Lemon zest is a wonderful addition to baked goods.  If you are making cakes, cookies, bars, pies or muffins and want them to have lemon scent and a hint of lemon taste, add lemon zest!

Dried lemon zest that they sell in the spice jars is a far cry from the fresh lemon zest.  Whenever you have a lemon in your fridge and need lemon zest, make the real thing!

The best lemons for the lemon zest are organic lemons.  The lemons that are not organic are coated with wax, and that wax will end up in your lemon zest.  The organic lemons don’t have the yucky wax, so your lemon zest will be the lemon zest – pure and lemony.

Here’s how to zest a lemon:

You need a lemon:

You need a grater:

Rub the lemon on the side of the grater that has small holes.  Keep rubbing and turning the lemon, so the yellow lemon zest gets grated away from the lemon.  Only grate the yellow stuff – the white pith that’s under the yellow is bitter, so you don’t want any of the white stuff… just the yellow.

When you grated off all the top yellow covering of the lemon, you have successfully zested that lemon.

Here’s a picture of how a lemon looks after it’s zested:

And here’s the picture of the lemon zest:

Now go ahead and add this delicious smelling lemon zest to yummy baked stuff!

Lemon zest works especially well in lemon bundt cake recipe, homemade italian lemon ice and lemon bars recipe.

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Tags: lemon

Are you craving something baked and lemony?  The best part about the lemon cake is putting your nose real close to the lemon cake and smelling it!  When you smell the lemon cake, you can already taste it in your mind.  This lemon cake is delicious for breakfast.  Citrus is awakening, and a lemon breakfast cake is a perfect way to start the day!

Ingredients For Lemon Bundt Cake Recipe:

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp vanilla
1 lemon
1 cup lowfat plain yogurt
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Directions How To Make Lemon Bundt Cake:

Preheat oven to 375F.

Wash the lemon.  Zest the lemon: grate the thin top yellow layer of the lemon (without the white pith) using a grater with the smallest holes.

Whisk the eggs in a large bowl.  Add the sugar and stir until combined.  Add vanilla.  Add lemon zest.

Cut the lemon into quarters and squeeze out the lemon juice into the bowl with other ingredients.  Stir until combined.

Add flour to the bowl.  Sprinkle baking powder and baking soda evenly over the flour.  Add yogurt, then stir everything until combined.

Spray the inside of the non-stick bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Pour the batter into the bundt pan.  Put in the oven and bake for 35 minutes.

Note: lemon zest is optional :)  If you don’t feel like zesting a lemon, don’t let it stop you from making this delicious lemon cake!  Just use lemon juice and omit the zest.  The lemon flavor will be less intense without the zest, but it will still be a terrific lemon cake.

Here's the lemon breakfast bundt cake right out of the oven

...and here's what's left of the lemon bundt cake at the end of the day!

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Tags: baking, cake, lemon

Fish cooked in lemon-butter sauce is very flavorful.   You can use any kind of white fish.  The photo above shows tilapia fish in lemon-butter sauce.

Lemon-butter fish recipe is also very quick to make – it won’t take longer then 20 minutes from start to finish!  Fish in lemon-butter sauce goes really well with rice as a side dish.  Before cooking the fish, you can put the rice in the rice cooker, and when the fish is done, the rice side dish will be done too – without you lifting a finger :)

Ingredients for Lemon-Butter Fish Recipe:

Fish fillets
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small lemon
Salt and pepper

Directions How To Cook Lemon-Butter Fish:

Put butter on a large non-stick frying pan and heat over medium heat.  When the butter melts, add the oil.  Cut the lemon into quarters, and squeeze the juice from each quarter into the frying pan.  Mix lemon juice, butter and oil with a spatula.

Add the fish to the frying pan, and increase the heat to medium-high.  Cook the fish for 4 minutes, then turn over with a spatula and cook on the other side for 4 minutes or until cooked through.  The fish is cooked through when the thickest part of the fillet flakes easily with a fork.  The exact cooking time depends on the thickness of the fillet.

Put the cooked fish on a plate.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.  Pour the lemon-butter sauce from the pan over the fish.

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Tags: easy recipe, fish, lemon, quick recipe, sauce

Perfect refreshing treat on a hot summer day!

Ingredients For Homemade Italian Lemon Ice Recipe:

3 lemons
1 1/2 cup water
1 1/4 cup sugar

Directions On How To Make Italian Lemon Ice At Home:

Squeeze all the juice out of the lemons.  I cut each lemon into 8 parts, then squeeze each piece – this way it yields the most juice :)

Combine water with sugar in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for several minutes, until the water is hot.  Stir to dissolve the sugar.

Pour the sugar water and lemon juice into a 9-inch baking dish, and stir to combine.  Put it in the freezer.

After 1 hour, rake it with fork to break up the ice crystals.  Repeat raking with fork every hour until the desired consistency is reached (usually around 3-4 hours from the time you first put it in the freezer).

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Tags: italian food, lemon

These lemon bars have intense lemon flavor and are perfect for lemon dessert lovers!

Ingredients:

For The Crust

1 cup flour
1 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar

For The Filling

5 eggs
1 1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder

Directions on how to make lemon bars:

Make The Crust

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Line the 8″ square baking dish with th parchment paper. 

In the food processor, combine flour, butter and powdered sugar.   Put all the mixture in the baking dish, and spread evenly and press into the bottom of the dish to form a crust. 

Bake for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven.

Make The Filling

Combine eggs and sugar, then mix in the lemon juice.  Add flour and baking powder and stir until combined. 

Pour the filling on top of the crust.  Bake for 25 minutes.

Let it cool down, then refrigerate until cold.  Remove from the refrigerator, cut into bars and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

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Tags: baking, cookies, lemon, sweets