Lemon Verbena Bread Recipes

Steps:

• For the bread cream butter with verbena leaves in a mixer or food processor.
• Add sugar,eggs and milk and beat well.
• Add remaining ingredients and pulse a few times until blended.
• Grease loaf pans (1 large,2 small or 4 mini) and pour in batter.
• Bake at 350º for 30-45 minutes, depending on pan size, or until toothpick inserted in center of bread comes out clean.
• Leave loaf in pan and pour glaze over loaf while still hot.
• Let sit several hours.
• Remove loaf from pan.
• Wrap in foil to ripen overnight if you like, or serve when cool.
• You can also freeze this bread for later use.
• GLAZE: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar and 2 tbsp fresh lemon verbena leaves,finely chopped, with the juice of one lemon.

Steps:

• 1. Combine milk and lemon verbena leaves and stems in a small saucepan. Heat on low just until milk is hot (do not boil). Set aside to cool to room temperature. Pour mixture through a wire-mesh strainer into a glass measuring cup, discarding lemon verbena. Add additional milk to measuring cup to equal ½ cup, if needed, and set aside.
• 2. Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add granulated sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.
• 3. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt; add to butter mixture alternately with reserved milk, beating at low speed just until blended, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in lemon rind. Spoon batter into greased and floured 8-x 4-inch loafpan.
• 4. Bake at 350˚ F for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center of bread comes out clean. Let cook in pan 10 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and cool completely on a wire rack.
• 5. Combine chopped verbena leaves and lemon juice in a small bowl. Cover and set aside.
• 6. After bread has cooled completely, pour herb-lemon juice mixture through a wire-mesh strainer into a small bowl, discarding lemon verbena. Add powdered sugar and stir with a small whisk until smooth, adding additional lemon juice, ½ teaspoon at a time, if needed, until desired consistency. Spoon glaze over top of bread, letting excess drip down sides. Garnish with lemon verbena leaves.

Steps:

• Combine water, sugar, and lemon verbena leaves in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Simmer for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let syrup steep, about 30 minutes.
• Pour syrup into a sterilized glass jar through a mesh strainer to remove lemon verbena leaves; let cool.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Beat in eggs, lemon zest and juice. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; gradually stir into creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. , Pour into a greased 8x4-in. loaf pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Cool in pan 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Combine glaze ingredients; immediately drizzle over bread. Serve warm.

Steps:

• Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir until smooth and ingredients are incorporated.
• Transfer butter to a covered container approximately 2 hours or until firm. Note: be sure the butter is covered well or it will absorb any odors from the refrigerator.

Steps:

• To make the pastry, beat the butter, half the yolk, sugar and a pinch of salt together with an electric whisk, then gradually whisk in the milk. Tip in the flour and rub together with your fingertips until it just starts to come together. Squash the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 1 hr. Can be made up to three days ahead.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to the thickness of a £1 coin. Use it to line a loose-bottomed 23cm tart tin, leaving the excess hanging over the sides, then prick the base all over with a fork. Return to the fridge, or better still the freezer, and leave to rest for another 30 mins.
• Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Line the tart with baking parchment and fill with ceramic baking beans, rice or dried pulses. Place on a baking tray and bake for 10 mins, then remove from the oven. Discard the paper and bake for another 20 mins. Brush the cooked pastry with the remaining half of the egg yolk, then return to the oven for 5-10 mins until golden. Lift the pastry out onto a cooling rack, and trim the overhang. Once cooled, put the case on the baking tray.
• Meanwhile, make the filling. Put the lemon verbena and cream in a pan, bring to the boil, then turn off the heat and leave to cool. Whizz the cream and leaves together using a hand blender, then pass through a fine sieve to remove any strands of verbena leaf. Whisk the cream with the rest of the filling ingredients, then pour into the pastry case. Put in the oven, making sure not to spill. Bake for 30-35 mins until just set with a slight wobble. Allow to cool. Dust with icing sugar and sprinkle over the zest. Serve the tart in slices with raspberries.

Steps:

• Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat, and add lemon verbena. Cover, and steep for 15 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve, and let cool completely.
• Combine lemon juice and lemon verbena syrup in a pitcher. Fill glasses with lemon verbena ice, and divide lemonade among glasses.

Steps:

• Make cake:
• Preheat oven to 325°F. and butter and flour a 1-quart kugelhopf pan, knocking out excess flour.
• In a bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, verbena (or zest), and zest. In another bowl with an electric mixer beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, and beat in vanilla. Beat in half of flour mixture. Beat in milk and lemon juice and beat in remaining flour mixture until just combined.
• Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top, and bake in middle of oven 45 to 55 minutes, or until golden brown on top and a tester comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a rack 15 minutes and invert onto rack to cool completely.
• Make glaze while cake is cooling:
• In a small bowl whisk confectioners's sugar, a little at a time, into lemon juice until smooth and thick.
• When cake is completely cooled, drizzle glaze over cake and let it drip down sides. Cake may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered.
• Serve cake at room temperature with strawberries.