This recipe for Lemon Love Notes is one of the finest love notes recipe you can bake. Love notes are a lemon bar, but not just any lemon bar!
With a buttery shortbread crust flavored with lemon and coconut, and their sweet lemon and coconut glaze, they are a favorite with anyone I bake the for.
I had not made them in a very long time, so today I decided to small batch my original recipe with excellent results!
But don't worry I have also entered the full recipe measurements in the notes section of the printable recipe. That way you can either bake a small batch when you only want a few, or a larger batch when you are wanting more!
If you love Lemon, you are simply going to adore these. They are fabulously tasty!
Shortbread crust??? I am there!!! Shortbread crust flavored with lemon??? I am there!!! Add some flaked coconut??? I am there!!! Lemon coconut glaze??? Count me in, roll me in it, poke me, I'm done!!!
In all seriousness, there is nothing about these bars that you won't love. They are incredibly easy to make, bake and even easier to eat!
You begin by making that beautiful shortbread base. I love shortbread cookies, with their crisp and buttery texture. This is much the same, except it is flavored with fresh lemon zest and sweetened flaked coconut.
You can use an unwaxed lemon, but you will still need to really scrub it. Just think of all the pesticides that are used in Orchards, not to mention spider, fly and bug dirt. You want to get all of that off the surface.
A good vegetable brush and some warm soapy water does the trick beautifully. Once you have done that, just dry it off and zest.
I have a fine micro-plane zester/grater. I use it for all of my citrus zesting and also for grating fresh parmesan cheese. It works a charm.
I always just use lightly salted butter for all my baking. Unless the recipe actually specifies unsalted, salted works fine. There is really not much of a difference.
If you use regular salted butter, however, you may want to leave the salt out of the recipe.
Icing sugar is used because of its propensity to melt right into the butter when you are creaming the two together. This helps prevent you from having a gritty finish.
Icing sugar is also known as powdered sugar or confectioner's sugar. Sift it to get any lumps out.
I have never made these with unsweetened coconut, or desiccated coconut, so I cannot answer to how the end result is with either of those. I just use regular sweetened flaked coconut.
It works fine and no, the bars are not too sweet. They are just right. Lemon requires things to be a bit on the sweeter side.
The dough for the shortbread base for these bars is a bit on the tacky side, although not extremely so. For ease in pressing it into the pan, you can lightly flour your fingers, or use an off-set spatula if you have one.
It doesn't have to be totally smooth, but you should try to make it pretty even throughout.
Do NOT over bake these. You want the crust/base to be mostly off-white in color, with just a bit of brown around the edges. This is perfect. If you overbake them, they will be hard.
You don't want that. I find that between 20 to 25 minutes is just perfect in my oven. Start checking them at 20 minutes just to be sure.
Do not skip the glaze. The glaze is essential to the integrity of these bars. In other words, you need it.
Its simply sifted icing sugar, whisked together with some more coconut and then lemon juice until smooth. You want a thickish drizzle. Not thin enough to flick. You want to be able to spread it without it running off the sides of the bars.
If you add it while the base is still warm, it spreads a lot easier. I dollop it in small dollops all over the base and then spread it out with the back of a metal spoon.
I then sprinkle a tiny more coconut overtop before it sets. I think its really pretty this way.
To get perfect shaped bars, cut three times in one direction and four in the other. This will give you 12 bars in an 8-inch square pan.
If you are making the full batch in a 9 by 13-inch pan, you can cut it three times in one direction and 8 times in the other, giving you 24 perfect bars.
I am not sure where I got the original recipe from, or where this recipe gets its name. I had it written down in my big blue binder. Probably copied it out in the 1980's, perhaps from a ladies magazine or a book I got from the library.
I used to be always taking cookbooks out of the library and copying out recipes from them. I never put the source, unless it was a recipe I got from a friend. Then the source was always carefully noted.
I never dreamt that one day I would be sharing these treasures with the world, or I might have been more careful. In any case, you are sure to fall in love with these beautiful lemon bars.
Buttery and crisp, with a beautiful texture and lush lemon flavors these will go down a real treat. Beautiful with a hot cuppa during your morning break, and, when we get back to socializing, these are the perfect addition to any tea party or ladies' luncheon!
