Lemon And Lime Cookies With Poppy Seeds Recipe

My citrus lemon and lime cookie recipe with poppy seeds

Lemon and Lime zest cookies with poppy seeds

There's an amazing smell in the kitchen right now. There's a waft of lemon and lime throughout the house which is giving a fantastic citrus aroma. The bonus to that is that I really love the sour sweet taste of lemon. I'd rather have something lemony for dessert than chocolate and that seems really strange to friends and colleagues but that's just me!

Ingredients for making my Lemon and Lime Cookies

125 grammes of softened unsalted butter

175 grammes of caster sugar

The zest and juice from 1 lemon

The zest and juice from 1 Lime
250 grammes of plain flour
20 grammes of poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

Grating a lemon to add it's zest to my cookies

Making my lemon and lime cookies with poppy seeds

1. I started by melting the butter and sugar together in a large bowl perched over the top of a small bowl of hot water to allow the steam to warm the base of the bowl and slowly melt the butter. I find it's a great way to stop it being heated too quickly and curdling.

2. I then grated the zest from a lemon and a lime, adding it to the mixture as well as a healthy squeeze of the juices from both fruits.

Lemon and Lime zest ready to use in my biscuits

4. I then sifted the flour, baking powder and poppy seeds into the mixture before stirring together with a wooden spoon until the mixture starts to form a dough. I then continued mixing together with my hands to really knead the dough together as it will feel rather soft and putty-like.
5. I split the mixture in two, then rolled it into balls and covered with cling-film and placed in the fridge for an hour to harden.

Tow balls of cookie dough in the fridge ready to roll out

6. After removing the dough from the fridge I further rolled it out into long round tubes and placed back in the refrigerator for a further hour

Two long tubes of lemon and lime cookie dough ready to go back into the refrigerator for an hour

7. Upon removal from the fridge I thinly sliced the tubes of dough to create rounds around 5 millimetres deep and then placed them on baking trays covered with greaseproof baking paper. The rounds will spread out slightly so it's best to leave around 2 centimetres to an inch between rounds prior to baking.
8. I then baked my lemon and lime cookies for 12 minutes at 170 Celsius (325 Fahrenheit or Gas Mark 3)

My lemon and lime zest cookies with poppy seed straight from the oven

Once baked, turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool for 10-15 minutes before enjoying.

Lemon and Lime biscuits and a cuppa- Nothing better for a relaxing afternoon

My Sesame and Poppy Seed Savoury Muffin Recipe

A great savoury muffin recipe that's crying out for a nice cream cheese dip

My Sesame and Poppy Seed Savoury Muffins

I think people are going to start calling me "The Muffin Man" soon as I seem to make them quite regularly. Ironically for someone with a sweet tooth I have been more inclined to work on some recipes for savoury muffins of late. Today's muffin idea was to use the packs of sesame seeds and poppy seeds that were left in our cupboards.

My £1.99 B + M Bargains silicon muffin mould has been getting some serious use recently. I'm definitely getting my money's worth from it.

Ingredients I used for My Sesame and Poppy Seed Muffins

(Will make 10-12 medium savoury muffins)

250 grammes of self-raising flour

100 grammes of sesame seeds

80 grammes of poppy seeds

250 ml milk

3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3 large free-range eggs

You will also need a muffin tray (silicon are good)

My Lemon And Lime Curd Muffin Recipe

Zesty Lemon And Lime Curd Muffins- 

So light they'd be ideal for breakfast.

My amazing Lemon and Lime Curd Muffins

The Lone Male Loves Lemon

Lemon is one of my favourite flavours in the whole world. I'd rather have a slice of lemon drizzle cake over a big slab of something chocolaty. I love that slightly sour zest that comes from fresh lemon and this week received a gift of some lovely lemon and lime curd from a friend which seemed destined to go into a cake of some kind.

I love a good muffin although recently have only really made some savoury varieties so here's my first attempts at making some lemon and lime curd muffins. I used a slight variation on my recipe for cheesy Double-Gloucester Savoury Muffins and it worked well.

I didn't fancy complicating things by having a big dollop of fruity curd in the middle of my muffins. Instead I went for a light and fluffy lemon curd muffin with a gentle zesty taste of lemon and lime throughout. They were almost more like those like Madelaine style breakfast cakes you sometimes get on a continental breakfast buffet while away in countries like Spain.

Visiting The Galloway Smokehouse- A Fishy Love Affair

The Lone Male On Tour- Visiting Galloway Smokehouse

It's official. I love seafood. Whether it's a seared tuna in a sushi restaurant, a Goan fish curry, Scallops served with black pudding or a fresh caught Sea Bream in a Mediterranean harbour. Whenever I have the opportunity I tend to seek out some good seafood. The Galloway Smokehouse is one of the best places a fish lover can visit in the UK.

