Easter Egg Sugar Cookie With Lemon Curd Filling

I recently conquered my fear of double boilers, and have made lemon curd twice now.  It's delicious, and I want to bathe in the stuff.  I was making meringues (which were a disaster), and had used the egg yolks that were left over to make some lemon curd.  I wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but I was more than happy to eat it with a spoon out of the jar, should the opportunity to use it NOT present itself.

However, I was on a walk with my neighbor (who is a baker by trade - I'm literally the luckiest girl around), and she mentioned that she had made cookies like linzers, with a hole in the middle - with apricot jam, and in the shape of eggs.  

That was it!!! I knew it!!! I now had to make egg shaped linzer-like cookies, but use the lemon curd in between them for the "yolk" effect.  They turned out delicious, and almost too cute to eat.  The tanginess of the lemon curd with the sweetness of the cookie was perfection.

What you'll need:

- (non-corrodible) pot and slightly wider-than-the-rim metal mixing bowl

- whisk

- baking sheets

- baking paper

- egg shaped cookie cutter

- circle cookie cutter that is smaller than the egg

- sifter (or find the really cool Weiner Zucker powdered sugar sifter that another friend got me at Christmastime

- rolling pin

Lemon Curd

(You'll need to make this a day ahead.  Alternatively you could use store-bought.)

Ingredients:

- 6 egg yolks plus one whole egg

- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

- 4 1/2 fluid ounces (133 ml) of lemon juice

- pinch of sea salt

- 1 tbs lemon zest

- 1/2 cup (115 gr) unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch cubes

Directions:

1. Fill pot with about 1 inch of water.  Bring to a simmer, then bring back down to a low heat.  

2. In a metal mixing bowl, combine (well) eggs and sugar.  Add lemon juice and salt.

3. Place the mixing bowl on the pot - ensuring that the water does not actually touch the bottom of the bowl.  Continuously whisk ingredients together for 20-22 minutes, until mixture is thickened, and coats the back of a wooden spoon.  DO NOT ALLOW MIXTURE TO BOIL.

4. Once your mixture is thickened, remove from heat, and set on heat-safe surface. Add the lemon zest, and whisk it in - releasing the oils from it.

5. Add squares of butter one-at-a-time, whisking them in until fully dissolved.

6. Strain mixture into a new bowl (getting rid of any zest, bits of cooked egg or residue).

7. Allow to cool (it will continue to thicken), then transfer into container.  Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

Lemon curd keeps in the refrigerator for one week, and for 2 months in the freezer.

Sugar Cookie

(This is my go-to sugar cookie recipe.  I halved my original recipe, and used some for these, some just to decorate, some for Earth Day...)

Ingredients:

- 3/4 cup (170 gr) butter at room temp.

- 1 cup granulated sugar

- 2 eggs at room temp.

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp salt

- powdered sugar

- lemon curd

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl of a standing mixer (or by hand) cream together butter and sugar.  

2. Beat in eggs and vanilla.

3. Mix in flour (gradually), baking powder and salt.

4. Mix together until forms one mass.  You don't want to over-work it.

5. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, and chill for at least one hour, but you can also do it overnight.  If chilling overnight, remove dough 1-2 hours before use.

6. On a flat, floured surface, roll dough into 1/4 inch thickness.

7. Preheat oven to 400 F / 204 C (or 375 F / 190 C for convection oven). Line your baking sheets.

8. Using the cookie cutter, cut out egg shapes, making sure you have an even number of them.

8. Using the circle cookie cutter, cut out a hole for the "yolk" on half of them.

9. Place them on your baking sheet.

10. Bake for approx. 5 minutes, but this may vary a little, depending on how thick they are, and your oven setting.  Bake them until they are just barely getting golden brown.

11. Take out of oven, and allow to cool.

12. When the cookies with the hole are just barely warm, dust them generously with powdered sugar. (This way it'll stick, but not become "globby".) Doing this step now will ensure you don't cover up that gorgeous yellow of the lemon curd.

13. Spread lemon curd on the "whole" cookies, flat side (the side that was directly on the baking sheet) up.  Make sure you have a little extra curd where the hole will be, so it'll fill it in nicely.

14. Carefully place the powdered sugar cookie on the cookie with the curd, creating a sandwich.

15. Store in an airtight container in the fridge (because of the curd) for up to two days.  They're really best enjoyed right away, though. :)

And that's it! These cookies are so so cute!