Lemon Love Notes
Yield: 12 bars
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 25 MinTotal time: 35 Min
This is a small batch of a full recipe for the most lovely lemon bars with a lemon and coconut shortbread base and a lush lemon coconut drizzle. Delicious! (See note for measurements to make full batch of 24 bars)
Ingredients
For the base:
- 7/8 cup (123g) all purpose, plain flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (120g) butter, softened
- 1/2 cup (65g) icing sugar, sifted
- 1 large free range egg yolk
- 1/2 cup (50g) flaked sweetened coconut
- the finely grated zest of one unwaxed lemon
For the icing:
- 1 cup (130g) icing sugar, sifted
- the fresh juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2 TBS flaked sweetened coconut, plus a bit more to sprinkle
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Butter an 8 inch square baking tin and line with baking paper. Set aside.
- Cream together the butter and icing sugar until light. Beat in the egg yolk. Stir in the salt, coconut, and lemon zest. Add the flour gradually until well combined. Using lightly floured hands, press this mixture evenly in the prepared baking tin.
- Bake on the center rack of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until set and just turning brown at the edges. Take care not to over bake.
- Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on a wire rack.
- Whisk together the icing sugar and coconut for the glaze. Whisk in the lemon juice until smooth. You should have a drizzle icing. Drizzle over the base to completely cover and then smooth it out with an off-set spatula. Sprinkle with a bit of coconut to finish.
- Leave to cool completely. Cut into 12 bars to serve.
Notes:
To make a full batch: You will need a 9 X 13-inch pan.
1 3/4 cup (245g) all purpose plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (240g) butter
1 cup (130g) icing sugar
1 large free range egg
1 cup (100g) sweetened flaked coconut
1 TBS finely grated lemon zest
For the glaze:
2 cups (260g) sifted icing sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) fresh lemon juice
4 TBS flaked sweetened coconut, plus more to finish
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Chunky monkey cake, is one of our favorite snack cakes to make when we have over-ripe bananas in our fruit bowl. It is sooo delicious. I have been known to hide bananas just so I can bake with them, and one thing I like to bake is this!
It used to be so hard for me to bake banana stuff when I was in the UK because my partner would gobble the bananas up before they over-ripened. I literally did have to hide them because if he didn't eat them, he would throw them away thinking they had gone off.
As any seasoned baker knows, you need seriously ripe bananas to bake with. Ideally you should have bananas with plenty of brown spots on them. Well speckled with brown.
The riper a banana gets the more sugar they develop. They become sweeter and are beautiful to bake with. The riper the better is the secret to rich and flavor-filled banana baked goods!
The riper they are, the easier they are to mash as well. In fact if they are well ripe, you can mash them with your electric mixer. It does a dab job of it.
You can also liquify them with a stick blender. This works well when you don't want any lumps of banana in your baked goods. I confess, I am not a person who is fond of lumps of banana in my breads, cakes, etc.
Of course you can also mash them with a fork or a potato masher. Try to get them as mashed as you can.
This chunky monkey snack cake is a rich and moist cake, filled with loads of chopped toasted nuts, semi-sweet chocolate chips and salted caramel chips. If you can't get salted caramel chips, use white chocolate chips.
The addition of sour cream ensures that you end up with a cake that is incredibly moist. Of course brown sugar aids in that as well. I really love cakes that are made with sour cream or buttermilk, or even yogurt.
These three things really bring out the best in a cake and result in cakes that are amazingly moist and delicious.
This is so moist and delicious, there is no need for a frosting of any kind. Its just not needed. This a cake that stands very well on its own.
You can use pecans or walnuts in this cake. They add a deliciously nutty crunch and do I need to say it? Toast your nuts first!
I always toast my nuts for baking, and for snacking too. Toasting enhances their natural nuttiness. It doesn't take much effort to spread a bag of nuts out onto a baking tray and toast them in the oven.
About 8 minutes or so at 375*F/195*C until you smell their nuttiness is long enough to do the job. You don't want them burnt, just toasted. You can do a whole bag full at a time and keep them in the freezer for whenever you need toasted nuts.
