Dried Lemon Powder

Saw this item before I started making a batch of fruitcakes for Christmas presents and thought it might be a great addition as well as saving time. The flavor, scent, and potency of this powder is incomparable and I plan on using it in many different baked goods!

This lemon powder is new to me, so to experiment I made my favorite chia seed pudding recipe (also has flax seed meal) and put half in a bowl with juice and zest of 1/2 lemon and half in a separate bowl with a generous (not level) 1 Tbsp. lemon powder. Although I use almond (not cow's) milk, the bowl with fresh lemon juice and zest stratified between a sort-of-curdle and water (where most of the chia seeds sat), and the chia & flax seeds did not gel well at all. The bowl with lemon power did not curdle or stratify but blended smoothly, and the chia & flax seeds gelled practically as well as usual, although a wee bit looser but not by much. So assuming this translates to any milk or gelling application, this is now a lemon product which will not curdle nor prevent gelling. Both tasted OK lemony, but neither as great a lemony flavor as I would like for a pudding. I have a bottle of Spice Hunter's Pure Lemon Extract which says to mix the extract into eggs or butter "to encapsulate and protect lemon flavor." My chia pudding recipe has neither eggs nor butter nor any fat, and admittedly is rather thin, so next try will add some sort of fat (perhaps Kite Hill almond cream cheese) and blend the lemon powder with it first, and then see what that does to for the lemon flavor of the pudding. I also see BellaViva's recipe for Lemon Yogurt Blueberry Bread adds lemon extract in addition to the lemon powder, and both are first mixed into the eggs, so perhaps here and there extra lemon extract might be needed if a strong lemon flavor is desired. I expect, though, any recipe asking for lemon peel or zest can use this lemon powder as is (like fruitcake, steamed puddings), and it tastes better (and fresher) than store-bought dried (or my homemade dried or frozen) lemon peel. Also I really like that this is a whole food, non-GMO product so can be added to smoothies and many other recipes to experiment with. Also, it came tight with some lumps but they were soft (not rocks at all) and although I dispelled them and sifted the powder, it may not have been necessary as the powder did readily mix with the cold almond milk and dissolved well. Thanks, BellaViva, for providing this. I think it's a great product and am looking forward to experiment with a lot of different uses like smoothies, stir-fries, fish, salads, baking -- we'll see.