Cocoa & Cherry Biscuits, Meyer Lemon Curd, Meyer Lemon & Thyme Marmalade

The title is rather long I know.  I had a bunch of Meyer lemons I needed to do something with this weekend so I made the curd and marmalade.  But then I realized that I needed something to have them with, so I went ahead and made the Cocoa Biscuits.  Though really, I think I can just eat lemon curd on its own by the spoonful ;)

Cy has finals this week, so I figured these would make great high protein snacks.  The Cocoa biscuits are gluten-free and made from almond meal with a little bit of cocoa and some cherries thrown in for good measure.  It makes for a good contrast with all the lemon condiments.

Lemon curd is one of my all time favorites, but I always assumed that the luscious consistency came from all the butter.  However, I am happy to announce that it doesn't have to.  I based my recipe off of this one.  It uses very little sugar and absolutely no butter.  And similarly for the Marmalade, I don't know if it was because my meyer lemons were not too tart, I found that I did not have to add too much honey to make it.

Cocoa & Cherry Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups...almond flour, plus another 1/4 cup as bench flour
3 Tbls .........organic cocoa
1/2 tsp ........salt
1/2 tsp ........baking soda
1/4 cup.........coconut oil
1 .................egg

1/4cup..........cream( or milk or half-and-half) *if you want to avoid dairy, you can just replace with an another egg
5-6 tbsp ........honey
1 tsp ............vanilla
1/4 cup diced fresh cherries (or canned in water)

Directions:

1) Combine and sift together: almond flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda in a bowl.

2) Add the oil, rubbing it into the flour mixture until it is evenly distributed.

3) Add the chopped cherries, tossing and coating them in the flour mixture.

4) In a separate bowl, blend together the eggs, honey, and vanilla.

5) Add your wet ingredients into the dry, mixing till a nice dough forms (add about 1/4 cup of the bench flour as needed till it forms a loose ball).

6) Wrap and chill the dough for about 30 min. in the fridge.

7) Roll the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper or wax paper, using the bench flour to keep the dough from sticking. Roll the dough to about 1/2 -1 inch thick depending on what size you want. I made mine about 1/2 thick and used 1 1/2 in cutters and it made about 12 biscuits.

8) Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then place the biscuits a few inches apart from each other. Bake at 350°F for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown on the outside.
Remove from oven and cool slightly. Best served warm.

 

Lemon Curd

Ingredients:

Juice of 2 Meyer Lemons
1/4cup of raw cane sugar (or honey, or other sugar alternative)
zest
2 eggs

Directions:

1) Zest and juice your lemons.

2) In a small pot, heat juice and sugar together until sugar melts completely.

3) In a separate bowl, crack and beat the eggs.  Pour the heated lemon juice from the pot into the bowl and immediately whisk.

4) Put everything back into the pot on low heat, add the zest, continue to whisk until mixture thickens.  Be careful not to let the eggs curdle.

Makes about a cup of Curd



Meyer Lemon & Thyme Marmalade

Ingredients:

About seven medium sized Meyer lemons
1 cup honey (You could lesson the honey by 1/2 cup if you don't mind a tart marmalade)
1tbsp fresh thyme leaves

Directions:

1) Boil 6 of the lemons whole for about 8 min. in a large pot of water. Remove from heat, strain the water, and let the lemons cool completely. Cut each lemon in half. Remove the seeds. Do this over a bowl to save all the juice that drips out. Pull out the center 'meat' of the lemon, removing it from the rind. This will be quite easy as the lemons should be very soft. Set aside the rind for later.

2) Take a knife and cut away all the flesh around the the center part of the lemon (the white part that runs down the middle (you can also leave this in if you like your marmalade with an authentic bitter quality to it). This should yield at least 1/2 cup between the flesh and the juice. Set aside.

3) Take the rinds and dice them up into very small pieces. Add the rind to the juice and mix well together.

4) Bring the mixture to a low boil in a pot, allowing it to simmer and cook down for a few min. Add the honey and thyme, stirring well to combine.Continue to simmer the mixture for about 15-25 min, stirring everyone once in awhile to keep it from burning. You want the mixture to reach a somewhat "jammy" consistency where if you draw a spatula through the mixture, the space created remain open for a few seconds and should fill up slowly.

5) Remove from heat. Juice the last remaining lemon, adding it to the marmalade. Let cool. If you feel that you overcooked the jam and it is too thick for your liking, just add a little more water, tea or lemon juice to the mixture. It is pretty versatile stuff!

*This recipe makes about 1 cup of jam. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, or jar and freeze for up to one month