Easy Lemon Bars

These are perfect, neither too lemony nor too sweet, light, and slightly sticky lemon bars.  I was amazed at how well this recipe turned out, considering I'd never made lemon bars before!  I'm giving you my own tailored version, since even though they were great, I think there is always room for improvement (unless it comes to devilish angel food cake which is pretty much perfect in all ways).  It's a pretty straight-forward recipe, so I hope you enjoy! 

Shopping list:

• 4 large lemons 
• 4 eggs
• Milk
• Butter
• All-purpose flour
• Confectioner's sugar
• Granulated sugar
• Cornstarch
• Salt

Make the crust:

Line a 13"x9" baking dish or jelly roll pan with a double layer of parchment, or one of foil and one of parchment (the extra strength will help you lift the bars out of the pan for cutting).  

In a food processor, pulse together: 

• 1 3/4 cups (220g) flour
• 2/3 cup (83g) confectioner's sugar 
• 1/4 cup (30g) cornstarch
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

Add: 

• 12 tablespoons (170g) cool butter  

and pulse to blend until coarse

Optional:
Add:

• 1-2 tablespoons cold vodka 

this will help hold the dough together while you pat it into the pan, but will bake off in the oven, leaving a light, flaky crust.  If you don't have vodka (which leaves no taste), you can try ice water, but it will make the dough a little more soggy.  You can also skip this ingredient all together.

Sprinkle mixture over the  parchment lined pan, and press into the bottom and up the sides .  

Chill in pan for half an hour.

Preheat the oven to 350oF (180C) 

Bake crust for 20 minutes, until light golden in color, turning pan half way through baking time for even browning.

While the crust is baking, make the filling:

Whisk together:

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/3 cups (330g) granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest from 2 large lemons
• 3/4 cups (6oz) lemon juice from 4 large lemons
• 1 1/3 cup (11 oz) milk
• dash salt

Pour filling into warm crust.   Bake for 20 minutes until firm set.  Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes.

When bars are cool, lift them from a pan and use a knife or pizza cutter to cut bars, rinsing the blade in cool water between cuts.

Dust tops with powdered sugar and serve!


This is the first in a series of recipes I will be making as a side project to support my local market, LeBeau, in San Francisco.  If you are interested in following the rest of the series (including several which will be exclusive to their page) follow them on Facebook, and let them know scoochmaroo sent you!  Or just follow them :D