Lemon Lemon Loaf Recipes

My good friend Choy gave me a cook book called ‘Best of the Best Cookbook’. It is the BEST RECIPES from 25 best chefs of the year. It consist recipes of Giada de Laurentiis, Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, Pauline Nguyen and many more talented chefs. I flip through the books and there are many recipes that I wanted to try out but there is one recipe that stands out among the rest. It is a Lemon cake by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito from their book Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. I like it for the fact that it is a lemon cake and also the cake is made solely with a food processor which I've never done before. . For a lemon freak like me, this is heaven. It's so light-tasting, not heavy or greasy at all despite all the butter. I leave one without the glaze and both tasted just as good. The original recipe makes 2 big loaves but you can always halve it to make a loaf.



Ingredients for the cake:(From Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito)
Makes 2 loaves

1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups sugar (I used only 2 cups)
8 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup grated lemon zest, from about 4 lemons
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Ingredients for the syrup:

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar

Ingredients the glaze:

2 cups confectioner's sugar (I used 1 cup)
4 to 6 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice (I use 2 tbsp)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line and greased two loaf pans. Sift both of the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together and set aside.
2. Put the sugar, eggs, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a food processor and pulse until combined. With the motor running, drizzle the melted butter in through the feed tube. Add the sour cream and vanilla and pulse until combined. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.
4. Fold in flour with a spatula, one third at a time, folding gently after each addition until just combined. Do not over mix.
5. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 minutes, rotate the pans, and reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F, and bake for another 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 15 minutes.
6. Invert the cake to a cooling rack. Use a toothpick to poke holes in the tops and sides of the loaves. Brush the tops and sides with lemon syrup. Let the syrup soak into the loaves and brush again. Let the cakes cool completely before glazing it.

To make the lemon syrup:

In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Once dissolved, continue to cook for 3 more minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.


While the cakes are cooling, make the lemon glaze:

In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioner's sugar and 4 tablespoons of the lemon juice. The mixture should be thick but pourable. If too stiff, add up to another 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, a little at a time until the right consistency is reached. Pour the lemon glaze over the top of each loaf and let it drip down the sides. Let the lemon glaze harden, about 15 minutes.


Note: The soaked but unglazed loaves will keep, wrapped in two layers of plastic wrap and frozen, for up to 6 weeks. If you are making a full recipe you might need a big food processor as mine was pretty small in size so it leaked a bit when I added the butter.  

P/s My laptop just went 'kaput' on me so I am using my old PC (which is super slow) and I may having problem visiting your blogs and replying to your emails. Sorry about that. Is time to get a new laptop :(