lemon bars
August 6, 2008
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Last time I made lemon bars I tried a recipe with eggs, which made them puffy and nebulous. It might sound nice—billowing heaps of lemon-sugar filling on a thick shortbread crust—but actually, it was not for me. I prefer my lemon squares flat and chewy, tart and sticky: none of this fluffy stuff. I did make a batch of lemon squares earlier in the spring, which turned out pretty well and was definitely a
recipe worth revisiting. But this weekend I thought I' d try another version, for the sake of a TASTE comparison. Unfortunately, I realized halfway through the recipe that I was without white sugar, so my bars were a bit darker than they might have been—I subbed with an equivalent amount of light brown sugar. The malingredientism was 
nothing that a generous dusting of confectioner' s sugar couldn' t fix: in fact, brown sugar added a bit of heft and richness to the filling. These squares were made at the height of last Saturday' s thunderstorm: the wind was howling and the sky was gray. Before the storm cleared out, it felt like an evening in late October: as good an occasion as any to warm up the oven. While some friends napped around the house, others kept me company drinking red wine in the kitchen. When the baking was finished we were all drooping and drowsy and in need of a good eye-opener. Serving the lemon 
squares warm was perfect in the inclement weather, but letting them cool made them even chewier and more tart. We at the rest with Saturday' s dinner, served with fresh blueberries. By then the sky was clear and the weather was warm again–I think I will make ritual lemon squares on every rainy day to invoke the sunshine–I will become a veritable citrus witch doctor. The Lemon Bars recipe I used came from the Joy of Baking, which is one of my favorite baking Web sites. I had a lot of guests, so I doubled it.
CRUST:
1 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup confectioner’s sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
ΒΌ teaspoon salt
FILLING:
2 cups granulated white sugar
4 large eggs
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice (approximately two large lemons)
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest (4 lemons)
4 tablespoons all purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan with butter.
CRUST: Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the flour and salt and beat until dough comes together—don' t over do it, or you' ll have tough dough. Press into the bottom of your greased pan and stab all over with a fork to prevent crust from rising out of pan. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool while you make the filling.
FILLING: Beat the sugar and eggs until smooth. Add the lemon juice and zest and stir to combine. Fold in the flour. Pour the filling over the shortbread crust and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the filling is set. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar. I like to do this by pouring a cup of confectioner' s into a strainer and pressing the sugar through with the back of a spoon so that it falls evenly over the pan. Serve with fresh fruit if possible.
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