the flavors. The resulting cookies were flat and chewy, but with crispy edges. I'm on the hunt for a puffy cookie recipe, but mostly because the puffy ones are prettier to photograph ;)

Lime White Chocolate Chip Cookies

From The Fresh Loaf

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 tablespoon lime zest
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 - 12 oz bag white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two sheet pans with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer, sugar and butter until combined but not fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, then add vanilla, lime juice and lime zest. Mix to combine.

Whisk together flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix into creamed mixture until just combined. Fold in the white chocolate chips.

Shape the dough into 1″ balls, and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the centers just set.

Allow to sit on the pan for three minutes before moving to wire racks.