Lemon Bars and Swiss Meringues

I always bake more in the winter, except for pies which I love making in the summer and fall, when the fruit is ripe and naturally sweet.  I miss fruit.  I miss parts of my childhood, especially the home grown fruits and veggies, all the yummy preserves and pickles my gran used to make for the winter.  Life was simpler then, I miss it.

In the last week I made Swiss Meringues, they were a hit at Family Day, which my sister hosts each year, and invites a bunch of friends.  They were reminiscent of the chocolate bat marshmallows from Count Chocula cereal, which I'm not even sure exists any more.  Anyway, these were easy to make, but time consuming, especially the baking time: 2hrs.

I also tried to make Pecan Bars, from  Linda Collister's book, but they didn't stick.  I know that ingredients differ between different countries, especially flour and dairy, but this recipe just didn't work.  I made some notes in the margin, so when I try to make them again, I will do things a bit differently.  I ended up eating the "muesli" with unhomogenized milk, and it was delicious with its sweet and buttery crunch.  The ingredients were simple: oats, brown sugar, butter, pecans, maple syrup.

The Lemon Bars, also from Linda Collister, were awesome.  I love good quality lemon desserts.  I always feel like I have to say that, because I don't mean donuts.  I am a sucker for pastries and butter.

The base on these lemon treats was very buttery, something between short bread and butter pie crust.  I specify, because when I make pies I only use butter, anything else ruins the taste.  Butter produces a flaky enough crust.  Shortening leaves an awful aftertaste, if you're not happy with the flakiness from butter, I suggest making French pastry flaky dough, it doesn't get any flakier, and you're still using butter.
I skipped the lemon rind in this recipe, mainly because my lemons were getting a bit wilty, and it's impossible to grate wilted rind; I've tried in the past.  The texture was smooth and firm, but not hard.  Both the pastry and the filling were delicious.  I find a lot of bakery bought lemon tarts either have good pastry or good filling, this had both.

I was craving something sweet this evening, but wasn't in the mood to bake, mainly cause I wasn't sure what I was craving.  I ended up making a yummy smoothie, with strawberries, peaches, ground flax seeds, a bit of water and some almond milk, I also added a bit of local light honey.  I didn't want a honey flavour, and light coloured honey is mild compared to dark or amber, which you should use if you want a honey taste.

Bonsoir  ;)