I'm Still On A Lemon Binge--Today, It's Lemon Bars

Last night's post about my love of lemons put me in the mood for another lemon recipe.

On a ninety-degree afternoon, I'm not willing to turn my oven on for an hour for just any old dessert.  Even with the AC on, a hot oven sure heats up the place quickly.  This one is worth it, however!

I think that my friend, Gayle, would agree.  When life was less hectic and we had time to get together on a weekly basis to bond over the latest episode of "Desperate Housewives" or our favorite reality show du jour,  lemon bars were an important part of our evening!

I was feeling all nostalgic and put a plate of lemon bars together to bring to Gayle and her family tonight but as luck would have it, they were not home.  So I emailed her instead to let her know a plate of lemon bars was waiting in my refrigerator to be delivered to her tomorrow.

Today's Playlist

• "Numb"....Linkin Park
• "Welcome To The Black Parade"...My Chemical Romance
• "I'm Finding It Harder To Be A Gentleman"...The White Stripes
• "Time Is Running Out".......Muse
• "All These Things That I've Done"......The Killers
• "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)"....My Chemical Romance
• "As Ugly As I Seem"......The White Stripes

Lemon Bars

Base Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter

Filling Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup lemon juice

Glaze Ingredients

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Gather your ingredients.

Put the base ingredients in a large bowl.  With an electric mixer, beat on low speed.  Depending upon the strength of your mixer, you may want to soften the butter first.

I am using a KitchenAid stand mixer, it's pretty heavy-duty so I abuse it by letting it mix cold butter that hasn't been softened.  The mixer doesn't seem to mind.

Mix the ingredients until they are crumbly-looking, like this.  Don't worry, they will all come together into a nice shortbread crust when you press them in the pan.

Put the crumb mixture into an ungreased 9 x 13-inch pan.

Use the back of a spoon (or your fingers) to press the crumbs evenly into the bottom of the pan.

I started out using a spoon and then used my fingers around the edges.

Bake for 19-24 minutes, until the crust is a light golden brown.

While the crust is baking, mix your filling ingredients.

Use a whisk or a hand mixer to beat the eggs.

Add the sugar, flour and baking powder to the beaten eggs.

The filling will be a creamy lemon color.  And you haven't even added the lemon juice yet!

You can use bottled lemon juice, if you must.

Because of my love of lemons, and my love of my citrus press (which I blogged about in this post ) I like to use fresh lemons.  Two lemons should give you enough juice for this recipe.

Remove your crust from the oven.  If I were a better photographer, you would see that the crust is nicely browned around the edges.

Pour the lemon juice into your filling mixture, and beat well to combine.

Pour the filling over the warm crust.

Return the pan to the oven, and bake for 24 to 27 minutes longer, until the top is a light brown.

Voila'!

Allow to cool completely, at least one hour.

After the lemon bars have cooled, make your glaze.

In a small bowl, mix 1 cup of powdered sugar and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Drizzle the lemon juice onto the cooled lemon bars, and gently spread it as evenly as you can.

This is as evenly as I could spread it.

Once they're cut into bars, they will look better.

See?  Yum.

Enjoy!