Lemon Bars

These lemon bars are a quick, easy fix for everyone who loves lemon desserts. They are also easy to share and a simple recipe to make. My only complaint is that everyone eats them so quickly that I never get as many as I would like.

Crust ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 cup butter (not fully chilled or room temperature. To make the best crust it needs to be hard enough to hold together and “crumble,” but not so cold that it does not want to incorporate with the rest of the ingredients.)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Combine all crust ingredients with a mixer at low speed until it is “crumbly.” If you over mix, your crust will be difficult to bite through. Stop mixing when it looks like the picture here.

3. Press the mixture evenly in the bottom of an ungreased 13×9 inch pan. Do not press it into the pan as hard as you can. Instead, try to make sure there are not any visible air pockets or mixing places in the crust. Also, be sure to make your crust level or your lemon topping will be thinner on some than others.

Crust that looks like this is perfect. It will not let the lemon filling dribble through to the bottom of the pan and it will be light and airy when you bite into it.

Filling ingredients:

4 eggs, slightly beaten

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup lemon juice

About 1 tablespoon of lemon peel (or the peel from 2-3 lemons)

4. Combine all ingredients except lemon juice

5. Add in the lemon juice and peel
6. By now the crust should be finished with its 20-30 minute baking time. Remove when it is lightly golden brown.