What spices go with lime in a quick bread?

[BakerAunt]

My lime tree is blossoming, but my usual go-to recipe is for a lime cookie that contains a lot of butter. Sigh. I was looking for quick bread recipes and came across one in Bake magazine's special one-layer cake issue, or rather I came across a recipe for orange-cardamom loaves. I'm thinking of substituting lime for the orange, but I'm not sure what to substitute for cardamom. Suggestions?

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[Mike Nolan]

Clove, cinnamon and ginger in sweet dishes, cumin and coriander in savory dishes. Saffron with either sweet or savory.

I'm not that fond of cardamom, but it pairs well with citrus, too.

Lime also pairs well with most chili peppers, which is one reason it is featured in Mexican cooking.

[chocomouse]

A favorite cookie of mine is lime-basil. It does have quite a bit of butter, 3/4 cup per 2 cups of flour. I don't remember how many it makes, and it doesn't say. The original recipe is for lemon-basil, and it is from BigLakeJudy on the old old Baking Circle. Somewhere I have a recipe for a citrus-rosemary cookie, but can't seem to find it right now. I'll post the lime-basil if you'd like it.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks for the offer, Chocomouse, but I'm focusing on recipes that do not require butter. I will make a small batch of the Lime-Pecan cookies, and carefully ration to no more than one cookie a day--and maybe make them a bit smaller. (Seriously, they are very much a shortbread kind of cookie.) Basil is also a no-go, since my husband hates that spice, which of course I enjoy. However, it would be nice to have another of Big Lake Judy's recipes posted here, if that one is not, so I encourage you to put it on when you have time.

Rosemary does sound intriguing. Cinnamon, ginger, and lime might work. While my husband is not partial to ginger, he does not complain when it is with other spices. My husband is not a cardamom fan, but if it isn't too strong, I can usually create something that he will eat.

[Mike Nolan]

Nutmeg also goes well with citrus and complements/enhances other spices.

Mace might work well, too, it's nutmeg's close cousin.

[BakerAunt]

I like the idea of nutmeg and lime for these cakes. Thanks, Mike.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday morning, I adapted a recipe for Orange-Cardamom Loaves that appeared in the Bake from Scratch special issue, One Layer Cakes (p. 23) in the spring of 2017. My lime tree gifted me with an outstanding harvest, so I need lower-in-saturated-fat recipes to use it, and this one seemed a good candidate. I switched out the cardamom for nutmeg, as Mike Nolan suggested.

Here is a link to the original recipe:

Orange-Cardamom Loaves

I then did what I rarely do with a cake recipe: I made a lot of changes, which is scary since I know less about what makes a great cake than I know about bread. I substituted in 1 cup barley flour, then made up the difference in weight (the recipe gives weights as well as the usual cups), which meant a total of 375g.

The recipe calls for 500g (2 ½ cups) sugar, which seems high to me. More than once, Cass has fixed a recipe for me and explained that the weight of the sugar is too great. I cut it back to 2 cups or 400g.

I used buttermilk in place of whole milk. I decided, since it is 1 ½ cups buttermilk to reduce 1 ½ tsp. baking powder to 1 tsp., and to substitute in ¼ tsp. baking soda—a bit more than the usual 1/8 tsp. I would normally use to replace ½ tsp. baking powder. The recipe called for 1 cup oil. I reduced it to ¾ cup.

Finally, instead of making two 8x4-inch loaves, I decided to bake it in a Bundt pan. An online conversion chart at Epicurious suggested a 12-cup Bundt pan as the equivalent. That is the size still packed away. I worried that a 10 cup would be too small, so I used my 12-16 cup pan. I baked it for about 55 minutes, then cooled for 15 minutes. I had used THE grease. At first, it seemed stuck, but I rapped it on the rack, and it came out beautifully.

Once it is completely cool, I will glaze it, since I have the lime juice after using the lime zest. I'll report back on taste and texture.

The glaze came out too thin, and I did not want to add any more powdered sugar. Next time, I'll add less lime juice to get the correct consistency. I might also halve the glaze recipe. The cake is delicious, and it reminds me very much of a pound cake, even though it has no butter. I'm not sure that the nutmeg comes through that strongly. I will definitely make this adaptation again.

• This reply was modified 6 years ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years ago by BakerAunt.

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