Where smoking perfection occurs- The Galloway Smokehouse

Scotland's Solway Coastline is a Mecca for fishing. From the cockle pickers to the boats which head out of the harbours in search of the days catch. The Galloway Smokehouse near Creetown has their own boat which heads out in search of the best the coast has to offer. The catch then either goes straight for sale, or heads down to the smokehouse to be prepared for sale and the delight of everyone from top Michelin star restaurants to tourists like myself in search of some good food to take home.

Baking Marbled Chocolate Cookies- A Weekend Treat

As it's bank holiday weekend and the forecast for Bank Holiday Monday here in Nottingham is quite positive which means one thing. Someone will be holding a barbecue, somewhere. I've been invited to one on Monday and been instructed NOT to bring any meat with me as they already have plenty. So I've decided to bake some biscuits to take with me instead as no-one wants a full on dessert after a BBQ.

My chocolate marble cookies will make an excellent post-Barbecue light bite

I've not really baked with chocolate for a while and having seen a few cake shops serving up marble cakes recently I thought I would get in on the act with my own recipe for marbled cookies

Rocket, Chilli and Basil Pesto Recipe- Making The Most Of Leftovers

Making good use of this week's leftovers- My Rocket and Chili Pesto

I love Italian food and pasta is a staple part of my diet as a cyclist as my body has a high need for carbohydrate. Pasta is hard work on it's own and needs a great tasting sauce to really make it a good meal. That's why I love Pesto. It adds an intense flavour to pasta dishes. It's easy to buy jars but there's nothing better than making your own pesto- Especially as you can add some elements from the fridge to give it some additional flavour intensity like chili peppers for some fire and rocket for a peppery kick.

Fusilli Pasta laced with my Rocket, Chili and Basil Pesto

Making Pizza Dough For The First Time

Part of the purpose for the Lone Male In The Kitchen Blog is to force myself to try new things food wise and I've never ever made my own bread. Even in cookery class at school we never made it so for someone who loves baking cakes it made sense to try and make my own bread.

As I had a friend coming round for some dinner I decided to combine my first attempts at bread making with making pizza dough for the first time. As you can see below I was definitely pleased with my results as I love Italian food and pizza is one of my simple favourites.

My first ever pizza with homemade pizza dough 

Ingredients I used to make my pizza dough

(Makes 4 25cm pizzas)

Simple pizza dough ingredients

Just 4 simple ingredients for making pizza bases. The recipe is loosely based on a James Martin recipe as I needed some inspiration for my first attempt.

• 275g Strong white flour and extra for dusting
• 2 teaspoons (or one 7g sachet) of fast action or easy blend yeast
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 225ml of warm water (Hand hot)
• 4 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Instructions for making my simple pizza dough

1. I sifted the flour, yeast and salt into my large metal mixing bowl. I don't actually have a sieve at how so I passed the ingredients through a small grater, grinding the grater while tipping a container against it to work in a similar action to a regular sieve. A sieve is definitely now on my list of pay-day purchases.
2. I then made a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and bit-by-bit added in the warm water and olive oil while stirring together the mixture to make a soft dough.

My pizza dough forming as I mix the flour, water, yeast, salt and olive oil together

3. I then tipped the dough out onto a floured surface and roll into a ball ready for kneading. Having never kneaded bread dough before I wasn't quite sure how to knead but got into the habit of pushing the dough down and out with my right hand, then cupping and turning the dough mixture with my left hand to go again. I did this for around 5 minutes but it seemed like an eternity.

Pushing out the pizza dough as part of the kneading process

Cupping and rolling the pizza dough ready to go again

4. I then returned the pizza dough to my metal bowl before covering with clingfilm and leaving the dough to gain size for about an hour.
5. After the hour was done I took the risen dough out of the metal bowl and briefly kneaded it again for about 20 seconds. Then with a sharp knife I cut my dough into four and placed three of the pieces of dough back into the bowl and re-covered.
6. Using a beer bottle I then rolled my dough out into a disc. I couldn't find my rolling pin so was forced to use a bottle of Erdinger Dunkel dark Bavarian beer.

Erdinger Dunkel bottles make great rolling pins for pizza bases

7. I then transferred the pizza base to a baking sheet before topping ready for a hot oven.

My first ever homemade pizza- including my own dough too. Delicious

A quick and easy pizza chilli topping

Blend together 100ml of passata, one chili (De-seeded if you prefer) and a couple of cloves of garlic. Smear over your pizza base leaving a couple of centimetres of dough visible at the end. Chop up a round of cheap and cheerful mozzarella and then bake in a hot oven until the dough starts to bronze.