Its also a great way to get the skins off of hazelnuts/filberts. Just toast them and then rub them in a clean tea towel. The skins fall right off. Perfect!
Just a handy tip that you might want to hang onto for future reference! It also works with walnuts.
This is an incredible breakfast cake to share with your family at the weekend, as well as being more than welcome as an afternoon snack with a nice cold glass of milk.
It also goes well with hot cups of tea or coffee, or herbal teas as well.
With a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream (or chocolate) it makes a lovely dessert. I would cut it in much smaller squares if I was having it for dessert, and maybe add a drizzle of chocolate sauce!!
Sounds decadent eh? I thought so too! I have seen other version of this where they sprinkled sugar on top of the cake before baking. I have one word for that. DON'T!!
This cake is well sweet enough just as it is. It needs nothing else. Trust me on this. I think sprinkling sugar on top is going well over the top. Just my opinion of course.
Why mess with perfection? Why indeed! And this is truly perfection. Just look at how moist and dense this cake is!!
It has a wonderful tender and moist crumb. Prepare to fall in love. This is destined to become a firm family favorite of I will eat my hat! (not near as tasty!)
My sister happened to stop by on her way home from work and she couldn't resist taking a couple of pieces home with her. I love this new aspect of my life. I love being able to say my sister stopped by on her way home from work. This is a dream come true.
And my father said he would stop by on his way over to my sister's for supper. This is the silver lining in all that has happened. Being able to spend time with family. I am so blessed.
In the meantime, if you bake only one cake this weekend, let it be this one! I guarantee you won't regret it! GUARANTEE!! You have my word. This will make all your chunky monkey's very happy indeed!
Chunky Monkey Snack Cake
Yield: 9
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 40 MinTotal time: 50 Min
This moist and delicious banana snacking cake is chock full of chocolate chips, salted caramel chips and toasted pecan nuts! Perfect for after school, breakfast, break time, any time! No frosting needed for this tasty cake!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (120g) butter, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup (135g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup (120ml) dairy sour cream, full fat
- 1 TBS pure vanilla extract
- 1 large free range egg
- 1 cup (140g) plain all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 2 small ripe bananas, peeled and mashed (1 cup/225g)
- 1/2 cup (85g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup (85g) salted caramel chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup (60g) toasted pecans or walnut
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*C/180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter an 8X8-inch square baking tin and line the bottom with baking paper, leaving an overhang to lift it out.
- Beat the butter and brown sugar together to combine. It will look crumbly. Beat in the sour cream, egg and the vanilla.
- Sift together the flour, soda and salt. Stir into the creamed mixture, just unti combined.
- Stir in the mashed banana, semi-sweet chocolate chips, caramel chips and nuts.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and level off.
- Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until the cake is golden brown, well risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.
- Leave to cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares to serve.
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It is roughly estimated that around 1000 tonnes of food is wasted in the world every minute, making it 30% or 1.3 billion tons annually. Out of which 35% comes from home kitchens due to extra buying, processing problems, and poor storage and planning.
This wasted food goes to our landfills where it decomposes and produces methane which is 84% more potent than carbon dioxide. It lowers the levels of oxygen in the atmosphere, traps heat, and thus aggravates climate change.
All this because of poor waste management in our households that can easily be reversed by small yet significant environmentally conscious changes that we can make in our kitchens today. Let’s have a look.
1. Recycle & Reuse
While renovating your kitchen, focus more on recycled stuff. It would be cheaper, reusable, and a better choice than the first hand and expensive material. For example, if your kitchen storage is exposed to water, prefer to repair the water-damaged cabinets rather than getting a new set altogether.
This would not only take a toll on your pocket plus it would be completely unnecessary. Getting any item recycled is a far better option than dumping it and acquiring a new one. The sustainable choices that you make in your kitchen are long-lasting, economical, and healthier.
For example, organic cotton bags are a great choice for packing. And a foldable water bottle is easy to carry and BPA-free. Swap plastic straws with stainless steel straws and paper towels with cotton and wood pulp dishcloths.
