baking

Nanny's Lemon Loaf

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Lemon loaf in baking pan

This past week I returned to Toronto after four months of staying in Nova Scotia with my parents, waiting out winter. I am really grateful to have been able to spend that much time with my family, in a year when many people have been separated from their loved ones for so long. Although I didn’t ever envision myself living with my parents for almost 6 months of my first year “living on my own” (I moved to my first solo apartment in February 2020), I had a lot of fun sharing many meals with them, many walks, and many evening chats. In my time home I also spent a lot of time reflecting and reminiscing on the meals and foods that formed the basis of my love for cooking. My grandmother was a huge part of those early food memories. She was an amazing baker; I used to call her the “pie queen”. She passed away in 2016 but we still have her recipe cards which my mom and I spent one recent Saturday afternoon exploring.

Most of my go-to baked goods are her recipes, and I hope to share more of them here to continue on her legacy. This lemon loaf was written on a few recipe cards throughout our findings, including Mom’s notebooks, so it is definitely an Avery family favourite. The original calls for shortening, which I’ve subbed below for butter. Like many of her recipes, there were limited instructions. I feel like my Nanny had such great instincts in the kitchen, as does my Mom, so those notes weren’t needed. I’ve tried to interpret the method below. I hope you try out this recipe and feel the love and warmth I do every time I bake it. 

Recipe cards and notebook on a table

Lemon loaf is a classic Nova Scotia treat, perfect with afternoon tea, morning coffee, or… sneaking as many slices as you can when no one is looking. It is fragrant, sweet, and the lemon glaze adds an extra tartness to the exterior that makes you want to come back for more. 

Here are a few tips for the recipe:

Do not overmix the batter

Like all cakes, you want to ensure that once you combine wet and dry ingredients that you don’t overmix, otherwise you will have a dense, chewy cake. The batter should just come together.


Pour the lemon glaze on right when it comes out of the oven

To get a crispy, sugary crust on the loaf, ensure you pour your glaze on right when it comes out of the oven. The glaze will run down the sides of the pan and soak into the loaf while it’s hot, almost hardening the sugar. If you pour it on when it’s cold it won’t soak in and it will be sticky.

Be patient and let it cool completely

Ok one of the recipe cards from my Nanny said to wait 24 HOURS BEFORE EATING. That is actually wild, I do not recommend. But I DO recommend maybe leaving the house for a few hours while it cools so you aren’t tempted to cut into it while it’s still warm! This is best served completely cooled and it will take a few hours to lose its temperature.

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Nanny's Lemon Loaf

15 min prep time, 60 min bake time, let cool for 4-6 hours

Ingredients


½ cup room temperature butter

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

Zest of 1 lemon 

1 ½ cup all purpose flour

½ tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking powder

½ cup milk

Glaze

Juice of 1 lemon 

¼ cup white sugar


Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Prepare a loaf pan by greasing or lining with parchment paper.

  2. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 2-3 minutes on high.

  3. Add in the eggs and continue to beat until well mixed and fluffy. It will take some time for the liquid of the eggs to mix in fully to the butter mixture so be patient! It should look smooth and fluffy.

  4. Add in lemon zest and combine well.

  5. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking powder.

  6. Gently fold dry ingredients into egg mixture until craggly, it’s ok if there are some dry ingredient patches.

  7. Pour in the milk and fold gently until well mixed but not overmixed. The batter should just come together, with no dry patches or milk patches.

  8. Pour batter into loaf pan and place into 350F oven. Bake for 60 minutes until golden brown and cracked on top -  a cake tester should come out clean!

  9. While the loaf is baking, whisk together your lemon juice and sugar until sugar is dissolved.

  10. Immediately after the loaf is removed from the oven, pour the glaze over top. It’s critical that you pour when it’s piping hot to get the beautiful crust outside that isn’t sticky.

  11. Allow the loaf to cool completely, ideally 4-6 hours before slicing and serving.


Mom's Whipped Shortbreads

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These are my favourite Christmas cookies. They are super simple and they just melt in your mouth. Perfect with afternoon or after-dinner tea. I like making them small because they are basically just sugar, butter and flour. They are best as a one or two-bite treat! The best thing about these cookies is they are only 4 ingredients, all of which you probably have on hand. They do take some time to firm up after they are baked so I recommend making them at least the day before you plan on serving them to ensure they aren’t too delicate to touch. 

Here are a few common questions on these cookies:

Do I need a stand mixer to make them?

No, but you definitely need an electric hand mixer if you don’t! I think it would be pretty difficult to achieve the fluffy texture you need with just hand mixing. But maybe you are stronger than me!

 Can I use unsalted butter for these?

You could but I recommend using salted butter as it is already perfectly seasoned throughout. Since this cookie has very few ingredients, this is one of the few times I recommend using salted butter instead of unsalted. Usually, I prefer unsalted because you can control the level of seasoning yourself. If you did use unsalted butter, I would add 1 tsp kosher salt.

