Has this ever happened to you? As an inveterate reader of cookbooks in bed, you discover a tempting recipe and fantasize about how it might look, smell and taste. Then you turn the page, primed for the next sensory fantasy. Once in a great while, though, you decide you can and, by golly, will pull off that recipe.
For starters, there’s that tangerine Bundt cake that looks so fabulous and stately on the plate. Shortly after dawn, you assemble the ingredients and begin to measure flour and sugar with enthusiasm, humming that old Frank Sinatra tune: “Tangerine, she is all they claim/With her eyes of night and lips as bright as flame.”
But wait. You slice into the tangerines, and they’re dry and tasteless. The centerpiece flavor of your cake is almost nonexistent. Fear of failure looms. But wait again. The flavor problem can be solved. The solution lies in the addition of a few drops of tangerine citrus oil. Instantly, the batter is redolent of tangerine.
Never heard of citrus oil?
This magical oil, actually several types of oil, is cold-pressed from fruit rinds. Extracts and flavorings don’t come close to the remarkable intensity of these oils. It takes nearly 220 oranges, 330 lemons or 400 limes to fill a 5-ounce bottle with oil, according to the manufacturers.
Citrus oils add depth, dimension and aroma to every manner of baking and cooking. Strictly speaking, they pump up flavor. Once you use a citrus oil, it will become as indispensable to you as vanilla extract. However, don’t confuse pure citrus oil with flavor extracts or citrus-flavored salad oils.
The labels on the bottles caution that the oils are to be used sparingly in place of peel or zest for savory dishes, sauces, breads and desserts for which you want a natural flavor. I’ve found them to also be excellent flavor boosters where citrus is already an ingredient.
I recently experimented with a quartet of oils: orange, lemon, lime and tangerine. I stumbled upon a few guidelines that helped me.
As a general rule, use teaspoon citrus oil per cup of dry ingredients and teaspoon citrus oil per cup of liquid ingredients. But keep tasting.
The flavor should be bright, not overpowering. When possible, try to combine or add the oils with any fat (oil or butter) in the recipe.
Keep the oils refrigerated, and they’ll stay fresh a very long time.
With those rules in mind, here are a few ideas for making good use of citrus oils:
• Make citrus butters. Cream a stick of softened unsalted butter with teaspoon citrus oil of choice. Beat in 2 tablespoons honey, 1 teaspoons grated zest and 2 tablespoons fresh juice. This combination is a wonderful spread for biscuits, muffins, pancakes and waffles. Any citrus flavor can be used, but tangerine is memorable.
• Personalize citrus vinaigrettes. For a salad dressing with pan-Asian overtones, make a traditional vinaigrette by combining canola oil with a few drops of toasted sesame oil. Add a few drops of citrus oil of choice; a little rice vinegar; and a little lemon, orange or lime juice to taste. Add minced scallion, minced garlic and minced ginger. Season with salt and pepper.
• Refine chicken salad. Add a few drops of citrus oil to mayonnaise. Then fold the mayo into chopped cooked chicken mixed with a little chopped celery, onion and minced scallion.
Or try these flavor combinations:
Orange oil: Add to a favorite chocolate-cake recipe. Or combine sesame oil with soy sauce and a few drops of orange oil to make a marinade for chicken breasts.
Lemon oil: Add to any white or yellow cake batter, and it will taste wonderful, especially when frosted with coconut icing. For remoulade, add a few drops of citrus oil to mayonnaise along with capers, chopped red bell pepper, salt and pepper. Or add a few drops of lemon oil to tartar sauce.
Tangerine oil: Add to a basic creme brulee recipe or to a chocolate-cookie recipe.
Lime oil: Make white-chocolate-chip cookies. Use any traditional chocolate-chip-cookie recipe, substituting white chocolate chips for dark and adding lime oil. Add lime oil and grated fresh ginger root to whipped butter, and let it melt over grilled fish for a Caribbean finish. Add a few drops of lime oil to guacamole.
Citrus (and many other) flavored oils are sold at baking supply stores and many large supermarkets. Expect a one-ounce bottle to sell for about $2.50 and eight-ounce bottles for about $20.
