Lemon Thyme Cream Scones

I can’t say that I’ve made scones very often in my life, so I don’t know why I was craving lemon thyme scones.  As I’ve told you before I love anything with lemon.  What I didn’t mention was my new favorite herb is thyme.  I love thyme.  I don’t know if I can explain why (not very convenient for a food blogger), but I think it’s because thyme imparts a complex woodsy flavor to anything.  Lemon and thyme go together especially well too.  Thyme even tastes good in recipes that are slightly sweet like my Lemon Thyme Cream Scones.  Since thyme is my new favorite herb, I have a pot of it growing in my backyard.  I love going into my backyard and picking just the amount of thyme I need for any particular recipe.  I was able to use a lemon from my backyard for these Lemon Thyme Cream Scones too.  I love getting use out of my garden!

These scones are soft and delicate with the thyme adding a lightly herbal flavor, and the lemon adding a tart sweetness.  My daughter loved these scones, and so did I.  I have a few hidden away in the freezer, and I can’t wait to have them again.

Lemon Thyme Cream Scones
Adapted from Baking At Home from The Culinary Institute of America(Printable Recipe)
½ cup sugar
3 ¾ cups bread flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon chopped thyme leaves
2 ½ cups chilled heavy cream, plus 2 tablespoons
1 large egg
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Combine the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, and mix until combined, about 1 minute.  Add the lemon zest and the thyme and blend until combined.  Mix in the 2 ½ cups of cream at medium speed until just combined.  Don’t over mix. 

Divide the mixture into two equal portions, and pat out on a lightly floured surface into two 12x2 rectangles.  Cut the dough into triangles, and wrap in plastic and freeze until solid, at least 4 hours.  Can be frozen up to 4 weeks.

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Arrange the frozen scones on a baking sheet at least 2 inches apart. 

Whisk the egg and 2 tablespoons of heavy cream, and brush the mixture on the frozen scones.  Bake 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown.

Let the scones cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, and them remove them to a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.  Let the scones cool for about 5 minutes and mix the powdered sugar with the lemon juice, and drizzle over the warm scones.  Serve.

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Potatoes, Artichokes and Lemon

I like to plan a week’s worth of meals during the weekend, so I can go shopping on Saturday or Sunday (I like to do this, but it doesn't always happen). I then have everything ready to cook when I get home during the week, and I don't have to stop at the store. When I can plan like this, weeknight meals seem so much easier.

I am always looking for inspiration, so we don't have tacos and spaghetti every week. I picked up Fine Cooking’s Make It Tonight magazine. (With all of the cookbooks and magazines I already have, it feels a little obsessive to bring home yet another cooking magazine, but I did it anyway. I think it might be a sickness, but I’ll have to work that out later.) One of the recipes in Make It Tonight that caught my eye was the Roasted Chicken Thighs with Potatoes, Artichokes and Lemon. I love artichokes, and you already know how I feel about lemon, so this recipe looked great.

I can’t believe how easy this recipe was to put together. It took about 45 minutes total time to cook, but I could leave it for most of that time to get some things on my to-do list accomplished. I loved this whole dish. My husband and daughter didn’t like the vinaigrette on top of the artichokes, but they didn’t mind it on the rest of the dish. I thought the vinaigrette finished off the dish nicely.

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Potatoes, Artichokes and Lemon
¼ plus 3 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; more for the baking sheet
4 to 6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
Kosher salt
Black pepper
1 package frozen artichoke hearts, 10 ounce
1 lemon
1 pound small potatoes, such as fingerling or baby Yukon Gold, those over 2 inches cut in half
4 small sprigs of thyme
Flat-Leaf parsley for garnish

Preheat over 450°. Lightly oil a heavy duty rimmed baking sheet. Put the chicken on the baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Leave plenty of room between the chicken thighs. Bake for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, rinse the artichokes in a colander to partially thaw, and drain. Thinly slice half the lemon and juice the other half. Place 4 teaspoons of the lemon juice in a small bowl, whisk in the 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Combine the artichokes, potatoes, lemon, thyme and the ¼ cup of olive in a large bowl. Mix to coat the ingredients. Add 1 tsp of salt and a few grinds of pepper. After the chicken has cooked for 15 minutes, remove it from the oven and add the artichoke mixture. Spread the mixture out on the baking sheet keeping the lemon slices toward the middle, so they don’t burn. Continue roasting for another 30 to 40 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are tender. Divide the chicken and the vegetables on plates and drizzle with the lemon vinaigrette, and sprinkle with parsley. Serves 4 to 6.

Lemon Pineapple Chicken

So, did I tell you I love lemon? I did? Well, okay, then I will share another lemon dish that is also a quick weeknight meal. A friend I worked with gave me this recipe years ago. I have been making it on and off since she passed it along to me.

When I first made Lemon Pineapple Chicken, I used dried rosemary, and the flavor of the rosemary took over. I kept using less and less dried rosemary each time I made the recipe until I stopped making it all together. It was only when I moved to my new house with a rosemary bush in the backyard that I decided to try the recipe again. I used the fresh rosemary from my bush instead of dried, and it made a huge difference. Gone was the woody overpowering taste, and it was replaced by a mellow herb flavor that compliments all of the other flavors. The recipe shines with the fresh rosemary.

