Sweet things often taste even better with a little zing from fresh lemon. Preserved lemon is even better because in addition to the zing, it has a salty flavor that rounds off the sweetness.
Whether you love cheesecake, custard pie, pound cake, or ice cream for dessert, adding some preserved lemon to it will take it to another level.
Once you start using preserved lemon in your dishes, it is impossible to go back to life without it. Preserved lemon makes desserts better and works well even in savory dishes like roasts, salads, chicken, and pastas.
Folding chunks of preserved lemon into your cake batter makes it ultimately better.
What is Preserved Lemon
Preserved lemon is made by fermenting whole lemons until they are soft, and salting them. Preserved lemons are incredibly popular in Morocco, Tunisia, Iran, North African, Israeli, and Turkish menus.
Preserved lemon is called lemon pickle in India, where they season it with chili powder, turmeric, as well as cumin, etc.
They chop the lemons whole and seed them before fermenting and seasoning them. You can stir the condiment into most dishes that require fresh lemon.
They offer a more complex flavor than the usual fresh lemon. Even after you are done making preserved lemons, you can use the remaining brine to cook. It is heavily seasoned and still carries a mild taste of lemon.
Baked goods like sugar cookies and cakes often have a whiff of lemon. You can safely assume that any cake recipe can do well with some lemon zest. But it is not advisable to do that.
Lemon gives sweet things a tangy flavor. Preserved lemon is just like fresh lemon but with more punch.
Desserts with savory ingredients inside them are a delight. Tahini was a trend for a while. The sesame paste tastes something close to peanut butter without salt. And it appears quite frequently in baked goods.
Pound cakes and cookies taste rather pleasant when cooked with some miso paste. Ice cream does well with the salty flavor of fish sauce caramel, and brownie cookies are amazing with tangy sumac baked in.
You may have noticed chili powder in some sweet treats of late and even cardamom is giving cinnamon a run for its money by flavoring cookies, buns, and cakes all over the United States.
Preserved lemon is quite possibly the next big thing in savory seasonings flavoring sweet treats. You can try out different ways of incorporating lemon into a baked good. But a good way to start is to work with recipes that contain fresh lemon and substitute the fresh lemon with preserved lemon.
You can even preserve other citrus juices with preserved lemon.
Chopped preserved lemon will give you a different texture from lemon juice, but it won’t make a significant difference otherwise. Your cake or custard will still come out delicious.
You can use lemon juice in addition to preserved lemon. And you definitely want to reduce the amount of salt you add into the batter because preserved lemon already has salt.
You have the option of preparing preserved lemon yourself, or buying some ready-made from the store. Most stores sell preserved lemon whole. Mina is one of my favorite brands, as is Tara Kitchen. Preserved lemon paste is also a thing. You can go for that as well. Some cooks prefer preserved Meyer lemon paste, but that is a little harder to find in the store than regular preserved lemon. Tart is a vinegar company that produces it in small batches. It works beautifully in baking.
