Thinking about writing a column for this newspaper on baking for Easter, the words coals and Newcastle once more come to mind. By this time, most of you will have baked heroic quantities of figolli and other traditional delights. But I have to share with you a photograph I took last Easter, of one of the prettiest figolli I have ever seen baked by Rita of St Mary’s Supermarket on the road to Għarb from Victoria.

So, today is a bit of baking and a bit of dessert-making, perhaps to follow Easter lunch. I particularly like dessert trios created around a single seasonal fruit. At the right time of year I like to combine a sliver of pear tart, a small pear poached in wine and a scoop of pear sorbet. Or a fruit soup, really just a glorified fruit salad, might be served with a scoop of matching ice cream in the middle, accompanied by crisp biscuits or a tender madeleine. Strawberries adapt well to this style of dessert but perhaps my favourite fruit for this is the lemon and other citrus fruits at their best in winter and spring.

Today’s recipes develop this theme. If you only want to tackle a single recipe, which will be a treat in itself, I recommend the lemon and lime madeleines, which you can serve with lemon sorbet or lemon meringue ice cream. They are, however, delicious with the home-made lemon verbena ice cream and the citrus soup, which is very easy to make.

I include a recipe for a lemon tea loaf, a moist and delicious treat for afternoon tea, but also excellent when served still warm as a pudding, an alternative to the madeleines. It is an easy recipe to adapt to other flavours. For example, leaving out the lemon juice and zest, take out a quarter of the cake batter, mix it with coffee essence and a coffee liqueur, then swirl it lightly back into the batter as you spoon it into the loaf tin. This will give you a marbled coffee cake. A chocolate one can be made in the same way.

Alternatively, add a handful or two of chopped crystallised orange peel and some grated zest or some ground ginger and chopped crystallised ginger.

With citrus-based desserts, I recommend sweet Loire wines or late harvest Rieslings or other German/Alsace varietals from Australia, Austria, California, England and Canada, as well as from Germany, Mosel Auslese or the even sweeter Trockenbeeren Auslese. These have enough acidity to balance that in the fruit.

Lemon and lime sorbet

(serves 4)

200 mls water
200g granulated sugar
50 mls freshly squeezed lime juice
200 mls lemon juice
Finely grated zest of one lime and 1 lemon

Make a syrup of the sugar and water and allow to cool. Mix the syrup, juice, and a further 250 mls water, together with the citrus zest. Freeze in a sorbetière or ice cream maker.

Verbena ice cream

(makes 1 litre)

Good handful dried lemon verbena
200 mls heavy sugar syrup (made with one part water to two parts sugar)
375 mls full cream milk
250 mls whipping cream
4 egg yolks, lightly beaten in a bowl

Simmer the verbena in the syrup for 5 minutes and leave to infuse until cool, removing the pan from the heat. Scald the milk in a separate saucepan, remove from the heat and stir in the verbena syrup. Leave again to infuse until cool and only then strain. Scald the cream and pour on the egg yolks, whisking all the time. Return the saucepan to a very gentle heat and stir the custard continuously until it thickens slightly. Combine the custard with the flavoured mixture and when cool, freeze in the usual way.

Lemon tea loaf

4 large eggs, separated
175g golden caster sugar
Juice and zest of a lemon
175g softened unsalted butter
225g self-raising flour

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the lemon juice, zest, butter and quarter of the flour, mixing well. Fold in the rest of the flour, then the stiffly whisked egg whites. Spoon into a greased, floured loaf tin and bake for about 30 minutes at 180˚C or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Baker's note: Loaf tins do not come in standard sizes. I have three which purport to be 1 kg tins, but each has different dimensions. When choosing which one to use, add up the approximate weight of ingredients in the recipe, transpose that into volume. Measure the same volume of water into a jug and pour it into your loaf tin. Ideally, the liquid should come to within no more than two to three centimetres of the rim to allow for the cake to rise. And note that a large egg, minus the shell, weighs about 65 grams.

I like to bake loaf cakes in an enamelled, cast iron terrine of 1 kg size in which I normally make fish and game terrines. It is long and narrow, rather than broad, and gives about 24 small, neat slices. Well grease and flour any cake tins before using them. And, if you use a particularly rich mix full of fruit and sugar it is a good idea to line the tin first.

Lemon and lime madeleines

(makes 24)

100g caster sugar
100g self-raising flour
pinch of salt, about half a coffeespoon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
130g unsalted butter, melted
Finely grated zest of a lime and a lemon

Preheat the oven to 220˚C, gas mark 8. Butter and flour madeleine moulds. These are very shallow, fluted and an elongated shell shape. The quantity given fills 24. However, if you use bun tins,which are generally deeper the mixture will fill 12.

Sift together the dry ingredients. Beat in the eggs and then mix in the melted butter and zest. Pour the batte, and the mixture really is quite liquid, into the prepared moulds and bake in the top half of the oven for 5 to 7 minutes.

Remove from the oven once the madeleines are golden and well-risen with a bump in the middle.

Citrus soup
Use as many citrus varieties as you can, including pomelos, blood oranges, lime, lemon, pink grapefruit and Valencias or navel oranges. Divide into segments and remove all skin, pith, membrane and seeds. Squeeze some of the juice into a jug, about 75mls per person and for each 100gr to 150gr of prepared fruit and whisk in enough icing sugar to sweeten to taste. Put the fruit in individual bowls or a large glass dish and pour on the sweetened juice.

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