Sunday, February 04, 2007

Lemon Squares

On nights when temperatures are below zero, it's hard not to let the mind wander and think about warmer times. When I do this, my thoughts drift towards the approaching spring season. My first round of golf for the year may only be a month a way, time to start hitting the driving ranges. Garden planning should begin now. It won't be totally pitch black when I leave work. While I like the colors and hues of winter, when I think of spring I start thinking of bright colors like yellow. This is the reason when I saw this recipe for lemon bars, I thought of spring.

Lemon Bars
from the Spring 2007 issue of The Baker's Companion magazine, page 47.

Crust
1 1/2 cups (6 1/4 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (1 oz.) powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

Topping
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 oz.) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (4 oz.) lemon juice
1/4 cup (1 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbls. lemon zest (2 lemons worth) or 1/2 tsp. lemon oil
powdered sugar for sprinkling

While preheating the oven to 350° F, grease a 9x9 inch (or similarly dimensioned) pan.

Make the crust first. In a medium-size bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt and mix thoroughly. Cut in the butter using your fingers or a pastry blender. Mix until the crumbs are coarse. Put the crumbs in the pan and press to form the crust. Bake this for 20 minutes. It's done when the color is a light brown.

For the topping, cream the eggs, sugar (granulated), and lemon juice until it's smooth. Fold in the flour, lemon zest or oil, and salt. Pour this over the crust once it is finished with the pre-bake and bake for another 25 minutes. These bars are done when the topping appears set. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan. Just before serving, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

A tip for one of Lorrie's coworkers: Use a cookie cutter or a stencil to give the sprinkled powdered sugar a shape.

5 comments:

Kerstin said...

Hi Paul! Your site looks delicious - it makes me wish I had a real oven! I look forward to reading your blog regularly. ~Kerstin

Freya said...

Hi Paul,
these lemon bars look really yummy and summery. Sometimes you don't want chocolate (although most of the time you do!) and something tangy really works!

Paul said...

Hey Kerstin, thanks for the compliments! I'm a fan of your site Beyond Burgers and Bratwurst as well.

Hi Freya! These bars were pretty good and the picture isn't good enough to really show how yellow they were. I sent these with Lorrie to her job and kind of regretted that after only getting a small taste. And you're right, it is a nice contrast to chocolate.

Anonymous said...

These look great! I make a similar lemon bar recipe (no flour in filling, but 2 more eggs to make 6 yolks). I bring the whole pan to work along with a squeeky sifter. Coworkers always get a kick of the fresh powdered sugar topping. I use meyer lemons and that lets me really crank up the lemon flavor without too much bitterness.

hikkie said...

Hello there!
I tried making lemon bars but I had trouble taking them out from the pan...did I miss anything here? I did grease my pan with lots of butter, but still had dicciculty pulling the bars out...is there a baking secret I am missing?

http://spaghettofu.blogspot.com/2009/04/lemon-thyme-bars.html

THANKS!!!