There are few flavours more enticing than citrus in baking. The delicious tartness of lemons and limes cuts through the sweetness of sugary desserts and cakes to delight the palate with a perfect balance between sweet and sour. Oranges are naturally sweeter and they offset the bitterness of dark chocolate and coffee, lifting the flavours but never overpowering them. Citrus is a great way to add energising fruity flavours to your baking even when more obvious choices like peaches, nectarines and berries are out of season.
THE BRIGHT STUFF
While freshly squeezed juice is first prize in cooking, did you know that it’s the essential oils in the skin of the fruits that supply the most flavour? If your recipe calls for zest, you should always use organic lemons, limes or oranges that have not been waxed, and grate the brightly coloured peel with a zester (which is really easy to use and helps you to grate the peel without touching the bitter white pith). When recipes call for juice, make sure your limes, lemons or oranges are fully ripe, as no matter how much sugar you add, juice squeezed from green fruit can result in an unpalatable and bitter aftertaste. Harvest the zest too and freeze it in a zip-lock bag to use later, and vice versa – if you need just zest, juice the fruit at the same time and freeze it in ice-block trays to use in cooking later.
JAM SESSION
The pith and pips of citrus fruit come into their own if you’re making jams, when it is exactly what you need to set the jam: the pectin they contain is what makes it gel. (This is where under-ripe fruit can be useful: it has more pith and therefore more pectin.)
FLAVOUR FUSION
It is always a good idea to have a few great flavour combinations up your sleeve – substituting various suitable citrus ingredients is a great way to reinvent some of your old favourite recipes. Here are just a few of our favourite flavour friends… what are yours?
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ZESTY BAKES
Here’s our recipe round-up of seriously delicious citrus-infused teatime treats and posh puddings…
Clementine Crêpe Cake
Super-thin layers of crêpes cooked to perfection on our Crêpe Pan are layered with clementine-and-honey-infused ricotta cheese. Finished with a drizzle of caramelised clementine syrup, Clementine Crêpe Cake is an elegant dinner-party favourite.
Orange Malva Pudding
Fresh orange juice and finely grated orange zest add contemporary flair to this much-loved South African classic. Bake the Orange Malva Pudding in oven-to-table Mini Cocottes for gorgeous presentation, and whip up the hot orange-scented caramel sauce in our Precision-Pour Saucepan so you can pour just the right amount over each serving.
Lemon Meringue Cupcakes
These Lemon Meringue Cupcakes are a sophisticated take on a childhood favourite. Make feather-light sponge cupcakes in a 12-Cup Muffin Tray. When cool, scoop out a little bit of the centre, fill it with delicious lemon curd and top with a dollop of meringue.
Lemon Tart
Sweet and sour is such a great flavour combination. Here, the sweet homemade pastry is light and crumbly, while the tangy filling is the texture of milk tart but with a lot more zing. Make the Lemon Tart in a TNS 26cm Flan Tin, sprinkle the top with castor sugar and give it a good going over with a blowtorch to caramelise the top. Pretty sweet!
Key Lime Pots
This Southern-style dessert – named after the small, juicy limes found in the Florida Keys – gives you an intense hit of sweet and sharp, offset by a spiced crunchy biscuit base. We love making Key Lime Pots in our versatile ovenproof stoneware Espresso Mugs – not only is this just the right portion size for such a rich pudding, it looks really charming at the table.
White Chocolate Pots with Caramelised Orange Wedges
There is no getting away from it: this dessert is 100 percent decadent! Top quality white chocolate melted with fresh orange juice and butter is whisked into egg yolks, and then folded into stiffly beaten egg whites and topped with caramelised orange wedges. Luckily, if you make them in our individual Ramekins you won’t be tempted to eat the whole bowl all by yourself.
Orange Cake
There is something so enticing about this scalloped ring cake. The Orange Cake is super-simple to bake, but pop it onto a Footed Cake Stand, dust it with icing sugar and sprinkle it with fresh orange zest and it looks really impressive. Plus, it hits just the right spot between sweet and citrussy.
To view our full range of products, visit our online shop at www.lecreuset.co.za, or pop into your nearest Le Creuset Boutique store.
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