Lemon Bars Deluxe – Week 35

My parents have a lemon tree.  This is just a guess, but I would say it is probably 4-7 years old.  I know for sure it wasn’t there when I was living at home, but as far as when it was planted, I have no idea.  Anyways, the tree has a whole lot of lemons this year and they are all gorgeous and bright.  In the midst of the leafless trees and brown yard, courtesy of winter, it really is a beautiful tree.

We brought a few lemons back home to South Carolina, and I have been trying and trying to figure out what to do with them.  We are fans of lemonade, so that was an option.  But, I really wanted to bake something lemony.  I sat down and started flipping through my cookbook, making sure to stop on any page where the word “lemon” jumped off the page at me.  I didn’t realize lemons were in so many recipes; who would have thought!  I finally settled on a recipe for Lemon-Almond Creme Bread which looked and sounded completely delicious.  I had the majority of the ingredients, but there were a few key things that I needed to go the grocery store and pick up.  Well, as luck would have it, I couldn’t find hardly anything on my list.  I went back and forth, back and forth across the aisles until I finally gave up and returned home disappointed about the whole thing.  Now I had to sit down and pick a whole new recipe and hope that I had all of the ingredients.  That’s when I ran across this lovely recipe for Lemon Bars.  I had seen the recipe when I was first flipping through the book, but wanted to keep browsing to see what else there was.  I’m definitely glad I ended up making these in the long run.  They are completely delicious!

I started with the crust, which is basically a giant cookie.  The crust is made of butter, flour, and powdered sugar.  I added the flour and sugar to my bowl and was just about to mix in the butter when I realized it wasn’t quite soft enough.

To keep from making a huge mess, and because I didn’t want to wait any longer for the butter to soften, I emptied the flour and sugar into another bowl.  Then, I beat the butter until it was soft and creamy.To finish the crust, I slowly mixed the flour and powdered sugar back in.

[By the way, check out my new glass mixing bowl!  Isn’t it beautiful?!  Thanks, Chris and Erin!]

Once the crust mixture was holding together, I pressed it into the bottom of my foil lined pan and baked it for about 25 minutes.

Next up was working on the lemon part of the bars.  I combined lightly beaten eggs and granulated sugar in a bowl and then went to work on juicing my lemon.  I needed 1/3 cup of lemon juice and was surprised to find that I only had to use one lemon!  Hooray for fresh lemon juice. 🙂

I poured the lemon juice, some finely grated lemon peel, and a little flour into the egg and sugar mixture and whisked everything together.

When the crust came out of the oven, I poured the mixture on top and put it back in to bake for another 20 minutes.

Sprinkle a little (or a lot) of powdered sugar on top and you are ready to go!

The flavor and texture of these bars was spot on.  You didn’t get that overwhelming lemon tartness when you took a bite.  The sugar created a good balance with the lemon and neither one was overpowering.  They turned out just right!

Maybe a little bit sticky… but that comes with the territory. 🙂

Thanks so much for coming by today to check out these lovely Lemon Bars Deluxe!  I hope that you enjoyed them!

Have a fantastic weekend and be sure to check out the party over at Fiesta Friday!