Easter dinner at Chris's family's started in the late afternoon, leaving us plenty of time during the day to make our Easter treats. For the first two, we utilized our new favorite ingredient bought during a recent trip to Boston (more on Beantown coming this week): Boyajian pure citrus oils (they are amazing).
First, with our newly-gained eclair-making skills and lemon oil for flavoring, we made "Easter Eclairs" with lemon pastry cream and glaze. They look small because they are; we needed plenty to feed the crowd, and got 45 out of one recipe batch! They were a hit!
Next, since the pastry cream for eclairs calls for egg yolks, we used the remaining egg whites to whip up a batch of meringues using Grandma's recipe but substituting lime oil for the vanilla extract and leaving out the chocolate chips. Tangy, light and tasty!
Finally, because we just had to make Easter eggs, we made the cover recipe from the cookbook Culinary Tea in which you soak hard-boiled eggs in a liquid made with brown sugar, soy sauce, star anise, cinnamon, and of course tea. Alas, as usual, we lacked patience and ours did not come out quite as pretty as theirs, but next time we will crack a little harder and soak a little longer.
Happy Easter and happy spring, everyone!
