WTF?! What's That Fruit...

I bring you another installment of What's That Fruit!

This time I was fairly familiar with the fruit, but am still intrigued by it and learning how to use it!  Meyer Lemons are something I did not seek out or stumble upon on my own!  A few months ago, while perusing cooking competitions, I came across a contest with "adventure" ingredients.  One of those ingredients was Meyer Lemon.  I wanted to use it in my recipe, and made my way to the grocery store before consulting Google.  I searched the baking aisle thinking that it was a particular brand of lemon extract, or maybe a special kind of extract.  After searching bottled lemon juice for at least 20 minutes I headed home and turned on the laptop!  I quickly learned that Meyer Lemons are a variety of lemon that tend to come from regions of Florida and California and rarely make their way to the northern regions of the US...great, I would pick the hard to find ingredient!  The next week I made my way to my usual grocery store for my weekly grocery order and, while perusing the produce section, was shocked to find an early out of season batch of them!  I quickly placed them in my cart...I felt like I was in the middle of a drug deal in broad daylight!   "At $4.99 for 5 lemons, they better be worth it," was all I could think as I shopped.

I got home and whipped together a batch of the cupcakes I was working on, zested my newly found lemons, and juiced them.  The first thing that struck me was their color.  They tend to be yellow, but with a orange undertone, both inside and out.  They also don't smell much like a lemon!  I put my lemon wedge smile on and was shocked at the taste!  It tasted like a lemon, but it was sweet like an orange! 

After some more research on the interwebs, I learned that Meyer Lemons are actually a cross between a lemon and either a mandarin orange or common orange.  They are native to China, and started to become popular in the United States when Martha Stewart began introducing them to the masses!  They hit their peak season during the dead of winter...mostly early January.  So, now is the time to find them!  I watched several grocery stores for months to make my cupcakes again, and finally found them in stores again just last week!  I contemplated buying several packages of them, but controlled my urges. 

My advice - GET'EM WHILE THEY'RE HOT!!!

The second batch of my now infamous Coffe Cacao Cupcakes with Meyer Lemon Buttercream!