2. Make Green Choices
Going green is an elegant and sustainable choice when your kitchen renovations are environmentally friendly. Again, plastic is the main culprit so seek an alternative that would work for you instead of the plastic containers, bags, and wraps.
The silicon jars, reusable bags, glass or mason jars, bee’s reusable wraps would keep your food extra fresh and free from any harmful, chemical reactions that plastic may cause. Use LED lights instead of high voltage bulbs to increase energy efficiency in your kitchen. Say no to plastic bags and use a shopping bag made of clothing preferably.
Plant some pots in your kitchen window to add freshness. Get your soft plastic jars and containers recycled. Remember, every little bit of plastic adds up and takes a toll on the natural world, make sure you play the least part in soiling the environment.
3. Go Zero Waste
Go zero waste is literally meant to go zero waste. for our livelihood, we consume resources that originated in the earth, use them to some extent, and ditch them back in rather bad quantities as the earth is our big waste yard.
The goal behind going zero waste is to send nothing back to the lowland. Recycle as much as possible and compost the waste food. Zero waste demands a whole redefining of the system that we are a part of. It wants us to shift from a linear economy perspective to a circular economy where there is no trash sent to the landfill.
Start with getting rid of plastic in your kitchen as it’s the main component of going zero waste. Dump wasted food in the DIY tumblers and compost bins or worm farms to save the planet from the extra waste dumped by you. These small changes would help you leave a better impact on the environment with fewer carbon footprints, pollution, and plastic and that starts with your kitchen.
I’d also recommend checking out Gumbo, a recipe search engine that I recently discovered. Gumbo helps you reduce your food waste by suggesting recipes based on the ingredients you already have at home. It also lets you give in meal preferences and dietary restrictions.
Food waste is rampant on our planet today and anything that can help prevent us from doing so such as this site is really helpful. I am usually really good at making good use of all my leftovers, but sometimes even I can use a bit of inspiration! Gumbo is great for that.
4. Opt For All Natural Cleaning Solutions
The homemade all-purpose cleaning solutions save you from the market’s harmful cleaning chemicals that not only compromises your food, but also your health and money. All you need to have baking soda, vinegar, and lemon to disinfect and clean your cutting boards, greasy stoves, ovens and dishwashers and dingy kitchen floors. These are the natural cleaners and have deodorizing properties. The market cleaning solution contains bleach and ammonia and puts your health in risk.
There is a lot more that can be done to create and maintain an environmentally conscious kitchen. Starting with these few steps you will find yourself in the right direction. Obviously, that requires a total mindset change but opting for a greener and healthier way of living today would give us a better tomorrow for sure and make it a better place for our generations to come. All your need is to take a step.
If there is one kind of cookies I cannot resist, it is molasses cookies. They are my absolute favorite kind of cookies in the world. Soft and chewy, lightly spiced, they touch the inner core of my soft, nurturing side.
That's probably because they remind me of my grandmother. Although, in all truth, her molasses cookies were not as fancy as these, they were really fabulous cookies. I have many fond memories of making molasses cookies by her side.
Her molasses cookies were pretty plain. The recipe having been handwritten on an envelope flap many years ago now, with no instructions, no oven temperature, etc.
Back in those days they pretty much figured that most women knew how to cook and such things were not really needed. A title and a list of ingredients, that's it. It doesn't even tell you how much flour to add. I had to figure that one out for myself.
And the recipe makes about bazillion soft, puffed molasses cookies. Beautiful warm from the oven and served up with a glass of cold milk on the side. Oh my but they were some good.
They were roll out and cut cookies, so took a lot more effort than these molasses spice cookies I am sharing today. They also used only the basic spices, ginger, cinnamon, cloves.
This recipe today is for a molasses spice cookie with pepper. You may think that black pepper doesn't belong in a cookie, but you would be wrong. It totally works as this recipe will prove to you.
This is also a small batch recipe. It makes only one dozen cookies. One dozen soft, chewy, gently spiced and sweet-with-molasses cookies.
Rich with butter and using just enough molasses to impart some of its sweet smokiness to the mix. Aside from black pepper, there is also cinnamon, ginger, cloves and a bit of vanilla. My grandmother's never had vanilla or black pepper in hers.
