A comfy winter citrus recipe roundup that includes oranges, lemons, grapefruit, and blood oranges to brighten the darkest days of the season.
There’s a selected shade of winter gray that settles in by late January/ early February. The bushes are naked. The sunshine feels slightly flat. My kitchen window at present seems like a drafty porthole absent of any signal of spring. However! As a result of each kitchen wants slightly saving grace on the counter – there’s a giant bowl of brilliant citrus, amen!
That is the season when, fortunately, oranges style like sweet, grapefruit give me the snap again I want, and lemons really feel like extra necessity than garnish. Citrus in deep winter wakes up my sleepy palate. A peeled tangerine with a cup of milky black tea within the afternoon is perfection and simply the reminder I want that the solar remains to be very a lot doing her job someplace.
If summer season is about ease, winter is about intention. We’re leaning into maximalism of the senses this season – one thing that cuts by the heaviness with a burst of sunshine.
So if it’s gray the place you might be, let’s deliver the sunshine inside.
Listed here are a few of my favourite citrus-forward recipes on Pleasure the Baker! Suppose truffles and fast breads, cookies and curds, and dinners for good measure – recipes that really feel like little beams of sunshine on a winter desk.
Lemon Poppy Seed Kolaches are comfortable, pillowy yeasted buns with a young crumb. The facilities are stuffed with brilliant, shiny lemon curd that settles into the dough like slightly pool of sunshine AND creamy sweetened cream cheese. A sprinkle of poppy seeds provides that acquainted nutty crunch, and instantly you could have a pastry that feels equal components old-world bakery and trendy brunch desk. I LOVE!
After which there’s the Lemon Curd Crumb Cake! It’s buttery, plush, and unapologetically beneficiant with its streusel. This one is inbuilt layers: comfortable vanilla cake, a swoop of tart lemon curd that bakes into silky ribbons, and a thick crown of crumb topping that shatters simply just below your fork.
• Lavender Lemon Drops – not a cookie, however a calming coupe glass, a sugared rim, and the precise proper stability of tart lemon and floral lavender. It’s brilliant, punchy, and simply candy sufficient to really feel like a deal with with out tipping into syrupy. Shake one up when winter feels infinite and also you want slightly sparkle in your glass. A bit drama and a number of brilliant + scrumptious!
• Grapefruit Yogurt Poppy Seed Loaf as a result of grapefruit is the cool older sister of citrus and he or she deserves loaf cake standing. This one is tender from yogurt, evenly bitter in one of the simplest ways, and completed with a shiny citrus glaze that sinks into the highest layer of crumb simply so to make the cake sticky in essentially the most satisfying manner.
• Years in the past I landed on My Favourite Traditional Lemon Bars Recipe and the recipe stays true! You already know lemon bar when you could have one: buttery shortbread base and the brilliant, just-tart-enough custard that makes your cheeks perk up. In fact, a heavy snowfall of powdered sugar is non-negotiable! (Sidenote: King Arthur Baking has a terrific non-melting powdered sugar for bakes like lemon bars. It’s a recreation changer!)
• When every little thing feels beige, I extremely suggest slicing the peel off citrus fruits and slicing it into rounds. I can’t clarify it but it surely’s on the spot colourful luxurious. With that fruit, construct a Citrus and Greens Winter Salad that refuses to be ignored. Peppery greens, jewel-toned citrus segments, perhaps a number of roasted cashews and creaminess from ripe avocado? Perfection.
• I really like a low effort dinner and sure, risotto might be low effort. This baked model of Lemon Spinach Risotto does a lot of the work within the oven when you hover close by with a glass of wine. It’s creamy, brilliant with lemon, studded with spinach, and feels each healthful and indulgent on the identical time.
• Peel and all, child! This Entire Orange Bundt Cake is the type of cake that tastes like sunshine soaked straight into the batter. It’s downright plush and livened even additional with a little bit of cinnamon crumble – all the time one among my favourite bakes each deep winter!