I hope you enjoyed the recipe! If you try it, please post pictures, or let me know how they turned out!

DIY Felt Bowtie and Hairband

Yes. 

I'm gonna be that mom that makes my kids match sometimes.  

I feel like it's even more fun with a girl and a boy, because you have to get creative. Easter is the perfect time to flex my crafting muscles, and this week I was working on matching bowties and hairbands - so here we go!

What you'll need:

- Two colors of felt

- Hot glue gun

- Tape measure

- Scissors

- Needle 

- Thread 

- Button

Hairband

1. Cut a 2.5 cm segment of panty hose, and pull slightly to make a hairband.

2. Cut pieces of felt to the sizes given in the photo.

3. Fold the widest piece of felt, fold it in half, to find the middle seam.

4. Using a glue gun, glue the two cut edges to the middle "seam".

5. On the longer piece, create two pointed, "ribbon" endings.

6. Using a glue gun, glue the two pieces together as shown in the picture.

7. Using a glue gun, glue the two of them in the middle, and a little bit in the two other places there is a fold when creating an accordion.

8. Glue what you have of the bow so far onto the hairband.

9. Take the thinner, contrasting piece, and gluing as you go, secure the ribbon to the hairband once around, cutting off the excess.

Bowtie

1. Cut the pieces of felt according to the picture.

2. Follow the same method to create the initial bow part as above.

3. Glue the bow in the middle, once again creating and accordion.

 

4. Starting at the middle of the bow, glue the two long pieces of felt to the side you deem as the "back".

5. Take the shorter thin felt piece, and starting from the back, wrap it around the center, gluing as you go.  Cut off excess.

6. (The measurements of this part will vary according to the size of your child, but I will give what I used for mu 5-year-old.)

When measured from the middle of the bow, at the 17 cm mark of the strap, sew on a button.  On the other side, cut a slight slit as a button hole.  (If you'd like to avoid it loosening with wear, you can sew around the edges of the slit.)  Cut off excess.

And there you have it!

Honestly, trying to get a picture of my kids wearing them took longer than making them! Here are the best attempts...

Lemon Cream Tart Recipe

Umm, hello Spring!!

This tart screams Spring, and I am happy to indulge.

I had friends visiting me this week, and I decided to make a lemon tart for them - and it turned out delicious!  I followed the recipe here, and it's great!  You can definitely go to the original, or scroll down for my breakdown. :)  Here's a quick tip: read instructions to the end before you get started, so you don't miss anything.

What you'll need:

- standing mixer

- tart or pie pan

- metal pot

- metal bowl that is wider than the pot

- whisk

- zester

- blender

Tart Crust:

Ingredients:

- 8 tbs unsalted butter at room temperature (plus a little extra for the pan)

- 1/3 cup powdered sugar

- 1 large egg yolk

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Beat the butter and powdered sugar together in mixer until creamy.

2. Beat in egg yolk until fully combined.

3. Turn the mixer on to a low speed, and beat in flour and salt just until the dough comes together, and no flour is visible.  Be careful not to overmix.

4. Butter your pan.

5. Press the dough into the pan, making sure it is evenly distributed.  Using a fork, prick the bottom of the tart.

6. Wrap loosely in plastic wrap, and chill for 30 minutes.

7. Preheat oven to 410 F / 210 C.

8. Bake tart for 15 minutes.  Allow to cool completely before filling with anything else.

Optional:

Using a double boiler method, melt down a bar of white chocolate, and poor on the bottom of the tart once it has cooled fully.  Recover with plastic, and chill in fridge until chocolate becomes firm.

*I found this made it really hard to cut into and eat, so I think next time I'll drizzle it on top.

Lemon Cream Filling

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup and 2 tbs lemon juice (for me it was 3 1/2 lemons)

- 3 large eggs

- 1 egg yolk

- 3/4 cup granulated sugar

- pinch of salt

- 1 cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch cubes

(Optional: fresh strawberries and lemon zest.)

Directions:

1. Create a double boiler.  If you're not sure how to do that, here is a tutorial on youtube.

2. Combine lemon juice, eggs, yolk, sugar and salt in the bowl of your double boiler.  Whisk continuously for 10-12 minutes, until very thick.

3. Allow to cool for 20 minutes.  

4. Pour mixture in blender, then add a couple cubes of butter at a time, and fully incorporate. Make sure that the butter is fully incorporated before adding any more.

5. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to chill for 1-2 hours.  (Or overnight - if you do, use a whisk to "fluff it up" before pouring it in the tart shell.)

6. Pour lemon cream into tart, top with fresh strawberries, some lemon zest, and you're good to go!

Store covered in the fridge for 2 days.

I've always been nervous about using a double boiler method, but it really wasn't that hard, and the result was GORGEOUS!!

What's your favorite "ode to Spring" dessert?

"...And Spouse"

"Coffee lounge for youth pastors and their wives."

The next year:

"Coffee lounge for youth pastors and their spouses."

"This morning we have missionary Dan and his family with us."

"Dan and his wife are here with us this morning."

Pastor: "Do you play the piano?"

Me: "Yes, I do."

Pastor: "Well then, you're a blessing to your husband!"

On a Facebook post:

"Taking the missionary wives to lunch today!"

On a seating arrangement at a missions convention:

"Missionary and spouse."

"... and spouse."

For much of my married life, I have been "and spouse".  I joke about it some, especially with other "and spouses", or with Dan. But it can get pretty discouraging. 

Sometimes I feel like a two-for-one special.  While Dan was a youth pastor, it didn't really bother me as much.  Dan was the one on staff at churches, and I had a full-time outside job.  (Sometimes 2 or 3.) When there was a mid-day staff meeting, and I was (inexplicably) expected to attend (remember - not on staff, and full-time job as a Kindergarten teacher), I resigned myself to the role of "and spouse".  Even though I was there for every service, every practice, went on every trip... I was not the pastor, and therefore was okay with my status.  There is no other job in the world, where the spouse is expected to devote as much time and effort as the one holding the position.  You don't see lawyers' husbands volunteering at their firms, or plumbers' wives tagging along on house calls.  It would be pretty weird if an accountant's wife sat in on every meeting he had with a client, or if husbands stopped by to bag groceries for their cashier wives.  We expect spouses in ministry to be ever-present, but then don't offer the associated acknowledgements.

Now that we are missionaries, I find the attitude towards my role much the same. The difference is that this time I don't have another job, this actually IS my job - and yet much of the time I feel like an add-on.  The difficult part is, that I even attach myself to my husband sometimes - because the "and spouse" role is one I've become used to.

Add to that, the fact that on paper my husband is the missionary - even though our leadership does work hard to make me feel like an equal - it can leave me feeling unimportant.

Once, we were shooting a quick video.  Dan was recording me on his phone. I started with, "Hi, we're Dan and Abigail, missionaries to Slovenia..." Dan stopped the recording and said, "Honey, you're the only one in the video, just use your name."

It made me pause.  I realized, that in all this time I had never used just my name, or the term, "I" when referring to our/my ministry.

I think women in general are more prone to refer to themselves in plural - meaning them and their husband, or them and the children...

"We are missionaries."

"We love Slovenia."

"We are following God's call on our lives."

It almost feels selfish to refer to just myself - isn't that crazy?

I think this is a uniquely female dilemma.  We give so much of ourselves to our husband, children, ministry, work... that we forget that we are our own person.  We are not just "and spouse", or "so-and-so's mommy". 

I know that what I do is important.  But a lot of the time, it is a support role to Dan.  I stay home oftentimes, so that he can go.  On Saturday Dan texted me pictures of him with a pastor, and the team that is visiting doing all sorts of things - just to check in, and let me know how things were going.  

I sent him a picture of the one kid showering, while I bathed the other.

But you know what?  I make what he does possible.  If I were not holding down the fort, there wouldn't be a fort to come home to.  If the kids weren't fed and bathed, child services would step in.  And to to be fair, Dan does that stuff when I have things going on.  But realistically, it does fall to me.  

Also, I have plenty of things/ministry that I do that have nothing to do with what he is doing.  They just aren't usually the "headliners" in the newsletters (that I write), or the things that people think of, when they hear "missions".

But God doesn't see me as an attachment, or an appendage.  Jeremiah 1:5 says 
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
    before you were born I set you apart;
    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

God knew me, as just me, before any of the other people were in my life.  He sees beyond any title, status or role. God thinks I am unique, simply because he made me that way.  So, today I am affirming: 

I am not only "...and spouse".

I am a missionary.

I am a friend.

I am creative.

I work hard.

I am resourceful.

I make an impact.

I am not only a "relation" to everyone around me.

I am learning a new language, and trying really hard at it.

I find solutions.

I am a peacemaker.

I am me.

I am loved by God.