lemon squares
June 12, 2008
If you like this recipe, I am sure you will love these related recipes!
If you have flour, sugar and eggs, you have dough. If you have 2 lemons, you have lemon squares. If you have lemon squares, you have breakfast and dessert, and lots of scurvy-free friends.
I made these squares the night before last between thumb twiddling, while I waited for 6 cups of strawberries to settle into the hollow of a piecrust. After opening and closing the refrigerator door a dozen times to peer at my stagnant fruit pie, I opted to busy myself. I had both an hour and a half and an oven to fill.
I flipped through “Mom' s Best Desserts”looking for recipes with very few ingredients because I' m a guest in someone' s New York kitchen, and my host is not a chef.
But there was flour, sugar, confectioners sugar, baking powder and salt in the cupboards. And there were a few upstate eggs, plus lemons I' d picked up from a farmer' s market. All of these otherwise unremarkable ingredients were just waiting to be thrown together, whipped, spread and baked into something more extraordinary than the sum of their parts. By the time I' d selected my recipe and found a rogue cookie sheet, there was only an hour left until my pie was cool enough to impose upon my soon-to-return hostess.
I preheated the oven to 350, and greased the baking sheet. It should have been a 9 x 13 incher but, as I noted, I was short on baking tools. So I hedged my bets and went with one that was shallow and long.
I mixed 2 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour with ½ c of confectioners' sugar and a pinch of salt. To those I added 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest and 2 sticks of butter at room temperature. [Note: do not make the mistake I made with my first zesting—I got a bit aggressive with the grater and zested some skin into the mix. It was a pity to toss the fine rind, and it was also tough to find a band-aid in an unfamiliar bathroom…]
I rolled the dough into cohesive rounds then spread it onto the greased pan. It was a bit shallow, so I pressed the edges up with the back of a thick spatula in order to create a hollow for the lemon filling.
As the crust baked for 20 minutes, I beat 4 eggs into a light fluff. To that I added 2 cups of granulated sugar…g…r…a…d…u…a…l…l…y. Once it was done, I shifted gears and rapidly beat the sugar and eggs until the liquid was a rich yellow. I added 6 tablespoons of lemon juice (it took 1 ½ generous sized lemons) and 1 tbsp of finely grated lemon zest along with 2 tablespoons of flour plus 1 teaspoon of baking powder.
Once the crust had baked into a light brown, I pulled it out of the oven and poured the lemon mix into the shell. There was too much. I had to pour some of it out. I debated serving lemon curd soup the next day, but realized that my Puritanical food hoarding must end somewhere. So, I relinquished ¼ cup of lemon filling while a plaintive citrus dirge droning in my head.
I baked the tart for about 25 minutes, until the top was light brown and the filling no longer jiggled when I danced around the stove in anticipation. When finally the tart was finished, I pulled it out and sifted 3 tablespoons of confectioners' sugar over the top, spreading it with the convex side of a teaspoon.
Despite sacrificing some of the lemon filling to the too-shallow pan, these squares worked quite well. The crust was flaky and buttery enough not to dryly underwhelm the lemon mix, which is a real peeve of mine. Once the squares were finished, it was time for pie. Perfect! It would take me about ½ an hour to enjoy that, while I waited for the squares to cool…
PS: Dear Kyle, I am sorry glamorous events demanded your company and that you were yanked from the festivities of the apartment kitchen. You’ll have to come to TX soon and feast for a long while.
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