Lemon Loaves & Baking New Recipes

Mrs. Stark's Lemon Loaf recipe just wasn't cutting it any more.

In theory, the loaves I bake now should far exceed the ones I used to because I know more about baking and I have better equipment but the exact opposite is true. It's as though ignorance was bliss with her recipe. I've made many great loaves since she gave it to me when I was 11 (12? 13?) but for the last 5 years, I haven't had stellar results (my case in point. Appetizing? Hardly.) My successful loaves could have been due to a number of things including:

technique - using butter and eggs straight out of the fridge, totally breaking baking law
pans - I swear Mrs. Stark's original loaf pans made the edges of the top crust lovely and crisp. They have been lost since the move from Waterloo to 36th
equipment - I used a cheese grater for the lemon zest. I'm sure I ended up grating a lot of the lemon pith but it's all I had access to
oven - the oven at our Waterloo house was straight from the 40s with a door that required a Franken-coat hanger to keep closed (so ghetto). I doubt it kept anything at a steady temperature

The short story is that I found a new favourite Lemon Loaf recipe. The long story is that I documented how I approach new recipes. I cleared an afternoon to bake Dorrie's version that I'd had marked for a while.

Baking new recipes starts with choosing one from the many cookbooks that litter my bed (nighttime reading.) I love them and am quite proud of how few I own considering how many are on my Want This list. On my night table: Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorrie Greenspan and Simply Perfect Every Time by David Herbert.

On my bed: The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond and The Main: Recipes by Anthony Sedlak.

The next step is clearing out the sink. I am tragically terrible at putting things away but doing this eases the cleaning process.

Pull out all required ingredients.

Put a temporary garbage bag at the corner of the sink. Super helpful for lemon stickers and egg shells.

Measure ingredients. When I'm trying a recipe for the first time, I nearly always measure with measuring cups, then, if it's a recipe worth keeping, I'll convert everything into weight measurements.

Use a container to corral measuring cups and spoons.

Continue measuring and putting each ingredient in its own bowl/container.

Thank you for being so handy and within reach, Garbage Bag. PS, my grandmother has been using a garbage bag/bowl-on-the-counter trick long before RR started marketing it.

Save the egg carton for math lessons.

Dirty dishes in the (emptied!) sink.

All ingredients measured and lined up left to right in sequential order (as listed in recipe).

Oops, forgot the lemon zest.

Use a post-it note to mark place in recipe. Girl, your recipes are wonderful to read in bed but hard to refer to in the middle of a project. I still love you.