Now, don’t be fooled by the name of this recipe. Despite the pineapple and lemon, the sauce is not sweet. The garlic, rosemary, mustard and Worcestershire sauce work together to keep the sauce from being cloyingly sweet.

I also added a can of pineapple juice to the recipe, because I like to have plenty of sauce to pour over my rice, but you could add more lemon juice or even orange juice.

Lemon Pineapple Chicken
Adapted from my friend Vicky’s recipe

1 20oz. can sliced or chunk pineapple
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 6oz can pineapple juice
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cloves garlic (crushed)
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 small lemon thinly sliced
4 chicken breasts

Preheat the oven 400°. Drain the pineapple and reserve the juice. Combine pineapple juice, lemon juice, salt, garlic, rosemary, mustard, Worcestershire sauce and cornstarch. Pour the sauce over chicken reserving a small amount of sauce for the end. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through. Place pineapple and lemon slices on top and around chicken, and pour in the rest of the sauce. Bake 5 minutes longer.

I Love Lemon!

Today, I got my boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. Along with the required boxes of Thin Mints, I ordered a box of the Lemon Chalet Cremes, a new flavor this year. The Lemon Chalet Cremes are sandwich cookies with lemon cream filling. Even though I stared at the cookies on my desk all day, I didn’t open them, so I can’t tell you how they taste. But, I can tell you how much I enjoy lemon in cookies, cakes, tarts, teas, pastas, and chicken. You name it. If it has lemon in it; I like it.
A few weeks ago, I hosted some friends for a light dinner of panini sandwiches, spinach salad, and a lemon cake for dessert. The recipe for the lemon cake came from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Parties cookbook. This cake has a triple dose of lemon. You put lemon zest and lemon juice into the cake batter, then you boil lemon juice and sugar to make a syrup to pour over the cake, and then you mix lemon juice and powdered sugar to make the glaze. The result was a light and lemony cake everyone enjoyed, and it satisfied my lemon craving, for a time at least.

Next time I make this cake, I will poke holes with a skewer in the top of the cake, so when I pour the lemon syrup over the cake, it will sink into the cake rather than puddle on the cookie sheet beneath the cake. When I made the cake this time, the syrup sank into the very top of the cake where there was a slight split. That spot was the best part of the cake. The glaze and the syrup intersected for a moist, tart and sweet bite.

Lemon Cake
½ pound unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs at room temperature
1/3 cup grated lemon zest (6 to 8 large lemons)
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
¾ cup buttermilk at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Lemon Syrup
½ cup lemon juice
½ cup granulated sugar

Lemon Glaze
2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
3 ½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the over to 350°. Grease, flour and line the bottom of two loaf pans with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer with a paddle attachment for about 5 minutes. Then add the eggs, one at a time, and then add the lemon zest.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, combine ¼ cup lemon juice, the buttermilk and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the batter, beginning and ending with the flour. Divide the batter between the two pans, smooth the tops and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until cake tester comes out clean.

Combine ½ cup granulated sugar with ½ cup lemon juice in a small saucepan and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves.

After the cakes are done, let them cool for 10 minutes, then take them out of the pans and onto a cooling rake over a tray. Poke holes in the cake with a skewer. Pour the lemon syrup over the cakes slowly. Allow the cakes to cool completely.

Once the cakes are cool, whisk confectioners sugar and the lemon juice until smooth. Pour over the top of the cakes, and let drizzle down the sides.


In my next foray with lemon, I used Smitten Kitchen’s Whole Lemon Tart recipe. This tart got mixed reviews from my audience. I made it on a weeknight, and brought it into work the next day; although, my family implored me to leave some at home, which of course I did. Most of my co-workers said they liked the tart, but I’m not sure if they were just being nice. One co-worker told me the tart wasn’t her favorite, and she didn’t mind telling me since the recipe wasn’t my original recipe. I wasn’t insulted. I liked to hear her honest feedback. I thought the tart was tasty. It was not as sweet as lemon bars, but the texture was close. I liked the flavor of the tart, but I didn’t enjoy chewing on the bits of lemon not pulverized by the food processor. I will probably make this tart again, but the next time I do, I will pulse the filling in the food processor longer. My love for lemon is undimmed!

Whole Lemon Tart
from Smitten Kitchen

1 partially baked 9-inch (24-cm) Great Unshrinkable Tart Shell, or your favorite sweet tart shell
1 average-sized Meyer lemon (about 4 1/2 ounces; 130 grams), you can use a regular lemon, but it will not be as sweet.
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Preheat the oven 325°. Put the tart shell on a baking sheet. Slice the lemon into thin pieces, and remove the seeds. Add the lemon and sugar into the food processor. Pulse the lemon and sugar mixture in the food processor, scraping down the sides of the container as needed, until the lemon is thoroughly pureed and blended with the sugar, 1 to 2 minutes. Pour the mixture into a bowl and, wisk in the whole egg and the yolk, followed by the cornstarch and melted butter. Pour the filling into the crust but be sure to leave 1/4 inch between the top of your filling and the top edge of your crust.

Slide the baking sheet into the oven and bake the tart for 20 minutes. Increase the oven temperature to 350° and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, or until the filling is bubbling, lightly browned and set. Don’t take the tart out until it is clearly set, however — you’re looking for a slight jiggle only. Transfer the tart, still on the baking sheet, to a cooling rack and allow it to cool for at least 20 minutes before removing it from the pan. Serve the tart at room temperature.