Boyajian makes pure citrus oils that are available on the Internet. Check its Web site: www.boyajianinc.com. A boxed set of one-ounce bottles of orange, lemon and lime costs $9. Each flavor is also available in individual 5-ounce bottles, with prices ranging from $6 for orange to $14 for tangerine.
If those prices give you sticker shock, remember that because the oils are used a few drops or quarter-teaspoon at a time, they last a very long time. And we’re worth it.
Tangerine bundt cake
This recipe is adapted from Maida Heatter’s famous Florida lime cake. Serve it with sweetened whipped cream, if desired.
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing pan
Fine, dry bread crumbs, for coating pan
3 cups sifted flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
teaspoon salt
teaspoon tangerine or lime oil, optional
2 cups sugar
4 extra-large or jumbo eggs
1 tiny drop yellow or green food coloring, optional
1 cup milk
Finely grated zest of 3 tangerines or limes
GLAZE:
cup tangerine or lime juice
3/4 cup sugar
teaspoon tangerine or lime oil, optional
Thoroughly grease a 10-inch bundt or tube pan. Sprinkle pan with bread crumbs, then shake out the excess. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat 8 ounces butter until soft with teaspoon tangerine or lime oil, if desired. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Tint with the tiniest drop of food coloring, if desired.
On lowest speed of mixer, alternately add the sifted dry ingredients in three additions and the milk in two additions, scraping the bowl as necessary and beating just to mix after each addition.
Stir in grated citrus zest by hand. Add batter to prepared pan, pouring half on one side of the pan and half on the other. Level the top by briskly rotating the pan back and forth.
Bake in preheated 350-degree oven until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 1 to 1 hours. Remove pan from oven, and let the cake cool slightly in the pan on a wire rack, 10 to 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the glaze. In a bowl, mix together fruit juice, sugar and oil, if using, just to combine.
Place cake rack over tube pan, and invert cake onto it. Place rack over a large sheet of foil. Using a pastry brush, brush glaze all over the warm cake until completely absorbed. Brush on any glaze that has dripped onto the foil.
Let cake cool completely. Using a flat-sided baking sheet or a very large spatula, transfer cake to a round platter or cake plate. Let cake stand loosely covered with plastic wrap for several hours so that the glaze has time to penetrate to the interior of the cake. When ready, the cake will be completely dry. Cut into slices to serve.
Note: This cake freezes well, but glaze it after defrosting so that it will be moist when served.
Sunny orange breakfast bread
Juice doesn’t add a lot flavor to a recipe. It does, however, add levels of acidity and moisture that the recipe needs. The citrus flavor is boosted by adding citrus zest and a shot of citrus oil.
2 packages yeast
3 tablespoons sugar, divided
2 cups flour, plus a little more for kneading
1 teaspoon salt
Zest of one orange
3 tablespoons soft butter, cut in 3 or 4 pieces
teaspoon orange oil, optional
About ⅔ cup orange juice, warmed
Oil for greasing bowl and baking pan
Cornmeal, optional
Sprinkle yeast over cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees) in a small dish, then sprinkle 1 tablespoon sugar over all and allow mixture to get bubbly and creamy, about 5 minutes.
Place metal blade in food processor. Add 2 cups flour, remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, salt and orange zest. Process to combine. Add butter and orange oil, if using, and process about 10 seconds to combine. Add yeast mixture, and mix to combine again.
With motor running, pour ⅓ cup orange juice through the feed tube. Then dribble additional orange juice in, a little at a time, just until a ball of dough forms on the blades. All of the juice will probably not be used.
Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and knead 2 or 3 minutes until smooth and satiny. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk.
Punch dough down, knead a couple of times and place in a greased 5-cup loaf pan. Or form the dough into a ball and place on a cornmeal-dusted cookie sheet.
With a sharp knife, cut a shallow cross in the top of the loaf. Either way you shape it, let the dough rise until doubled in bulk.
Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for 30 minutes until golden brown and hollow-sounding when loaf is rapped with the knuckles.
Makes 1 loaf.
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