Luscious Lemon Bars

So I am blogging this while eating handfuls of chocolate chips. Sad, but true. I have this super healthy week of whole-food eating planned, including an amazing Vegan Summer Squash, Sweet Potato, Carrot and Ginger Soup tonight, and I cannot stop craving chocolate and sugary stuff. Sheesh, hormones, what is your problem today? I think this sugar craving began earlier this week when I was trying to figure out how to use up my gorgeous lemons from my Bountiful Basket this week...and then, inspiration and a whole lot of excitement hit me. LEMON BARS.

Hold on to your hats, kids. These lemon bars are delectable and the perfect balance of sweet and tart. You will never need another lemon bar recipe. Full disclosure: I adore lemon desserts. Lemon bars, lemon tarts, lemon meringue pie, lemon ricotta cookies, lemon-flavored sugar cookies. There is no end to my love for lemon. My wedding cake (yeah, I was that crazy girl who made her own wedding cake. Thank heavens I had a dear friend to take over decorating it for me so I didn't have a meltdown the day before my wedding) was a lemon pound cake with an amazing lemon curd filling. Suffice it to say, I have made a few lemon bar recipes before, but never really committed to one. I continued playing the field, and then discovered my Prince Charming with this beautiful concoction. Full disclosure, part two-my lemon bars are a modification of Deb's over at Smitten Kitchen, and hers is a modification of a recipe from Ina Garten, of Barefoot Contessa fame. These are easy to make, a snap to cut and dust with powdered sugar, and sure to make everyone you share them with smile from ear to ear.

First, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Then, you want to start with some lemons. These lemons were ginormous! Like, the biggest lemons I have ever seen. They smelled so good. I only ended up using two for the recipe because they were so big.

Go ahead and zest your lemons. I like a lot of lemon flavor, so I grated two full tablespoons of lemon zest. A quick aside-I have spent far too much money on "zesting" tools over the past few years. I have bought two different zesters, a small, microplane grater (which works fine), and a few different cheese graters. Then, when I got married, I discovered this ugly, dollar store cheese grater in my husband's kitchen drawer. Hideous as it may be, the small side of it is the best zester I have ever used! I like a chunkier lemon zest, so this is amazing! Never disregard the dollar store!

So go ahead and grate two large tablespoons of zest. Inhale the amazing smell! 

Slice the lemons in half. Aren't they so pretty!

Squeeze your lemons and get as much juice from them as you can. You need 2/3 of a cup of fresh juice. I just strained mine through a fine mesh sieve to get the seeds out. I used two large lemons to get 2/3 cup of juice. You may need more lemons to get this much juice. Set your juice and zest aside.

Put 1/2 cup of soft butter (I used salted because I like a saltier shortbread crust)-always use room temperature butter-and 1/2 cup of granulated sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large bowl for a handheld mixer.

Cream the butter and sugar on medium, and then high speed, for about two minutes, until pale and fluffy. Scrape down the sides as needed.

Combine 2 cups of flour and 1/8 teaspoon of salt in a mixing bowl (mix with a whisk). Add to the creamed butter and sugar, and combine on medium speed for 2 minutes until well combined.

It will look sort of crumbly, but it will be sticking together and pulling into a ball.

Dump the dough out onto a floured counter.

Gather the dough into a ball. don't overwork the dough. Just bring it into a ball.

Lightly grease a 9 x 13 pan with butter or shortening. Place the dough in the pan and begin to flatten it out, pressing the dough down into the pan to form a crust. You want to develop an edge about 1/2 inch up the sides of the pan.

Once your crust looks like this, you are all set! Pop the crust into the refrigerator and chill it for about 20 minutes. After the crust has chilled and set, place it in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees and bake it until the crust is slightly golden.

Pull the crust out of the oven, place it on a wire rack and cool it in the pan for a few minutes. Don't shut the oven off.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large bowl if using a hand mixer), combine 6 large eggs, 1 2/3 cup of sugar, 2 tablespoons of lemon zest, 2/3 cup of lemon juice, 2/3 cup of flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Mix on medium speed with the whisk attachment until well-blended, 2-3 minutes.

Try your best to get the flour clumps out. I went ahead and sort of smushed them up with my rubber spatula.  When the filling is well-blended, pour it into the baked crust. Pop the filled crust in the oven and bake 20-25 minutes until the filling is set (I baked mine for 25 minutes). I didn't take a picture of the pre-baked bars...I got distracted by my crazy, barking dog.

The filling shouldn't be browned, but it should be set in the center and slightly bubbly looking on top. Remove the pan from the oven and cool completely in the pan (let them sit for at least 2-3 hours).

Dust the top of the bars with powdered sugar. Slice with a sharp knife and remove the bars from the pan individually.

Enjoy their sweet tarty flavor and savor every second. Be sure to share or you will ear the entire pan.

Luscious Lemon Bars

Ingredients


For the Shortbread Crust

-1/2 pound of salted butter, room temperature (very important)
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-2 cups of flour
-1/8 teaspoon of salt

Lemon Layer


-6 large eggs, room temperature (very important)
-1 2/3 cup sugar
-2 tablespoons of fresh lemon zest
-2/3 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice
-2/3 cup flour
-Powdered sugar, for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan (glass is best)
2. Wash and zest 2-3 large lemons, yielding 2 tablespoons of zest. Juice the lemons, yielding 2/3 cup of fresh lemon juice. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar with mixer, 2-3 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Scrape down bowl as needed. Combine flour and salt with a whisk in small mixing bowl. Add to creamed butter and sugar. Mix until just combined and pulling together into a ball. Turn dough out onto a floured counter top. Gather into a ball. Press into greased baking dish, forming a crust that goes a 1/2 inch up the side of the pan. Chill in refrigerator for 20 minutes. Bake in 350 degree oven 15-20 minutes, until lightly golden brown. Cool on rack while preparing filling. Do not turn the oven off.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and flour. Make sure all flour clumps are gone. Pour over baked crust. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until the filling set and slightly bubbly looking on top.
5. Cool completely to room temperature. Dust lightly with powdered sugar. Cut and serve to yourself and those you love.