By Kimberly Campbell of kd316
Lemons, limes, and lavender – oh, my! What a world of options when you have these three delicious “from the farm” ingredients. Fresh ingredients are so important to tasty, healthy, and/or delicious recipes. These three small wonders have been in my thoughts since I knew the theme of this Foodie Friday post. What a delicious mindset!
The recipes started taking shape by looking at several websites and browsing some of my favorite cookbooks. Just looking at pictures of brightly-hued lemons, small, green perfect limes, and from the garden lavender made my mouth water in anticipation.
My in-laws were in town for Easter Sunday – and I knew my husband and his family mostly like lighter desserts. We were having a heavier meal, so I liked the purpose of lemons for the pie. Oh, delicious pie that it was! A lemon ice box pie. Surprisingly, I’d never made one before. Happy to my tummy! But, it took two tries. I don’t know where my brain was but I poured the entire pie into the pie shell and was just about to slide it gently into the oven, when I realized I had forgotten the sugar. Now, one tablespoon of sugar may not seem like a lot to even matter – but when you have lemons – you need sugar. So, I hesitantly sent my husband back to the store because you can’t have Easter Sunday meal with no dessert. Thankfully, he wanted the pie as much as I did and was all the more willing to go.
So, you would think by the time I came around to altering the lemon pie recipe to make a lime pie recipe I’d have it down and not make any mistakes, right? Wrong. First, I zested and juiced my limes, and then I dumped a whole egg into the bowl. Yep, I only needed yolks for this recipe. So, back to the store I went for more limes. (Note: I’m very glad in both Little Rock and Atlanta – where I now live, I’m very close to a Walmart or Kroger or Publix.) And a side note that I’m missing now living in Atlanta: Great Day Farm eggs. Oh, please, start shipping to Atlanta!
The flare for the lime pie was indeed the coconut whipped topping. Cool whip is a staple in our home, but real whipped cream, I dream in fluffy white goodness. And I adore cream of coconut (you know, the famed ingredient in the cocktail aisle). Just put some of this whipped cream in a bowl and hand me a spoon. Delicious!
Now, what to do about the lavender? My husband wonders where I come up with this stuff, but he was very glad I did in this case. Mini pound cakes, infused with a lavender simple syrup with a homemade buttercream (again, I could eat it by the spoonful) with the same simple syrup. Heavenly. My husband said it was the best buttercream I’ve made – and believe me, I’ve made many batches of it in the three years that we’ve known each other. He gets my vote for Most Encouraging Husband!
So, whether you want a pie or a cupcake – or just decide to go with a spoon and bowls of the whipped topping or buttercream, start your summer off right and try these recipes.
What are your favorite ways to use lemons, limes, and lavender? Please share recipes with all of us so we can enjoy the fruits of summer!
- 1 graham cracker crust
- 3 lemons, juiced and zested
- 3 egg yolks (save the whites to make a meringue or an omelet)
- 1Tablespoon sugar
- 1 14- ounce can condensed milk (full fat version)
- 1 ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 Tablespoons sugar (or to taste)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Zest and juice the lemons. To that, add the eggs, sugar, and milk. Mix well.
- Pour into pie shell.
- Cook for 10 minutes
- Let cool completely then store in fridge overnight.
- In a cold mixing bowl, whip the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla until medium peaks – or peaks of your choice form.
- Carefully spoon onto top of pie.
- Serve!
- Chill the bowl and electric mixer beaters in the freezer overnight as the pie sits in the refrigerator.
- 1 shortbread pie crust
- 5 limes, zested and juiced
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 1 14-ounce can condensed milk (full fat version)
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 cup cream of coconut
- Zest of 1 lime (garnish, optional, but pretty)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Zest and juice the limes.
- To that, add the eggs, sugar, and milk. Mix well. Pour into pie shell.
- Cook for 10 minutes.
- Let cool completely. Store in fridge overnight.
- For garnish, whip the heavy cream and cream of coconut together until soft peaks forms. Spread on top of the pie
- Sprinkle on the lime zest for a pretty presentation. (Another option if you had more time would be to toast some shaved coconut and use that as your garnish.)
- Honey Lavender Vanilla Simple Syrup: (adapted from Bldg 25 Blog)
- 1 cup local honey (also has been known to help calm allergies)
- 1 cup water
- 1 vanilla bean (seeds scraped and keep the pod)
- 2 teaspoons culinary lavender buds
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 ½ plus 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/3 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted softened butter
- ½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons whole milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup butter, very soft
- 1 ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 ablespoons simple syrup (or to your taste)
- In a small sauce pan on medium heat, bring all ingredients to a boil.
- Simmer for about 15 minutes until the syrup lightly coats the back of the spoon.
- Using a small mesh strainer – pour the syrup through into a storage jar.
- Store in fridge for a few weeks (if it lasts that long).
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare cupcake pans with liners or nonstick spray.
- For cupcakes (this recipe makes 12), combine dry ingredients in a mixer.
- Put butter in and mix until the mixture looks like pebbly sand.
- Add the wet ingredients, then add the eggs one at a time until well-incorporated.
- Fill cupcake liners 2/3rd full and bake for 23 minutes at 350degrees.
- Let cool completely. Or you can eat one right out of the oven if you so desire.
- Once cooled, poke holes in the top of the cupcakes with a fork.
- Drizzle simple syrup down through the holes.
- Let sit for about an hour before frosting.
- To make frosting, cream all ingredients until desired taste and texture.
- Instead of using designer tips, I just cut the tip off of a small plastic sandwich bag. It works perfectly for me.
- Frost the cupcakes.
- If you have some lavender buds leftover, you can decorate the top of the mini cakes. If not, some pearled sugar toppings would be lovely as well.
Kimberly Campbell is a wife, a momma of two active boys and a creative. She enjoys cooking, photography, calligraphy, writing, and traveling. She and her fellas have just moved to Atlanta, Georgia where she will head up the Georgia Women Bloggers!