Do I need to use cherries on top?

No, those are totally optional! I like the festive touch they add but you could do them plain, or go crazy with sprinkles. Just be gentle with toppings as you don’t want to press out any of the air you’ve built up in the dough.

Can I halve the recipe?

Absolutely. This makes about 6 dozen small cookies. All of the measurements are easily halved, so go right ahead. The cookies do freeze well if you want to make the full batch and save some for future you.

Can I pipe these cookies, or use a cookie press?

Maybe? I actually am not confident in this answer so do let me know if you experiment with them! I personally think they are cute and charming as little imperfect blobs. 

 My cookies are falling apart when I touch them!

Be patient with letting them cool. Honestly, even the first day they can be pretty delicate. Once they are fully cooled the cookies are much easier to handle. I prefer to store them in the fridge (or winter garage which is basically a fridge) because I like them cold, but that also helps keep them firm.

 How should I store the cookies?

I prefer the shortbreads cold but they keep well on the counter as well. I like to line my container with wax paper and place a piece of wax paper between each layer of cookies. I find the wax paper protects the cookies if they get moved around at all, and it’s not rough on them so they stay intact better. These also keep well in the freezer.

  • Counter/room temperature: 4 weeks in an airtight container

  • Fridge: 4-6 weeks in an airtight container

  • Freezer: up to 3 months

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Mom's Whipped Shortbreads

This recipe makes about 6 dozen small cookies. You can halve it easily if you want less.

1 - 1.5 hour total prep and bake time

 

Ingredients:

1 lb or 454g of salted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 cup icing sugar

3 cups all-purpose flour

6-8 Maraschino cherries (if desired)

 

Method:

  1. Cream together the butter, cornstarch and icing sugar for 1-2 mins until well combined using a stand mixer or hand mixer on medium speed.

  2. Scrape down the sides and add in flour. Start on a low setting until the flour is incorporated and then turn up to medium-high speed for 15 mins. The mixture should almost double in size and look fluffy and cloud like.

  3. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (TIP: I prefer to use two cookie sheets so I can put one tray in as soon as the other comes out)

  4. Dice maraschino cherries into 6ths and pat dry with a paper towel.

  5. Drop 1 heaping teaspoon worth of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet. Place cookies 1 inch apart. Try not to disturb the cookie dough too much as you don’t want it to lose air.

  6. Place a piece of cherry on top of each cookie and gently push it into place.

  7. Bake for 10 mins until the bottom is lightly golden. The top of the cookie should not colour much.

  8. Allow to cool on the sheet for 1-2 mins before transferring to a cooling rack. The cookies are very fragile until fully cooled - it takes 30-45 mins for them to fully firm up.

  9. Repeat until all of the cookies are baked.

  10. Store cookies in a container lined with wax paper on the counter or in the fridge (I personally love them cold!)


Lemon Olive Oil Cake (Gluten Free)

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Growing up, my mom always preferred lemon desserts. In the true fashion of trying to copy everything my mom liked, I have now developed a strong preference for citrus based desserts. But desserts are always a bit of a downfall for me when I have company over for dinner. I always seem to run out of time.

Enter this 7-ingredient lemon olive oil cake that involves no flour (gluten-free friendly and no flour all over your kitchen!) and no fancy baking equipment. You don’t even need vegetable oil! Just your regular everyday cooking extra virgin olive oil. Don’t have a cake pan? You can do this in a square brownie pan! Don’t have a lemon? Use an orange! The world is your oyster/cake. One bowl, a quick 15 mins in the oven and your dessert is ready.

The result is a thin, crumbly, spongey cake that’s not too sweet but hits the spot after a decadent meal. Also goes well with tea for an afternoon treat.

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Lemon Olive Oil Cake

30 minutes total

Ingredients

  • 2 large eggs

  • ½ cup white sugar

  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

  • 1 large lemon zested (yields about 1 tbsp lemon zest)

  • 2 cups almond flour (ground almonds)

  • 1 ½ tsp baking powder

  • ¼ tsp kosher salt

  • ½ lemon, juiced (yields about 2 tablespoons)

 Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350F and prepare a 9” cake pan by oiling the sides/spraying with cooking spray and lining the bottom of the pan with a piece of parchment paper

  2. Tip: trace the bottom of your pan on a piece of parchment paper and cut out the circle to get the perfect piece

  3. Whisk together the eggs, olive oil, sugar and lemon zest in a medium bowl until smooth

  4. Add the almond flour, baking powder and kosher salt on top. Mix together with the wet ingredients using a fork, which helps prevent you from overmixing. Mix until combined.

  5. Add the lemon juice and fold into the mixture.

  6. Pour into the prepared pan.

  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. The top should be evenly brown.

  8. Let cool completely before serving. Serve with a dusting of icing sugar on top. Or with a big scoop of ice cream.