Growers and Grocers

We recently returned from a trip to Maine with new foodstuffs, thanks to a stop at the Stonewall Kitchen headquarters in York, which is a cute town right on the water with at least three candy stores. If you’re a fan of condiments — dips, dressings, jellies, jams, sauces, salsas, marinades and mustards — then you probably already know about Stonewall. Their products are nationally available in select supermarkets, gourmet and specialty stores, and in their own retail operations scattered throughout New England. (Of course, you can also order online and through the catalog.) Their York location boasts a cafe and good-sized store, chockablock with products you didn’t know you needed, and a new cooking school. I bought a few things, including jarred lemon curd because summer is coming, I love lemon, and I’m curious about viable grocery shortcuts to the process of making lemon curd that don’t sacrifice on flavor or quality.

In the past, I have made lemon or lime squares, pies and other citrusy treats that are usually comprised of some combination of juice, zest, sugar, eggs and sweetened condensed milk. I confess I have never made lemon curd from scratch, but Stonewall’s iteration was sweet, eggy, and tart. I consulted some cookbooks and Stonewall’s online recipes and came up with a recipe for Lemon-Blueberry Squares. I’d started off with the Meyer Lemon Squares recipe from Essentials of Baking, which called for making your own curd (which I did not) and using an 8-inch square pan (which I did). I referred to it against the Stonewall recipe for Lemon-Raspberry Squares, which itself was adapted from another Williams-Sonoma cookbook, Picnics and Tailgates. I swapped out the Stonewall raspberry jam it called for with Stonewall’s Acadia blueberry jam, which we bought in Bar Harbor. I imagine you can use your own favorite jam; it just needs to be thick enough to hold its shape but easy enough to spread. Here’s the new, adapted recipe I came up with. The end result was a sweet-tart treat mix that made nearly all of my tastebuds stand up.

Ingredients for the crust:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
6 tablespoons of cold, unsalted butter, cut into 3/4 inch pieces

For the filling:
One jar of Stonewall Kitchen lemon curd
1 cup Stonewall Kitchen Acadia Wild Blueberry Jam

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven, preheat it to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and butter an 8-inch square baking pan.

2. To make the crust by hand, in a large bowl stir together the flour, confectioner’s sugar, and salt until combined. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs the size of small peas. You can also do this in a food processor by pulsing the dry ingredients together a couple of times, and then by adding the butter and pulsing it until the mixture looks as previously described.

3. Press the crumb mixture into the bottom of and about an inch up the sides of the prepared pan. Bake the crust until golden and the top feels firm when lightly touched, about 15-20 minutes. Set aside and let it cool for half an hour.

4. Spread the jam evenly over the crust. Carefully spoon the lemon curd over the jam, making sure to keep the layers as separate as possible. Bake until the curd topping is set. Check it after 15 minutes, but it could take an additional 5-7 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for about three hours. Sprinkle it with confectioner’s sugar and cut into squares with a serrated knife. I cut them rather generously and got about 12 squares, but you can make them as small or as large as you like.