She also used shortening. Most cooks don't want to use shortening these days. I will be honest and say right upfront, it doesn't bother me to use shortening in anything that requires it. There are just some things that are not as good without shortening, but maybe that is just me.
Anyways, these contain no shortening, just butter. And you melt the butter first, mixing it together with the sugars, molasses, egg yolk and vanilla. There are two kinds of sugar in it.
White granulated sugar and soft DARK brown sugar. You could use light brown sugar if that is all you have, but trust me, if you have the dark, use that by all means. It adds to the rich flavors of these incredibly moreish cookies.
These do resemble Ginger Crinkles or Molasses Crinkles cookies for sure, but I will tell you up front these are not them. These are soft and chew, whereas molasses crinkles are more crisp and quite a bit harder, crumblier. Perfect dunking cookies.
These are sweet and spicy with a subtle bite from the black pepper. Chewy and moist. Perfect to enjoy with a mid morning or afternoon hot cuppa.
They are a bit soft for dunking I think. But you can if you don't mind pieces of cookie in your tea. I am one who doesn't mind in the least.
These would go very well with a nice bowl of pure vanilla ice cream. I can almost taste it now. What a spectacular dessert that would be.
I use mild every day molasses for these. Not the black strap. But you can certainly use full or black strap if you want a more robust flavor!
In the UK, you can use a mix of golden syrup and dark treacle in the same measure. 30ml of each. Dark treacle is a bit too strong I feel.
I will never forget when I first moved over to the UK. I was asked by the ladies at church to do a presentation on Canada, including some Canadian foods.
I decided to make my Canadian mother-in-law's gingersnaps. I used dark treacle and they ended up inedible. The flavor is far too strong for anything like that or for these cookies. Best to cut it with equal amounts of golden syrup.
This recipe makes exactly one dozen moreishly delicious molasses cookies. It is a recipe I adapted from the America's Test Kitchen cooker book entitled, The Complete Cooking For Two Cookbook.
If you are a small family and are looking for smaller sized recipes, I highly recommend this book. This was one of the books I chose to bring over from the UK. Its one of my favor books for small sized cooking.
There is everything in it from soup to nuts. Over 650 recipes which covers pretty much everything anyone could want to eat!!
As it says on the back cover, "No kitchen math, no unwanted surprises, just perfect food, every time you cook." And that's a promise you can bank on.
There is really only one thing wrong with these cookies and this recipe and that is that it only makes a dozen cookies. haha You will probably inhale at least two of them as soon as they come out of the oven, so be warned!
These are addictive, but also very simple to make. They are destined to become a firm favorite!! I enjoyed some on this day with a hot cup of lemon and ginger tea for the win!
Molasses Spice Cookies
Yield: Makes 12 cookies
Prep time: 8 MinCook time: 12 MinTotal time: 20 Min
Soft, chewy, deliciously flavored with baking spices and molasses. These are the perfect molasses cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup + 2 TBS (140g + 2 TBS) all purpose (plain) flour
- 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/8 tsp ground pepper
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup (45g) granulated sugar
- 3 TBS packed soft dark brown sugar
- 6 TBS butter, melted
- 1/4 cup (60ml) molasses
- 1 large free range egg yolk
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- more granulated sugar to finish (about 2 TBS)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Have ready a half sheet pan. Line with a silicone liner or baking paper. Set aside.
- Sift the flour, soda, salt and all the spices together in a bowl. Set aside.
- Whisk the melted butter together with both sugars, the egg yolk, the molasses and the vanilla until smooth.
- Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture, mixing them both together really well, until you have a soft dough.
- Place the finishing sugar in a shallow bowl.
- Shape the cookie dough into balls, using 1 1/2 TBS of dough for each. Roll in the finishing sugar.
- Place onto the baking sheet, leaving a 2 inch space in between each one.
- Flatten each one slightly with the bottom of a drinking glass or a metal measuring cup until each ball is a flat circle, 2 inches in diameter.
- Bake in the preheated oven on a middle rack for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through the bake time. The edges should be set and beginning to brown.
- Leave to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before scooping off onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container. Delicious!
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